24 Week Sonogram

Hi little lady!

Today we got to see you again in full 3D.  You have been laying with your head on my left with your elbows bent and hands near your face, feet to the right knees bent and shins crossed.  You are right around 1 pound 5 ounces, which is 54th percentile.  You don't know about bell-curves just yet, but this means you are right on target. Your length and tummy diameter is right around the same percentile.  Perfect!  We got to see all sorts of amazing part of your perfect little body, including blood flow in and out of things like The Circle of Willis in your brain, your kidneys and your umbilical cord - all developed and functioning perfectly.  We saw all four chambers of your heart and all structures developed just as they should.  Your diaphragm and stomach were positioned right as they should and functioning quite well; in fact, you took several giant yawns/gulps of amniotic fluid (which were incredibly cute) and kinda smacked your lips together afterwards.  We could see the fluid in your stomach as well as in your bladder, which emptied before the end of the sonogram.  Your spine and vertebrae all were developed ideally and the length of your bones and ratios all looked great! 

All the diagnostic stuff aside, we got to see your precious little face.  High little cheekbones with round little apples to your cheeks, sweet little mouth and teeny little nose.  We got to hear your heartbeat some more, which makes me cry every time.  You kept your hands up by your face for most of the sonogram so in the picture they printed out of you (the best angle they could get of your face while not including your arms and hands) includes the tips of your little fingers covering your left ear.  So instead of your ear in the picture, you see three little bumps.  But at other times, you moved that hand to cover your face and I saw that perfect little ear, it's just not in the printed out picture. 

As far as the keepsake goes, they did give us a DVD/disc with your sonogram on it, but somehow saved it differently than last time, unfortunately.  As such, I cannot get the file off the disc and onto the computer to copy or upload it.  We'll keep working on that, but I'm not too hopeful.  We'll keep the disc of course, but I sure wish I could get it on your blog or share it with others.  At least we have printed out pictures that you can see one day and I've taken a picture of the printed out picture and posted it here just in case. 

Mama's blood pressure is ideal for a pregnant woman - it always is, which is a good thing.  Nice and low (which can make Mama dizzy and forgetful but is great for you!)  Mama has put up to 129 pounds at 24 weeks which means I've put on 23 pounds so far.  Almost exactly a pound a week (just as I did with your brother) without effort to increase or prevent weight gain.  I'm fairly surprised, really, because I was so very sick the first 16 weeks I don't think I put much weight on, but I've caught up!  My belly is nice and round, and pretty high.  The old wives tale that girls make for side-ways bellies (like an inter tube around mom's waist) isn't holding true for you and me!  My tummy is now 36 inches around the middle, up 11 from before you started growing.

The only not-so-good news: due to the braxton-hicks contractions (where your little house gets really tight and hard --- a wee bit uncomfortable for me, but no biggie for you) picking up, I can't exercise.  Not that I had excercised at all (other than playing with your energetic big brother) since week 6 when I started feeling really bad, but I'm starting to get my energy back for a bit and thought maybe I could do a little something to keep my stamina up --which I'll need a LOT of once you arrive.  Unfortunately, when we go on even a short walk, I end up with 15 minutes or so of contractions.  So... the doctor says no more going on walks or any exertion more than that.  Of course, all I want to do now is to go on a walk.  Oh well, we'll just take it easy.