Your pregnancy: 17 weeks - U/S Appt Update!

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

Yesterday was a 10:00 ultrasound appointment at the Maternal Fetal Diagnostic Center for Phase II of the screening we had done (which my IM came for) and then I had a 2:00 OB check up. Everything went really well overall!!

The first phase of our nuchal screening came back all normal, and after looking at the ultrasound results from yesterday the peri said things look even better. I had blood drawn as the Phase II portion of the nuchal screening and testing we had done and my IM will get those results in about a week just to confirm everything looks good.

We got a nice long ultrasound with TONS of measurements of the baby - brain looked good, femur length, stomach, etc. It was FUN to see how much this peanut has grown!!

Baby was wiggling and moving - started out upside down, with a butt on my cervix and then flipped head down in the middle of the ultrasound. We saw swallowing and all the little fingers and toes!! SOOO PRECIOUS!! This little one had their legs criss crossed at the ankles almost the whole time - apparently they are very proper or very shy!! It was hard for the tech to get a good between the leg shot, but she said she's 90% sure my IP's are going to be the proud parents of another BABY GIRL!

At one point the tech had a fairly good shot but baby actually reached down and was covering herself with her HAND!! The tech was almost laughing, she couldn't believe how difficult baby was making it for us! At that point I said it HAS to be a girl - boys let it all hang out and girls are the shy ones. :) The tech said baby is weighing in at about 7 ounces.

For more good news, my placenta previa MOVED!! It is now "low-lying" but the peri wasn't concerned at all. I'm off restriction and they'll check me again 1 month before my due date to confirm its in a good location for delivery.

The peri told me I need to drink more water. He said from something he saw (I have no idea what?!) it looks like I'm fairly dehydrated (the term he used was drier than a popcorn fart!! Ewww!!). I have no idea WHAT he saw or was looking at (baby fluid levels were fine) but that's what he said. I am confused about that because I drink a lot all day long - usually 80-90 ounces a day (which is how much he said I need to be drinking). I guess I need to up it though... it certainly can't hurt!

I got to relax at home for about an hour after that appointment, made lunch for Kent and myself and then we headed off to my OB check up. It was a super fast appointment, we were in and out of there in about 20 minutes which was nice! I saw the midwife again, she listened to baby's heartrate and told me all my labs from the last appointment had come back good and my pap and STD swabs were all negative (shocker!) :D I asked about the leg cramps I've been dealing with and she said that the potassium and calcium supplements I have (and have been taking somewhat sporadically) are really the only thing I can do to help, and take them daily and just make sure I take calcium and iron separately or they cancel each other out. So I need to take the chewable calcium supplements in the AM since I take my prenatals with iron in the PM. They'll start with belly measurements at the next appointment. We'll do the anatomy scan at the next appointment, so I have to wait for them to get authorization from the insurance company before they can schedule that ultrasound appointment, but it'll be in about 4 weeks along with the next OB check up (which has to be scheduled separately which is sort of silly, but oh well, that's how they do it)!

Kent and I ran a couple errands after the appointment and we all had a nice evening at home. I was pretty tired after all the running around so I took it pretty easy. Snacked on some fresh fruit I picked up at the grocery store, and made an easy dinner a'fare meal. I think we're having tacos tonight - yummy!! :) Haven't had tacos in awhile, so I'm looking forward to those!