21 weeks: Level 2 Ultrasound

We had our Level 2 ultrasound Tuesday morning!

I will post the pictures in a different post later this weekend.

Every time I have to go to the doctor, I agonize over what to wear. I want to look pregnant, but not too fat. I'm young, I'm hip, I want to be a hot ma.ma, not a beached whale. But this morning I decided on my new lounge pants because I didn't want to add any unnecessary weight, but I must have tried on 5 tops. I finally said, "Why do I think the Doctor's office cares what I wear?" And Matt responded, "And I don't think they care how much you weigh either." My response, "Do I look too pregnant in this top?" No answer from Matt.

In the last 2 weeks I seriously popped (as you can see from my belly shot photos). I cleaned out my closets because I couldn't fit into any of my pre-pregnancy shirts (unless they were empire waist). And with that came the weight gain... I only gained 1lb at my last visit and this time I gained ... 8 lbs. I am now officially over 160lbs. Sigh.

The ultrasound technician was new to me and really nice. We told her we didn't want to know the gender and she said more and more couples are opting for the surprise. So I tried to watch the monitor but I was scared I might see something (you know what) and it was hard to hold my head up, but Matt was glued to the monitor. I kept watching his facial expressions and he'd rub my arm. Then he'd say, "Is that the heart?" "Is that the head?" The heartbeat was at 147 (same as 4 weeks ago) and my little butternut squash was measuring only 1 day behind, which is considered perfect (86 percentile). He/she was super active and I still couldn't feel a thing. The tech would have the wand and say, "That's him moving, not me. He's not staying still." In the beginning his/her head was in my lower right abdomen, and after 10 minutes it re-appeared in the upper left section. Definitely an active baby. We didn't get any face shots (no way to see the size of his/her nose), but we did get a good foot photo (clown feet).

I told the tech about my gallbladder pain and asked if the wand could move northward and check for stones or any problems. As far as they can tell, it looks fine. A stone would have to be larger than 3mm to show up, and normally they have you drink something before a gallbladder u/s. So if it continues to be a big problem, they can order that test. But no sludge, no irregularity as far as they can tell. The doctor did say that what can seem like gallbladder pain, might be rib pain from the expanding and shifting. The u/s Tech was able to see that my kidneys are already up by my gallbladder cause the baby kicked it out of its normal place.

So all is well so far and I'll be back in 4 weeks. Baby Screeman is alive and kicking.