32w4d – Giant Baby

On Friday I had one of my bi-weekly doctor’s appointments. It was an interesting appointment. For starters, I had gained 11 lbs since the last appointment. Uh... whoops! To be fair, it’s probably all water. That’s what the doctor seems to think, anyway (I didn’t tell her about all of the ‘vacation meals’ I ate while traveling for work last week). The doctor commented on the ham-like qualities of my feet, and how just poking on my foot left a sizeable dent. Since the swelling is even, and not accompanied by anything else (high BP, protein in my urine, etc.), she’s not concerned. When I told her I flew last weekend she was even less concerned, since flying makes non-pregnant folk swell up. She stressed the importance of hydration (as though I don’t drink enough water!) and limiting my salt intake (okay, guilty as charged on that one – but I work for the snack food company, so what am I supposed to do?).

While listening to Acorn’s heart rate, she thought she heard an arrhythmia. But since Acorn was moving around a bunch, she wasn’t sure if that was what was clouding the heart rate. Again, she stressed that this is pretty normal, but of course such news sent this mama into panic mode. Since the heart rate range was normal (140-150), a slight arrhythmia is usually nothing to be concerned about. She ordered me an ultrasound, and gave me the card of a prenatal cardiologist (EEP!) in case we needed further monitoring.

Everything else from the appointment was great. Other than my massive weight gain / swelling, everything is good. BP is up a little bit for me, but not disconcertingly so. My belly measures right on target – 32 cm. Acorn was a squirmy little monkey. And we got to ask a bunch more of our inane questions.

We were able to get the ultrasound right away, which was nice. I think it made both me and Hubby-poo breathe a bit easier. The ultrasound showed that the heart rate was nice and regular. Of course, Acorn fell asleep between the regular appointment and the ultrasound, so we got a few shots of her sucking her thumb (I’m guessing that’s what she was going). But they aren’t worth posting because they are pretty hard to decipher. She’s still a girl, so that’s good. We haven’t painted anything yet, but we’d sure have a LOT of returns to make if she sprouted anything extra in the past 14 weeks! A few other pieces that came out of the ultrasound were that she has really good fluid. This means that I’m drinking plenty of water (take that, OB!) and that the baby is well nourished.

Based on her measurements, they are now estimating that she will come about a week early. And, based on her size, they are estimating her weight as of Friday to be 5.5 lbs. Yes, 5.5 lbs at 32 weeks. The night before, I read in my baby book that a baby will double in size in the last 8 weeks of gestation. So even if the estimate is off by a pound, that’s a 9 lb. baby! That’s a BIG BABY! I am blaming Hubby-poo’s family for this one, because I think that my siblings and I were all reasonably sized babies. Of course, everybody is telling me that big babies sleep through the night better and are generally happier. I think they are just saying that to make me feel better about the whole situation.

The good news is that she’s healthy. Everything about her is just fine. And if she’s big, well, then that means there is just more to love :-).