Squishy's first photo

So, I had my second and third fetal ultrasound today... Squishy was being a pain in the butt (not literally) and wouldn't move into a position where the technician could check the spine, so I had to go for a walk and 'do some starjumps' to encourage some movement then come back in for another attempt. Thankfully it worked and Squishy appears to have all the right bits in all the right places. Once that was sorted, we had to go sit in the waiting room for another hour before we got to see a midwife - sigh. At least from now on, most of my check-ups will be at the GPs, which is easier to get to and never seems to have a very long wait.


Things that might interest you about the day:

Squishy is a wriggly baby - besides laying in a tricky position to scan, s/he didn't stop moving around the whole time and the technician said she'd hardly ever seen such a wriggler.

Squishy is a fatty already :D All the measurements fell within normal growth rates, but the abdominal circumference is at about the 97th percentile, while all the others are right in the middle.

We didn't find out the sex, though we could have if we wanted as the technician was pretty confident that she knew it. Graeme especially is still convinced it's a boy.

I think Graeme appreciated the scan more than I did - I was happy to just hear the technician say that everything looked right, but for Graeme it was more of a 'dude, there's a real baby in there'. I have been feeling movements for weeks now, but they're not strong enough yet to feel from the outside, at least when Graeme is around, so this was like his reassurance that it really is growing and moving.

Since all my results are now normal and all that, the 'shared' part of the shared care that I am supposed to be getting kicks in. Over the next 18 weeks, I am expected to visit the GP's 7 times for check-ups, get another blood test at the hospital (but I don't have to see anyone, just go in, give the blood and leave, basically, it's just to check my iron) and see the midwife again once in early May. If I'm still pregnant at 41 weeks, I go to the midwife again. That's lots of peeing in cups, since they want a sample every time you see someone to check the protein levels for signs of diabetes. This also means that I am now responsible for my own Maternity Record, an expandable booklet that has all my test results and notes in it. It has to come with me everywhere I go, including when I turn up at the hospital in labour. It's quite interesting to flick through, mainly for bits like the breastfeeding page, where there are a million questions and points for discussion that the midwife is obviously supposed to go though, but mine just kind of has this squiggle next to the first couple of questions because as soon as she asked if I was planning to breastfeed and I said yes, she seemed satisfied - the rest of it is clearly the stuff they're supposed to say and do to convince you that breastfeeding is a good choice.

So yeah, you probably don't care about all that information anyway - you can just go back to looking at the photo :)