(I think) I Know Baby Ryan's Birthday!

I had my weekly doctor appointment this afternoon. My doctor was a little concerned with the dramatic difference between the past two ultrasounds. They were done by different techs, so that could explain some of the differences. But to be sure, my doctor has me scheduled for another ultrasound next week so that we can get a better idea of how big Baby Ryan really is.

The big news from today's appointment is that we have scheduled an appointment at the hospital for an induction. Even if Baby Ryan isn't gigantic (like on the ultrasound 3 weeks ago), he is still definitely a big baby and my doctor doesn't want him to go the full 40 weeks. So we are scheduled! Let's just hope he doesn't have plans to arrive sooner...we have some work to do before he arrives!

On the subject of work...the movers started moving us into our new house today. It was a very long and exhausting day. They weren't able to finish today, so we will be back at it with them early in the morning. Then comes the hard part...determining where everything is supposed to go! We have a rough few days ahead of us!!

Week #36 Belly Pic

Wow. I'm huge. I had to take a picture in this dress because not too many months ago I commented on this blog about how I had a lot of room available in this dress and said something about how eventually I would probably need it. Yep, I need it now. Strangers and co-workers love to make the oddest comments to me lately - "You've really gotten big in the last week"; "You are going to pop any minute"; "You sure are pregnant". Yep, I'm pregnant. Thanks for letting me know.

Week #36 Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound appointment this morning. They had to squeeze me in, so it was scheduled very early. In fact, I was there before anyone from the office had even arrived. Anyways, the ultrasound went fine. Baby is still moving quite a bit and there appears to be plenty of fluid left in there to support him. He was quite camera shy today, she tried pretty hard to get a good picture (so hard in fact that I was about to tell her to stop due to the pressure of the wand!) but he wasn't cooperating. He has descended to a pretty low position, so it was just tough to get a good view. I've attached the best picture she took, but it is horrible. Even I can barely make out what we are looking at. He is facing the camera and has one hand just above his head at about eye level. The other round object above his head is his foot. Seems like a VERY uncomfortable position to me, but I guess he's just fine.

We will have to wait until tomorrow to hear the doctor's opinion on the ultrasound. It appears he is now 7 pounds, which is smaller than expected based on the results of the ultrasound 3 weeks ago. Just goes to show you how imperfect the weight guesstimate really is. 7 pounds would still put him on the bigger side, just not the gigantic side like we were anticipating.

Week #35 Update

Just a quick update from today's doctor appointment. My doctor was out sick, so I saw the nurse practitioner instead. Overall, everything looked normal. I was very stressed when I first went in for the appointment (move related stuff), so the initial reading on my blood pressure was really high. But they checked it again at the end of the appointment, giving me a few minutes to relax first. Thankfully, the second reading was back to where it has been throughout the pregnancy. They also started the internal exams today to check my progress. I have started thinning and softening, but thankfully I haven't started dilating yet.

My appointments will now be weekly, and next week will also include an ultrasound to check on the size of Baby Ryan. If he's still a gigantic baby (larger than 90th percentile), then we will most likely start discussing ways to speed up his arrival.

Week #34 Belly Pic

Here's the latest belly pic. The belly is definitely getting really big! I can't imagine it getting any bigger, but I know it will!

SOLD!

One less thing to worry about...we have sold the MN house. We are definitely not happy about the transaction price, but we think we got as much as we could in the current economic environment. We will miss this house and the wonderful neighbors...such a fabulous neighborhood!

Doctor's Opinion on "Chubby Baby"

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday to check up on everything and to review the results of the ultrasound. She said everything from the ultrasound indicates that baby is healthy. As expected, she was concerned about his weight. I will have another ultrasound in 3 weeks, and at that point we will make some decisions regarding Baby Ryan's arrival. She told me we will have 3 options to discuss: an early induction (around 38 weeks), a scheduled c-section or waiting for nature. I must say that this is a little stressful with everything else we have going on right now. We move into our house on May 1st and 38 weeks would be May 8th. That's A LOT of work to do in one week!! Let's just hope that he doesn't have plans to arrive even earlier than this!

"Chubby Baby"

That is what the ultrasound tech called Baby Ryan this morning! I had high hopes that we would find out that Baby Ryan wasn't still a gigantic baby, like he was at 22 weeks. No such luck. His estimated weight today is well over 6 pounds and that puts him in the 97th percentile. 97th percentile! O!M!G! Out of curiosity, I had to research online how much a newborn would weigh at birth if he was in the 97th percentile: 9.9 pounds. Maybe I shouldn't have looked this up!

The tech did say that everything looks healthy and all measurements were normal. We even had the opportunity to double check the gender, and thankfully he's still a boy!

I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow morning. She was off today, otherwise we would have tried to schedule the ultrasound and the doctor appointment back to back. It's just a normal pregnancy appointment, but I'm very interested to hear her feedback from the ultrasound and the "chubby baby."

I've attached a couple pics from the ultrasound. In all honesty, I don't even think they are worth attaching. The ultrasound machine in MN was much more powerful than the one we used today; today's pictures are much less clear than what we have seen at previous appointments. Plus, Baby Ryan was rubbing his eyes when they were taking the pictures, so that adds to the blurriness.

In the first picture he is looking right at us and the 2nd picture is a profile view (you can see his little hand rubbing his eye):

Bluebonnets!!!

I was so excited today to see bluebonnets along the side of the road! These beautiful flowers are always a sign that spring has arrived in Texas. And we are so happy to be here to experience it! :-)