By: Ann
Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes and congrats on the pregnancy. I just wanted to give everyone an update as to how we’re doing. Before the ultrasound, I was a little nervous even talking about future events for the baby because I didn’t want to jinx anything. In my irrational mind last night I was thinking of taking another pregnancy test in order to make sure I was still pregnant. Then I read a whole bunch of pregnancy forums online and saw that I wasn’t alone and that other women felt the same exact way before their first ultrasound. So, I stopped myself from performing another pregnancy test and just waited for whatever the doctor was going to tell me about the baby.
The 24 hour nausea and intermittent back pain are still present. Spicy food, bun and cheese (Jamaican treat), and ginger beer (like root beer, but ginger and very strong Jamaican drink) are about the only things that calm my stomach down. The prenatal yoga DVD really helps out a lot, too, for my back pain. My sister-in-law Julie (a chiropractor) examined my back last week and said that most of the tension is in the bones of my lower back and not the actual muscle, which is a good thing. Therefore, there’s little inflammation and just tension. So the yoga and heat compresses will actually do me very well. Thanks Julie!
Upon walking into the room for my ultrasound today, Jason and I saw oven mitts on the stirrups of the examination table. I thought this was highly entertaining for some reason. When Jason saw the oven mitts, he asked jokingly, “Shouldn’t they use sterile gloves to examine you?”
Just before Jason and I had the urge to start pressing buttons on the ultrasound machine, the doctor walked in. We had a nice conversation about the Jamaican ancestry that we just happened to share. Then I told him all of my concerns, and he alleviated my fears (temporarily). We then started the ultrasound. It was wonderful. The baby has little nubbins for legs and arms. Hearing the heartbeat solidified everything for me. I was so happy that Jason was there to experience this with me. I didn’t cry (surprisingly, with my emotions lately), but it was so moving. The heartbeat was about 175 beats per minute. We even saw the little heart pulsating from the chest. You can see a bigger version (click on picture, then click on “all sizes” above picture, then click on “large” if it’s not already showing you the large view) on Jason’s Flickr page. Starting from the right, you can see the head, then the little nubbin arms below the head, then the belly, and then the little nubbin legs. The tailbone is still sticking out in between the legs, but, according to all the development books, it’s in the process of moving back in right now. The first picture is a little more clear.
The crown-rump ratio (head to the bottom of the spine) measured 2.05 cm (0.8 inches), 2.07 cm (0.81 inches), and 2.09 cm (0.82 inches). They take the average of those three numbers to estimate the due date. The doctor told me that I’m measuring about a week bigger than estimated, so my actual due date is November 16th (sorry to steal your thunder, Rachel and Kim).
That’s all I know for now. Sorry, no twins this time…maybe next time…