More Baby News: 38.6 Weeks

Today I went back to the good ol' doc. Since I do this literally every week and I'm completely out of ways to spruce up these posts, I'll just cut to the chase and spill the info.

Here's what's going on with the Bean:

He/she is measuring about 37.1 weeks on average all the way around, so about a week and a half behind. But this is normal for the Bean.

Is in the 46th percentile on weight

Weighs approximately 6.13 ounces with a margin of error of a pound in either direction. Meaning, per the sono, the baby could weigh roughly 6-8 pounds. I KNOW this baby does not weight 8 pounds, though.  This means that in two weeks the baby has gained almost a pound, 14 ounces. This is really great weight gain. This means we can probably expect a 6 1/2-7 pound baby in my opinion.

The Bean is still in the same head down position and wrapped around my left side

The Bean is still facing up and a little to my left side. I was hoping he/she had rotated into the face down position by now. ( But when I asked my OB about this, she said this is totally not a worry as they only do this once labor begins)

The HR and fluid levels were both totally normal, although I did not get the exact numbers

The sono tech noted that even from the previous week the baby has dropped even lower into my pelvis. She was really having to dig low to get good pictures of the baby's head. He/she is literally sitting pressed against my cervix and bladder. This explains a lot.

The Bean was on the move again and passed his/her BPP test with flying colors. A very active baby.

The one very concerning thing is the Bean's femur length...still. Two weeks ago, when I was 36.5 weeks the femur was measuring 33.5 weeks---3 weeks behind, and today, at 38.5 weeks the femur is measuring 33.5 weeks again, so now 5 weeks behind and with no growth seen on sono in the last two weeks!  It was first brought to my attention in my 34th week by the perinatologist, when it was 3 weeks behind at that time as well. The femur measured right on track at my 20 week scan, but according to the sono tech as she looked back through all of the baby's growth scans, the femur has been behind almost every time in the second half of the pregnancy. They deemed it as "normal" so never mentioned it to me. The doc also said they typically only like to do growth measurements no less than 3 weeks apart as they can show inaccuracies if done too closely together, and this one was done only two weeks apart. The sono tech offered to do growth for me today because I may not have any further sonos from here on out. But either way, I'm full term, and the femur is not, and it should be, or at least decently close. At this point it's just fat that is being added, there isn't any bone growth that needs to be complete. So the concern is still valid.

Hmm.....Not loving this news. The doc said she is not worried about Uterine Growth Restriction because you typically see other measurements that are also small, not just one, especially the abdomen, and the baby tends to be in the 10th percentile or less when this occurs. The Bean has never been lower than the 36th percentile.

The said she is more inclined to think it's just genetics because of mine and Kevin's size and due to the fact that there are no other measurements that are off----it's just the femurs, which is odd.  She does not want to send me back to the specialist and is just chalking it up to a short kid. I don't love that, I want facts.  There is also a possibility of a non-lethal form of dwarfism with these type of measurements. Holy Cow--what!! This typically looks like someone who is otherwise normal, but has short limbs and doesn't exceed five feet tall. This would be caused by a genetic abnormality affecting the proteins needed for proper bone and cartilage development. But the only true way to know at this point is to deliver the baby, do a visual inspection and then do a few tests.

My OB told me that the further along one gets the more inaccurate sonos are and she is reassured by the fact that this baby has been looked at on sono hundreds of time and by specialists and nothing had ever jumped out at any one. This may make her feel okay from an objective standpoint, but to a mom, and a mom like me, this really doesn't give me a whole lot of piece of mind. At all.

So I'm kinda freaking out. But I know worry will do me no good. It won't change anything and I just have to wait it out. So I'm praying about it and hoping that when it's all said and done the baby comes out looking perfectly normal and I can chalk it all up to screwy sono measurements.

As for my stats:

I weighed in at 134#. This is up one pound from last week. So I'm up about 22 pounds total.

I am still 1 cm dilated but now 90% effaced and "very short", less than .5 cm in length. My cervix is soft and "favorable" according to my OB. She also said "wow, this baby's head is super low. It's like right here. Just on the other side of your very thin cervix."

She said she's ready whenever I am! She said it could be any day or another two weeks, there is just no way to know. Her only suggestion to help move things along: lots of sex. Thank goodness the hubs digs my pregnant body. :)

She said if I make it to my appointment next week then she will give me the option of inducing after that if I want. But I don't think I want to. I really, really want to wait on Mother Nature and not use extreme forces to get the Bean out until they are ready.

She also said she will not let me go past 42 weeks as the rate for still born births goes through the roof as the placenta naturally starts to degrade after this time, and " because of those short femurs I don't want to wait any longer than 42 weeks to deliver you. " I deduced that she certainly does not want to leave a baby with a potential defect in the womb when there is a risk the placenta might stop working so great because it is known that babies with defects are a little more fragile than "normal" babies. So this leads me to believe she must have some concern over the short femur measurement. This def adds to my concern.

So there's the update. I woke up with nausea and having cramps, but all has subsided and I feel great other than this raging gall bladder that feels like it's on fire! So we wait.