First of all, Dos looks great. All the parts are there and functioning. We saw everything from all chambers and valves of the heart to the umbilical cord. Dr. Bradford was a lot of fun because she explained everything much better than the ultrasound tech we had with Elena. We got tons of pictures, I just have to find time to scan a few in for you. No good profiles, because the hands and the feet were up by the head. Elena loved that part, 'the baby has his toes in his ears, just like me!' The heart rate was steady at ~160-170...fast, just like Elena's. Now before you go placing your money on the boy horse, Dr. Bradford says that the 'fast/slow' heart rate thing is only accurate 60% of the time...that's pretty close to 50/50 for this scientist. Elena's heart beat was always that fast, so it remains to be seen if I just have babies with fast beats. But if it's another girl, you are out of luck for your sample size, because we are only having two! The baby was measuring right at ~21 weeks for everything and was estimated to weigh about 12 oz. Froggie legs has some serious poundage to put on. As for my poundage - doing good...gained back my early loss from being so sick (and all of the illness after Chile). I'm up about 7 lbs from my first appointment, which means I'm up about 2 lbs over all. (two weeks in the desert while pregnant is excellent weight control, but a regime I cannot recommend for wide spread use). The baby was moving around a little bit and since then has gotten much more active. Still being a tricky little one and the moment Jake puts his hand on my belly, movement stops. Elena has been really wanting to feel the baby move. Maybe I'll have to try to half a coke while sitting down trick for her soon.
Everything else is pretty much on target (except buying or building furniture for the house and unpacking...don't ask about those). We found a good doula, her name is Michal, who we like a lot and have had our first meeting. This is very important to me especially, because I don't know which doctor will be delivering (though I really hope it is Dr. Bradford, when she asks 'any more questions' at the appointments half the time I'm tempted to say 'will you be my friend? can we hang out?' - you know you are getting old when your doctors become your own age!). But being the control freak that I am, I like to know who will be there to support me. Last time Jake and I certainly needed the support of our doula Terri, whom I give a great deal of credit for my wonderful birth experience and Elena's safe arrival. We are also going to get Elena enrolled in a 'sibling' class at the hospital. We are still figuring out what will happen with Elena when the baby comes. Turns out that Blacksburg is still far away from our pit crew - even on emergency standby.
I'll finish up with some pictures from about 22 weeks.
Where is the belly?
Ahhh, there it is...
Never one to be topped, Elena also frequently has a 'baby Haga' in her belly. Haga is the name of her imaginary little brother who gets into a lot of trouble...
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