17 weeks, 6 days - "Well, That's Bigger Than I Would Have Expected..."

As you may recall from a posting a few weeks ago, I had a doctor's appointment this morning, not because I needed one, but because my doctor wanted to calm my anxiety. So, instead of waiting the normal four weeks between appointments, she had me come in after two. I went in this morning, expecting no more than to have my weight and blood pressure taken, to listen to the heart beat, to schedule my next appointment and then to go home. That's not quite the way it worked out.

I saw Dr. Elliot for the first time in quite awhile and he was just as I remembered him: warm and friendly and just all around wonderful. He had me lay on the table and he felt my tummy, which Dr. Lashgari hadn't done yet. My books say that this is a regular thing they do and say that it's to measure the top of your uterus. He pressed around for a minute and then said, "well, that's bigger than I would have expected." I told him that I thought the same thing because my books said it was supposed to end about two inches below my belly button but in actuality, it was almost all the way there. He smiled and said that I clearly know what I'm doing. That felt nice. He then proceeded to tell me that we were "going to take a look to make sure there's only one in there cooking." I'm sorry? What did you say? Yes, that's right. My uterus was SO big that he thought I MIGHT BE HAVING TWINS!!! I'm not. Don't worry. I did have a short moment of panic as he was squirting the gel on my tummy and I was waiting for him to pull up the picture. Yikes. I'm scared enough about one but two? Egads.

Anyway, long story short, baby does be BIG. I'm not calling it Blob anymore because I got to see a baby today! And it looks like a baby! I saw a head a neck and knees and an eyeball and a spine. I didn't get pictures or anything because it was the doctor doing it and he was just looking for two babies as opposed to the sonogram tech doing it for real. But what a fun surprise! Apparently, the baby's giant Sputnik-sized head is measuring about a week ahead of where it's expected to be. So, I think I'll start calling it Sputnik. So, anyway, Sputnik was laying on his/her back, kind of like he/she was lounging at the beach. On his/her back, knees bent, chilling. Which is funny to me. All the pictures I've seen of babies at this point have their legs all wrapped up around their heads and what not. This kid has so much room to stretch out in my gigantic uterus that he/she is hardly mashed up at all. Funny.

So, what else? Details. Giant head. Heartbeat 160. Measuring 18 weeks, 5 days. Everything looks great. A week ahead doesn't SOUND that huge to me, but Dr. Elliot seemed so surprised by how big my uterus was that I'm not sure what to think. I'm still barely barely showing and my weight is right on track, so it's weird to hear that it's "so big." I'm a little worried about the baby measuring big this early because with big babies comes a greater risk of gestational diabetes and, as you may recall from my last appointment, the doctor already told me that I'm at increased risk because of type I running in my family. So now I'm at double increased risk, I guess.

Next appointment, April 2nd, 10:15 am. That's the proper mid-pregnancy sonogram, so we'll get pictures at that one. Hooray!