After our pediatrician meeting, Paul and I headed out to get lunch. We were done with the pedi at about 1pm, and our next appointment (across the street) wasn’t until 2:45. What a break, huh?
So, we headed to an Italian place we enjoy and ordered up. I gorged on the Fritto Misto (basically Italian tempura with all sorts of veggies and calamari and shrimp, which I avoided) which supposedly feeds 2-4, but was wiped clean by me (no worries about Paul, I loaded up all the stuff I don’t eat on his plate while he was in the bathroom- I did feel a bit bad when he saw the lone artichoke heart I had left and said, “What is this?” Poor thing had no idea we had about 10 of them on the platter before Hurricane Amber got to it). I also ordered a pasta dish which was very pretty but gross. Gross because it was spinach linguine (yum!) with a lemon cream sauce (yumx2!) mixed with what seemed to be a coleslaw mix (yuckx300) minus the dressing. It was COVERED in shredded cabbage (both green and purple), shredded raw carrots, and shredded raw zucchini. Needless to say, it is still languishing in my fridge, as no amount of parmesan can make it better.
Annnyway, the waitress took so long to get us a check that we ended up heading over to our appointment, possibly 10-15 minutes early. The appointment was our 32 week ultrasound, followed by my 32 week checkup with one of the OBs who was standing in for my OB while on maternity leave.
As we took our seats in the waiting room slash construction zone (they’re totally redoing everything in there), we saw new preggos come strolling in. I’m now one of the (to quote Juno) “cautionary whales”. I remember going in with nary a belly (well, BABY belly) to be seen, looking at all the late preggos spread out uncomfortably in their chairs, thinking that one day, I would be them. That time has come, as now the thin preggos glance at me, with a tiny bit of shock. Kind of like looking into a mirror to the future.
Finally (and by finally I mean about 3 minutes or so), we are called into the other office to get the ultrasound. During construction, some offices and the ultrasound tech are across the hall, nicely redone. The main office is still being worked on, enough that the front desk gals are surrounded (literally) by plastic tarps.
In the ultrasound room, I hop up on the chair/table thing and pull my shirt up and my pants down. The tech grabs the gel out of the gel warmer (seriously, ultrasound techs- ALL doctors need this) and squeezes it all over my belly. It’s so strange, as I remember before how they had to press very hard around my pubic bone, but now the wand goes above my belly button to get a good view.
As she scanned over my belly we saw she was head down, completely on my right side, in a C-shape. Her face looks into my left pelvic bone and her spine is curved along my right side. That explains the pushing out on both sides of my belly- she was pushing off like superman again- legs pushing out with her butt/back pushing out as well on the other end.
This is 33 weeks, but you'll see why I posted it.
Of course, as is her nature, she would NOT move the hands from her face. At all. A few vigorous shakes here and there got nothin’. Finally, the tech asked me to turn over onto my right side just a little, so she gets tipped back and we may be able to measure her head and things. We saw a little ear, some chubby cheeks, her hands waving back and forth beside her face. Finally, we saw this:
So THAT is what has been kicking me!
Probably one of the best pictures of her all this time. How perfect is that foot? We got a face shot, although it was vaguely reminiscent of that “Face On Mars” image. So we won’t show that.
We then found out she was measuring 4lbs15oz at her 32 week appointment. Our baby girl, with 8 weeks left to bake and grow, was weighing almost 5 pounds already. Another 6 ounces and she’ll have my birth weight beat. We have a gigantic, but perfectly formed, baby.
After the ultrasound, I was weighed and my blood pressure checked. Both were “great”, but not divulged. This appointment seemed rushed, but I guess since we had JUST had the growth u/s and heard the heartbeat and all that we didn’t need the usual belly measuring and doppler listen-in. The doc asked if we had any questions and I said no, then she said all was great, and “see you in 2 weeks!”. Okay.
So, that was our action packed day. We ended up pulling out of the parking lot at the exact time our OB appointment was supposed to start. Great timing, eh?
