9 lb. baby . . . already!

Friday morning, Jon was at his lecture on fetal and maternal health and heard that they were going to do ultrasounds on a couple of patients in the following lecture, so during his break he went and asked if I could come in for an ultrasound and she said yes! So, he called me, and I ran over to Duke. So since I am 38 and 1/2 weeks along, it was hard to see a lot of detail. At our last ultrasound, you could see his whole body on the screen, and now his head takes up the whole frame! They tried to get some 3D ones for us, but he was too low and in there too tight to get a good one. What a bump I have! We didn't get any pictures from them, but since they videotape the lectures, we have a video of the whole ultrasound on the projector. I just did a freeze frame from the video for the pictures below. I didn't know what highlights to splice together, so I just put the whole 10 minute segment here and you can watch the whole thing (if you have a lot of time on your hands or are just fascinated by it like us) or just take a peek and skim through. The lecturer asked if I wanted them to do a weight estimate, and I of course did. Every time the tech got to a new part of the baby, I heard her say, "wow, this is a big baby." It seriously happened 7 or 8 times. She couldn't get over it. So they took a bunch of measurements and it put my baby (as of this past Friday, 5/30!) at 9 lbs. 5 oz. Between the 2 OB/GYNs (measuring and feeling the baby) and the supposedly amazing ultrasonographer who says she has never been off by more than 4-6 oz., they think he is more like 9 lbs. Yes, a week and a half before my due date and a family history of needing to be induced a week late . . . That leaves him with plenty of time to grow. Jon is so proud. I am terrified. (Ok, not really, that was more for dramatic effect). Here are his little toes! After class (and the taping) ended, she kept looking for a while and found hair on the back of his head sticking out and floating in the amniotic fluid behind him, and then did an all over view of his head and sure enough it was all over! So, we don't know how dark or thick it will be, but she saw a full head of hair! Here he is looking straight out. Don't mind that he looks like a ghost, ultrasounds can be tricky :) It was just such a treat! They went ahead and checked my fluid levels and whatever else they do to verify that you're healthy since they had me and the machine there, so that was comforting . . . and I had them verify that he was a boy. We only got a quick glimpse months ago, so I had this underlying fear he was going to really be a girl. Fortunately, we got very clear reassurance! I can't wait to meet him!