30 Weeks!

Yes I am 30 weeks along already!? Can you believe it? It doesn't seem like that much time has passed to me. I really enjoy being pregnant, so it has flown by for me. It's very different this time however, first because I have a two year old to look after and second, because I've been working through the entire pregnancy. Last time summer fell halfway through the second trimester and then I was put on limited activity three weeks into the new school year, so I had off from 25 weeks or so pretty much through the end. Things are going well for me and the baby so far. There have been a couple of scares but so far they have just been that scares, nothing has come of them.

Because of my "advanced maternal age" I have twice as many checkups as last time. This means not only do I have my regular monthly checkup with my OB but I'm also sent over to a special unit of the hospital, (perinatology) where they do an ultrasound once a month. Now because I'm closer to the end I will have two OB appointments a month and two ultrasounds a month. As I get even closer it will be once a week for both. This has been a mixed blessing. It's nice because I've gotten all kinds of peeks at my baby boy. Also nice because they always do a 3D ultrasound and it looks really cool. (With Ayla I had to pay to have a 3D ultrasound.) It's nice because they look at evey little thing and check the baby time and time again to make sure he's doing well. It's not so nice for the same reason. Because they continually check everything they have found some things that I'm fairly sure are normal but that they question. For instance last time they measured him his abdomen was measuring larger than it should compared to the rest of his body. This was a concern because it could be a sign of gestational diabetes. I was checked and had my glucose test and all came back normal. Three weeks went by (in which I worried) and they re-measured him, this time all measurements were normal. Yesteday a similar thing happened. This time the ratio of his femurs to everything else is off. Basically his femurs should be longer in comparison to the growth of everything else. This is one of the many things that could possibly be a sign of Downe's Syndrome. Now there are many other signs, all of which he was normal on. They also took my blood around 17 weeks to run tests and he came back in the normal range on those too. There is no way to rule anything out at this point except for me to have an amniocentisis. They asked me yesterday if I wanted one. Lucas was with me and we talked about it and decided no we don't want to risk it. (It is a fairly invasive test and there are risks involved.) The doctor said that this could just be a hereditary thing. When he said that I felt better. I mean what are the chances that my children will have long legs? Lucas, his Dad, and his brothers, all have long torsos and short legs. Lucas has a 29' inseam, it's impossible to find pants that fit him lengthwise. My own legs are so short that if I buy long capris they look like regualr pants on me. Ayla also has a long torso and short legs. All of her shirts are 2T but when she lifts her arms you can see her belly. Her pants on the other hand if they are 2T they are too long, the ones that fit her are still 18-24 months. So I really think that she has the same thing. Probably if they had done all of these tests on me when I was pregnant with Ayla they would have found similar things and she is perfectly fine. After getting home from the doctor yesterday Lucas and I said prayers and had a feeling that everything is okay. He especially is not worried at all. Me being me, and a natural born worrier, am still worried. We go back in three weeks for them to take measurements again, hopefully it will be like the abdomen thing and all will be fine. If not I really think he just has the Walde short leg curse and he will be fine. In the meantime I'm trying not to worry, easier said than done.

Look below for the latest baby boy pics.

A 3D pic of his face, and below that his profile

A 3D pic of his profile, and below that another (better) 3D pic of his face

A pic of his male parts again ( I had them verify that he truly is a boy), and below that a picture of his profile. If you look you can see his legs straight up in the air. This is his regular position. Almost everytime they go in for a look his feet are straight up in the air. And boy is he a kicker... I feel him so much more than Ayla.

Next tests in 3 weeks, say a prayer for us that all will be normal.