Back to Perinatal... (& Comprehensive)

Today was full of baby appointments, and since it is my mom's birthday (and she has off work, and she really really wanted to see her granddaughter) I had her come along instead of Adam. At my last appointment, two weeks ago, I was measuring a little small, so they ordered a growth ultrasound to make sure everything was okay with the baby, and I had asked to be able to go back to MN Perinatal.

All last week when I would worry about it, I kept thinking that her amniotic fluid levels were low. It made sense to me, because I felt like I could feel her moving a lot more than I could with Danielle, so I figured there was less room for her to swim around in without hitting me. Without having any fundal height measurements from Danni, I really have nothing to go by for a comparison.

When we got to Perinatal, Wendy, the receptionist, wasn't there, and the past couple times I've called, I've gotten someone else as well. So I asked the receptionist if she was still working there. I guess she's just on vacation this week, and there's another receptionist that has been working sometimes too. We waited a couple minutes and soon Kristen, an ultrasound tech that I've never met, called me back. (Kristen doesn't normally work at the Woodbury clinic, and was hired on towards the end of my pregnancy with Danielle.)

She asked lots of questions about the pregnancy, ones that I'm guessing Krista (my favorite tech) wouldn't have had to ask, since she knows the answer to most of them. Then she got to scanning. Baby was head down with her butt up in my stomach (as always! UGH!), and her legs stretched straight across with her feet into my side. Her face was kind of buried and hidden, so she couldn't really get any 3D's done, but she got a 2D done of her looking straight at us.

She measured everything she needed to measure for the growth, and gave her all 8 points for the biophysical profile (BPP). She checked her heart rate; it was 141 bpm. I asked if she could see if she had any hair (you could see lots of hair on Danni's head at her 29 week ultrasound), but she didn't really have any. At the end of the scan at 34 weeks and 2 days, she said she weighted 4 pounds 14 ounces (Danni measured 5 pound at 33 weeks, just for comparison's sake), putting her at 33 weeks and 3 days. So, pretty much right on track. Kristen said she would give the information to Dr. Mills and that she would be in shortly.

While we were waiting for Dr. Mills to come in, Joan, the genetic counselor, stopped in to see us. We talked about the baby a little and how I might be able to be a stay at home mom. She told us her youngest just finished with daycare and started going to school this past year. When she got the final statement from the non-profit church daycare that the total she had paid was $50,000. We talked about how much money it saves being able to stay home with your kids.

Soon Dr. Mills came in the room, and Joan left. (Let me tell you first off, Dr. Mills is much better at letting you know something is wrong than Dr. Danilenko, "the scary doctor.") She introduced herself and came in the room. Then, she told us that baby girl is growing well, and is pretty much right on track, and that she passed the BPP just fine. (She told us all the things that were right with her.) Then she said that her amniotic fluid was just slightly low. I guess 8.0 to 24.8 cm is normal, and baby has 7.9 cm. (Call it a mother's intuition!)

(As a math teacher, it bothers me that a fluid level is measured in a length, and not a volume, like cubic centimeters. But, they only measure lengths of fluid pockets, so I guess that part makes sense. Like I told Krista once with Danni, it should at least be measured as an area. Anyway, enough on that rant...)

Dr. Mills took a look at her, and said just by looking without measuring, her fluid did look on the low end, but she had a pretty full bladder, and if she peed, it would put her into the "normal" range, but still on the low end of normal. She said that she could partly blame it on the summer heat, and that I should be drinking more fluids, but said that the doctors should be watching it also.

Before she left, she asked if we had any questions. I did; I wanted to know if what my doula, Ashley, she agreed with. Ashley said that they got a more accurate size of the baby by palpitations than by ultrasound. She smiled and said there was a report in some journal (she said the name, but I don't remember) about that very thing. She said that doctors, with experience, can more accurately tell the weight of a baby than ultrasounds. The thing with ultrasounds is that they measure the bone lengths in several places, and then the circumference of the abdominal cavity, but they don't take into affect the chubby little legs and arms and cheeks... She went on for a little bit about it, and I found it quite interesting. She seemed to be an "old-fashion" doctor, and said a lot of doctors now-a-days just depend on ultrasound, and the practice has kind of gone to the wayside.

Before we headed to Comprehensive, I asked for a copy of the record, because I figured they wouldn't have it in 20 minutes when my appointment was. Then off we went.

At Comprehensive, we met with Aimee Neumann, the nurse practitioner. I gave her the report and she looked it over. She measured my fundal height at 31 cm. I should be at 34 cm this week, but she said that I had grown so that was good. But she wanted to get another ultrasound done next week. I asked to go back to Perinatal again and she was fine with that. She listened to the heart rate and said it was between 130 and 140 bpm. Before she sent us on our way, she gave me my next Pampered Pregnancy gift: bath salts!

Before we left the clinic, I made the rest of my appointments. Then mom and I headed out shopping and for lunch. We went to Panera Bread, right next to Perinatal (which is where mom took me after our first ultrasound with Danni), and saw Joan getting lunch there as well.

And now for your viewing pleasure... here is me at 34 weeks and 2 days pregnant with our baby girl!