My appointment was at 11:00 today and Matt made sure to be there since he knew we were getting an ultrasound. This was only a growth ultrasound (strictly to see how much he weighed), so I knew it wouldn't get an exciting one. However, a chance to see our little guy is still a chance and we were excited about it anyway! Honestly - it was a bust. He is still head down (yay!) and at this point I highly doubt he'll flip at all - he really has no room to do that! He was facing my spine, so the only thing we could see was the back of his head. We got to see absolutely no part of his profile or face at all - not even a little peek. It's really getting crazy - he's getting so big at this point that it was hard for her to measure him because she could barely get all of his head or all of his abdomen on the screen at the same time. The measure three things when looking at weight: the femur, the abdomen, and the head. Based on those three things, he is weighing in at about 7 lbs 8 oz. LL was 7 lbs 3 oz when she was born, so he is ALREADY bigger than she was.....and I still have 4 more weeks to go. His weight put him in the 93% for size, so at least that's gone down some. :) If he gains 1/2 lb per week (which is totally expected at this point), we're looking at a 9 and 1/2 lb baby. Goodness.
After the ultrasound, they took me back for my vitals. My blood pressure was still great (119/74), and my weight (according to their scale) still shows me at no weight gain for the past 4 weeks. According to them, I'm still sitting at +20 lbs (which is 2 lbs less than what my home scale says).
I knew that my time with Marie was going to involve several things today: talking about his size and possible plans, checking to see if I am dilated, and doing the Group B Strep test. She did my GBS test (no big deal) and checked me right away. Right now, I'm 2 cm dilated (yay!), 50% effaced (thinned out), and Baby C is at a -3 station (this is the only news that wasn't great). Basically, this means that my body is starting to get stuff ready for labor, but Baby C is still floating around in there and hasn't engaged in my pelvis yet. Essentially, he has not "dropped". While it's good that my body is starting to prepare, it's not so great that he's still so high up. The good news is, he could drop at any time AND some babies don't do it until you go into labor. The bad news is, the fact that he hasn't dropped yet kind of puts me at a higher risk for a C-Section.
Here's the breakdown: if we get to 39ish weeks and he still hasn't dropped, it doesn't really matter if my body has already started getting ready (dilating, etc). It's a tough call for them to induce me if he's still at a -3 station. Basically, it might be his way of saying, "Hey, dude, I'm not going to fit". Marie said she would for sure be able to get his head out, but his shoulders will probably be where the problem is (because he's so big). And you definitely don't want to put yourself in a situation where the head is out and the shoulders won't fit. This could lead to broken bones (for him or me or both of us), nerve damage for him, severe tearing for me, etc. It's just an all around not great situation. The good news in all of this is that I'm just 36 weeks. This gives him plenty of time to move down on his own. We are definitely not down to the wire or anything yet. According to Marie (and us!!) - the possible BEST case scenario is that I would go into labor on my own (and pretty soon before he gets too big). That is totally what we're praying for right now.
I go back again next Wednesday for my weekly visit. She's also going to do a non-stress test (NST) on him then. Today on the ultrasound it showed that my placenta was at a level 3. This just means that it's starting to get a little older. It's totally normal at this late in pregnancy, but she just wants to check and make sure that Baby C isn't stressed out about it. After my NST, she'll check me again to see if I'm more dilated, effaced, and if he's moved down at all. While I would love to be even more dilated, I'm REALLY going to pray that he's moved down at least some (even a -2 would be great!).
After all of that, I had to go to the lab to get some blood work (I don't even know what for??). All I know is that she said my iron levels were good at 13 - haha.
So if you have some time between now and next Wednesday, please just pray with us that Baby C will start dropping down some!
1 comment:
Praying he will drop!
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