5th Ultrasound & 25 Weeks

First of all, please let me mention that I seem to have finally caught Jameson's cold. I'm congested and sneezing like a lunatic. I just ran out of Kleenex and it's taking all of my restrain to not go rip the toilet paper off the wall in the ladies room.

Okay, about today's ultrasound. I loved it! I always love ultrasounds, but today was amazing. As soon as she popped up on the screen, I got a cute view of her butt...with legs spread wide open...and a vagina. Please understand how excited this made me since this was the first time I actually got VISUAL proof that this baby is a girl. So far, I've just been taking Dr. Korotkin's word for it. Yes, he's an expert but even experts sometimes make a mistake. I made Julie (the ultrasound tech) take a picture...which my mom has offered to scan so that I can post it.

Ava (I can say that with more confidence now) was moving everywhere. There is nothing more fun that to see your baby move on the screen and feel it at the same time. For a while she was playing with her toes (another Jameson?), then she put her hand up to her mouth (sucking her thumb?) and then a nice karate chop with her leg which I felt on my bladder. Next thing I knew, her foot was smack dab in the center of the screen and then we saw/felt the ultrasound-wand-thingy jump on my belly. Fun!

Last month, she was about 1 week behind (sizewise) and today she was 1 day ahead of schedule. I guess that made me feel better about the 5lb weight gain last month. It's all for a good cause:) Right now she's weighing in just under 2lbs and is about 13 inches long.

I see Dr. McSwain again on the 23rd for the glucose screening (yuck!) and we'll visit Dr. Korotkin on 10/6 for another ultrasound. It'll be nice to know that everything is going well inside before I hop on a plane for Connecticut.

Here's what's going on this week:

Your little grower’s physical proportions are evening out at this point and most of their remaining development will largely be weight gain and lots and lots of nervous system development. The good news is: if your child is born premature now they’ll be more likely to survive without too much trauma as their lungs began to produce “surfactant” last week, which means their tiny respiratory system is getting stronger with each passing day. Yes, now’s a good time for a minor sigh of relief and a quick pat on the back. All that hard work and conscientious living is really getting your child prepared for a healthy delivery. Keep up the fabulous work mama! This week they’ll be scootching slowly out of the old breech position and start rotating (already!) into a better position for exit during their birth. Their head and feet are slowly rotating so that the head is pointed down towards the birth canal. Time is short (or really long, depending on who you ask)—just (still!) 14 weeks left before you can go back to being a single-resident human.