Today was the Big One!

Today was a big day in the Wicker House!  We had our 20 week anatomy scan of the baby to check and  make sure he/she is growing appropriately, to rule out major abnormalities, and this is also the time that most find out if they are having a little boy or a girl Bean.

We also needed to recheck my cervix, of course, get a pap smear as the pap smear I had 6 months ago was slightly abnormal, and we also needed to follow up on why glucose has shown up twice in my urine as well as some blood. So there was a lot on the agenda today, not to mention all of the questions that I routinely bring listed out on a trusty post-it note.

The sono was first, and the tech. started with measuring my cervix. I made sure to potty right before so there was no distortion. My cervix, again, looked awesome. As usual she took a few measurements and my average was about 3.96 cm. This is fantastic! Actually a little longer than last time. Although the doc and sono tech assured us the cervix doesn't " grow",  certain angles or not emptying your bladder can make the cervix appear longer than it actually is. So I have no idea what the crazy pains I have been feeling are related to, but all that's important is that they are not cervical related! Awesome-ness! I explained to the doc that my pains range from stabbing/sharp to some very odd pressure and sharp pains when urinating. She didn't think much of it all and just said maybe the baby is positioning on my bladder. Who knows. Glad I now know it's not the baby trying to fall out! Yes, I had the thought.

Next was the anatomy scan.  The scan that every pregnant mamma anxiously awaits for! This took about 30-45 minutes, so we literally got to see the baby on the screen the entire time. It rocked! The baby is measuring about a week ahead, but they said they do not change due dates based on this factor because this is merely due to genetics and not that our baby is really a week ahead on development. It may just be a smidge bigger than some babies. So the due date is still listed as March 30, 2012.

The baby looked amazing  on screen as usual. She wasn't able to get a good heart rate as the baby was moving way too much causing too much referred noise on the sono machine. But the heart was beating up a storm and sounded very similar to last time, which was in the 150's.

The estimated fetal weight is a little under a pound at 13 oz.  and each foot is about an inch and a half long! That's crazy to me---and insanely cool! They gave me the print out of all the baby's specs but they use tons of acronyms for all the parts they looked at, so I can't really go into detail about all of that. However, the sono tech did show us everything she was looking at while she was measuring and visualizing, whether it was different parts of the brain, the liver, the kidneys, all the vessels in the umbilical cord, etc. and ....ALL WAS FOUND TO BE FREE OF ANY DEFECT! WHOO HOOO! I SERIOUSLY GIVE ALL THE GLORY TO OUR SWEET LORD!

I also weighed in at #118 today, for a total weight gain of about 6 pounds. My goal is 20-25 pounds, so far so good. We completed the pap and will get results next week, so no word on that. However, there was no blood or glucose in my urine today--whoo hoo! The doc thinks the glucose that I've been dumping in my urine thus far was related to eating a few hours before my appointments. As for the blood in the urine, she confirmed that it was not in fact to related to a UTI, as my cultures were negative. And there was no blood found in today's urine.  I did inform her that I am a kidney stone producer and know from a previous CT scan that I still have a few stones left in my kidneys that I have not yet passed. She is thinking that it may be the stones irritating my kidneys thus causing me to bleed a little which flows out into my urine. But it's microscopic, of course.  She confirmed what I already knew which is that being pregnant changes your blood acidity which can make known kidney stone producers more prone to creating or passing stones. So she said that we will continue to look for signs of passing stones.

I will continue to go in for sonograms to check my cervix every two weeks until we have surpassed the critical period, which is until 28 weeks. So I still have another couple of months until we can stop worrying quite so much about my cervix not being able to hold the weight of the baby. But looking great so far. Just for a reference, most women who have IC, incompetent cervix, usually lose their babies in between 18-24 weeks.

We also discussed some concerns over my RX Prenatals that my RE put me on before starting IVF which I've continued to take up to this point (I just noticed they have no Vit. A or Calcium..??) and she thinks prenatals are overrated. She said to just go with OTC vitamins as long as they have folic acid, adequate iron, and DHA

Today was a great visit! God has just poured blessings upon us today and I am just in awe of His awesome-ness! So we are just going to bask in His greatness and be still and know that God is God. He is always bigger. I make a lousy God, anyhow.

There are no words to express our complete and total happiness! I can't wait to meet Baby Wicker! Today made the entire journey of being pregnant so much more real, not to mention the fact that in 4 and a half months we will hopefully be exhausted and caring for our sweet baby Wicker. That's crazy!!

So there is it..the big update. .By the way, my hubby is sitting beside me looking at YouTube reviews of breast pumps and glass bottles. HAHAHA..Can you say excited Daddy?!