Ultrasound

So far it's been a good week in babyhill news! First, no gestational diabetes (YAY!) and now a good ultrasound! The purpose of the ultrasound was to check the baby's growth, see if they can figure out why I'm measuring large for my date, and check my cervical length to make sure it's OK for me to travel to Boston at the end of the week. And everything looks good!

The baby is measuring 29 weeks 4 days (which is just one day ahead of actual gestational age), the amniotic fluid is normal, and my cervix is a nice long 43mm. Babyhill is still breech, but is more transverse now (head on my upper right side, bottom on my lower left) which is why I'm not carrying quite as high as I was at my last appointment (when baby was sitting straight up). We still have about 4 weeks for baby to turn around, so turn, baby, turn!

One of the main risks of SUA (the umbilical issue) is intrauterine growth restriction, which means the baby could have trouble getting enough nutrients and growing as he/she should. Well, turns out that doesn't seem to be an issue yet -- babyhill is in the 79th% for weight (3lb 10oz)! It's funny, because one of the main risks of gestational diabetes is that the baby grows too quickly, yet hilltot ended up being very small, always measuring around the 20th% for weight. Dr. H joked that my body seems to find ways to manage the growth of my babies (diabetes or SUA, as necessary).

Dr. H thinks that babyhill seems very comfortable and may decide to hang out in utero longer than hilltot did -- maybe even make it to my due date! That would be ironic, since my mom and Manfred are arriving three weeks early this time. But we don't have a lot of control, and Dr. H said that I can't be induced due to my previous c-section. So we'll just have to wait and see what babyhill has in mind (unless baby decides not to turn around and we end up having to schedule a c-section).

Dr. H also warned me that second labors tend to be faster (and hilltot was pretty fast -- I never had "early labor" with him) and because I'm attempting a VBAC, I need to be in a hospital when I go into labor. So no waiting around until we hit the transition stage of labor -- once contractions start, I need to head to a hospital pronto. I'm a little worried about how fast this might be. My mom had 30 hrs of labor with my brother and only 5 with me. If my second labor follows the same pattern as my mom's, we'll be lucky to make it to labor & delivery in time to catch babyhill!

Anyway, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, here are the ultrasound pictures from today! You can see a little face, a profile, and a foot. So cute!