May 20 Appointment

Well, yesterday I went in for my 23rd week (plus 2 days) appointment at the private doctor's office.
As usual, everything looked pretty good.
Also, as usual, it was difficult to get a good picture of baby because he wouldn't stop moving around. There were a few times during the ultrasound that I could feel the movement I was seeing on the screen in front of me. I told the doctor, "I felt that," and he responded, "you should have because I felt it too." :)

We once again took a look at everything there was to see. We saw the heart and its four chambers, and looked at the baby's heartrate and the pulse of the umbilical cord. We also saw the stomach, bladder and kidneys. Everything looked good.
Baby kept curling up into a position with his feet up in the air by his head. You can see in the pictures that he also likes to keep his hands in front of his face, but we eventually got a few pictures where we could see the face, without it being covered by his hands or arms.
Most of the time, though, it wasn't so easy.

You can see in the fourth picture what appears to be a strange tube across his face. That is actually his arm, but because of the movement, it looks pretty strange.


The next couple of pictures show the baby's feet.

Mauri says he has monkey feet like me, but that instead of curling them up like I do, the baby flexes his backwards, which is even stranger.
The monkey feet comment refers to the fact that I like to pick things up with my feet, and curl them up often to do so.

While I love walking around in bare feet, Mauri is opposed to seeing feet in general, and thinks that all sandals should be banned.

Mauri always has his feet covered, usually with athletic shoes of some sort, so when he takes them off, his feet are too sensitive to be able to do anything with them.
I much prefer my monkey feet, and wouldn't be upset if baby has monkey feet too. :)

After the ultrasound pictures, I've included a picture that was given to represent the size of the baby's hand compared to the mother's hand at 23 weeks.

Of course, this is just a generic representation, but I thought it was pretty cute.

Finally, I scanned the tables and graphs showing the various measurements taken of the baby, and how they compare to the average baby of 23 weeks.

Everything, once again, fell within the normal range.

According to the measurements, the baby now weighs around 700g (according to the generic 23 week update, he should weigh about 550g).
His measurements have all grown proportionally, but his size corresponds to a baby that is 24 weeks and 2 days, and not one that is 23 weeks and 2 days. (Maybe they shouldn't have changed my dates at the beginning. It seems like the baby's size is corresponding pretty well with my actual last period date, rather than the one they changed it to.)

Anyways, they measured several things, including the circumference of the head and abdomen, the length of the humerus and the length of the femur. All of the measurements are very close to the middle line (which I'm guessing is the mean), as can be seen on the the graphs.


















I think that the PFE is probably "peso fetal estimado," or estimated weight of the fetus: 685g.
The CC is the cranial circumference: 21.55cm.
The CA, or circumference of the abdomen, is 19.84cm.
The LF,or the length of the femur, is 4.35cm.
Finally, the LH, or length of the humerus, is 3.91cm.

So, it looks like baby is getting pretty big.

I guess this is why I can feel him moving pretty often by now.




So, really, there's not much more to tell about the appointment.
I didn't get another dvd- that will probably be after I have a few more appointments built up.

I'll post the videos as soon as I have them, though.



Another interesting thing I read yesterday, in an email, was the following:


Your Baby's Amazing Lungs

Your baby's lungs are in major growth mode this week, with blood vessels expanding and preparing to help her breathe after she's born. Although she's making breathing movements in the womb (so cute!), it's still just practice with amniotic fluid; your baby will get all of her oxygen delivered from the placenta until she's born. But here's why this lung development is so fabulous: If your child should happen to arrive early (though only 2 percent of babies in the U.S. are born before 32 weeks) her odds of surviving are significantly better now that her lungs are up and running. Of course, these and other important organs still have a long way to go to become fully developed, but most experts count weeks 23 and 24 as important, reassuring milestones when it comes to long-term healthy outcomes from preterm labor.


So, while I'm not planning on having baby anytime soon, it's good to know that we're getting to a point that the baby would be able to survive, if he were to come early.