Ultrasound Pics: 28-29 weeks

I went to my 28-week doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon.  I never know when I'm scheduled to have my doctor use the ultrasound machine to see what's going on inside my belly or when it's just a routine check-up and she checks my blood pressure and the baby's heartbeat with a regular stethoscope.  It's fun for David to come when we see the baby on the ultrasound machine, and kind of useless for him to interrupt his work schedule for an hour to come for the regular check-up.  

So, I called the nurse yesterday morning before my appointment and asked if we would be using the ultrasound machine for this appointment.  She said no, so I told David not to come.  Of course, when I show up, my doctor says, "Oops!  I goofed.  I should've let you know that I DO want to use the ultrasound machine today and get some pictures to see what's going on inside of you."  Oh well.  I always have pictures to bring home to him anyway, even if he didn't see the fun part of the baby kicking around on the screen. 

The baby weighed 2 lbs 9 oz, according to what she measured with the ultrasound waves, which I thought was cool she could do that.  The baby girl had a heart beat of 156 bpm, and the doctor said this was very good. 

The baby’s head was facing down.  While the doctor said that she can still move around and rotate positions at this point in time, the facing down is “good” for now and obviously more important for later. 

We saw the tongue out of the mouth, which was fun.  We also saw the baby’s OPEN eyes while she was squirming around on the ultrasound machine screen.   The doctor even showed me where she saw the fuzzy hair on the head when we were watching the screen.  I could barely see it, but I believe her and that's crazy that she already has hair!

For most of the measurements, the baby was measuring at 29 weeks.  If I'm measuring at 29 weeks now, then that technically changes my due date to a week earlier than my original August 10 due date, which means that the baby might come closer to our 2-year wedding anniversary on August 4!  Has is already been two years?!?!

The doctor said that the baby girl had a combination of physical characteristics of a petite mom and an athletic dad.  Again, the doctor said that the baby had “good muscle tone," but she also said that all babies right now at 29 weeks are only muscle and really have no fat yet.  She said that she could tell the baby was moving around her arms and legs plenty so that it was strong right now and maybe that's what her muscle comments refer to. 

As for me, my blood pressure was 106 over 70 and I weighed 141 pounds, the same as two weeks ago. 

Although I have been feeling lots of baby kicks and harder jabs this past week and was pretty confident that things were going well in my belly, I told my doctor that a LOT of people have been commenting lately that I “look really small” for being a 28-week pregnant woman.  I said that I didn’t know how to respond to comments like that… Are these compliments or are they worried that my baby is not growing as fast as she should???  My doctor told me that everything looks great on the ultrasound and the heartbeat is perfect, so that I should just tell them that my doctor says I’m a "skinny girl who is just all baby and everything is just fine."  :) I still can't wait to get a big basketball belly!

My doctor said I will have one more biweekly visit on June 3rd, but after that… starting around mid-June, is when “things will get intense” and being pregnant will be “a full-time job” she said.  Thank goodness that I'll have a little freedom from working in the classroom all day, even if I'll be super busy during the month of June preparing lesson plans at home for my substitute teacher in the fall for my maternity leave.  The doctor said that she is taking precautions in weeks 30 and beyond due to my high-risk status and alarming blood test results regarding the chromosomal defects from February.

My doctor gave me a list of "homework assignments" to complete in these next two weeks:

1. Check my insurance for hospital for when I deliver the baby -- I'm a little scared about how expensive it will be to deliver a baby and stay in a hospital for 1-2 days.  I had my surgery last spring and paid a few cool thousand for just "using" the hospital room for 3 hours!  
2. Install the car seat -- It's weird to think that this is already a "homework assignment" and a priority at this point in time, but I guess if, for some reason, this baby comes earlier than expected, which my doctor keeps saying, it's ready to go for the ride back home from the hospital. 
3. Sign up for birthing/infant CPR/breastfeeding classes -- I checked online, and there's so many to choose from, but they sound useful and worthwhile.
4. Check my insurance for breast pump -- I saw that the electric pumps can cost as much as $300-400, so I'm hoping my insurance is nice and will pay for one of these crazy machines. 

Below are several ultrasound pictures from the appointment yesterday (May 20th):

The picture above shows the heart and the fetal heart beat of 156 bpm.

The picture above is the profile of the baby's head. 

The picture above is when the doctor measured the circumference of the skull. 

The picture above is a 2-dimensional image of one foot.

The picture above is a 3-dimensional image of one foot.

Now, these are my favorites... The picture above is a 3-dimensional image of the side of the face.  You can see the nose, one eye, the lips and the chin.

This is a second 3-dimensional image of the face...with one eye OPEN the doctor said!!!  Eeek!

This is another 3-dimensional image that shows the eye, nose, lips and chin.

What a difference one year makes....

Above is a picture of my belly in May 2013.  This is when I was pregnant first time and I was in the early stages of the pregnancy when I started taking "weekly pictures" until my miscarriage a few weeks later.

The picture above is from yesterday (5-20-14) after I came home from the doctor's appointment.