Biophysical Profile Ultrasound

My appiontment time is at 8:30. Exactly around the time, hubby and I came to check in by the front desk. 2 minutes later I was called in to get my weight, blood pressure, pulse and oxygen. Everything seem to be okay. As for weight, I am now 135.6. I gained .6 for 10 days. Not bad..

So later, Erin my sonographer came to greet me and went to room 2. She was very nice. She then scan and she has a light hand. Baby was sleeping at first. Then came the time to wake him up to see how his reflexes are. He showed us how he moved. His body, arms, and legs. So amazing to see it all. I am so happy baby is very cooperative.

Then later came Dr. D. I was surprised. She personally did analyze the result. We saw again the video Erin took. Nice to see it all again. Was a nice experience to see his movement on screen. The final saying was baby did a good job. He got A+ today. His breathing a little for now and also we witness his hiccups. Now I know what it was. Doc said, his behaving maturely. Hubby replied that baby is just small lol.. That was always the case his issue was his small. We are small definitely his going to be small too. lol.

All I can say is the appointment today is a positive experience. It's nice to leave the building with a happy state. Now all I can do is try to figure how to control my gestational diabetes which I was just diagnosed yesterday. Doc said, nothing to fear. 

24 Weeks Pregnant

It has been a roller coaster ride for the past week. One is I am having vaginal pressure/pain. It has nothing to do with intercourse, which the matter of the fact we are avoiding it because of this pain I am having. 2 weeks ago, I emailed my doctor about it and no sex activity or I should say need pelvic rest. Sorry for TMI. Just have to be straight to the point lol!

With all of that, I emailed again my doctor and starting to wear the belly binder or support which I got from Baby R Us. I still have the pain when I walk. I asked some few friends about it who just had the baby and told me that in fact will happen. But as early as I am now, I wonder why. Is it my uterus is growing faster now.

If let's say the uterus is growing faster, my baby munchkin is still not growing as he should be. It makes me wonder really whether this make sense to me. But anyway, I know despite what the Dr. Specialists had said about my baby is small in gestational age. I believe that his just normal. Nothing's wrong with him. His active, responsive and he always makes me feel his presence. I don't want to think about what that doctor had said to us. One of my friend said, if the baby moves, why worry?

Anyway, so my summary for the week. It's nice to see the baby when I had my appointment and see that his there kicking and punching. I listened his bubbles through the cheap device we bought from Baby R Us. It was a very nice experience to listened to his heartbeat, kicks and bubbles. Food wise, I am doing okay but heartburn is still my number one problem at night. The sour after taste came back too. I hated it. My armpit is darker now too geeez.. One of my friend sent me something to help fight for the darkness. Man, too bad looking armpit now lol.. Stomach has grown to 37 inches and boobs 37 too. Symmetrical I guess lol.. Sleep sometimes good and bad. Bad when heartburn attacked in the middle of the night and it's hard to fall back to sleep. Work has been reduced to 4 hours since yesterday so I am glad with that. HR had told me that I could file for disability for the reduction of hours from work. That's a good thing. I could still get my full payment. Hurray to that but working at the job is just too much. I am the only number person that can handle the job. I guess it's better to be the number one that the boss will change his mind and kick me off lol! Okay too much blah for work. That's it.

I still have to think positive because I believe if I do keep on thinking the brighter side, this worry is just for nothing. For now I know, I have a baby who is a fighter, survivor and lovable human tiny little being.

Update: Fetal Echo Ultrasound and IUGR

After my anatomy scan, Dr D ordered a second ultrasound for me to check how the growth of the baby is. Since the pregnancy is through IVF, they required this test. Beyond what we are expecting, the baby is 9 days behind. I can't believe it. Dr. D wasn't happy and had concern. She wants to see me every week to check how the baby is doing. Growth measurement will take place in another 3 weeks that is July 18. From then on, I will be seeing her or another doctor to closely monitor the baby's behavior.

There was no problem on the heart and other parts. The only problem is the measurement which they won't likely to see happening. I was not prepared to hear his growth did change a bit. I tried to so hard to eat more, gained more and put more protein in my food. Nothing have worked. As the doctor said, there's nothing really a mother can do.

On June 4th here's the measurement:

Measurements:
BPD: 4.65 cm, 20w 0d
HC: 18.0cm, 20w 3d
AC: 14.98 cm,20w 2d
FL: 3.29 cm, 20w 2d
EFW : 343 g; 0 lbs, 12 oz
EFW %tile: 12 Yesterday, June 20th:
Measurements:     BPD: 5.34 cm, 22w 2d    HC: 19.95cm, 22w 1d    AC: 17.29 cm,22w 2d    FL: 3.8 cm, 22w 1d    EFW : 483 g; 1 lbs, 1 oz      Percentile  22.1% Williams and 5.6% Hadlock  I don't really know how to interpret this numbers. I will need to do more research on this. Hubby does his own research and tells me all of it. But  as for now, all of this are still very vague to me. I have to put hours on this to get to the bottom so I could make my own best decision when time comes. It's hard to be so negative after all of this. I am happy that despite what the doctor saw on the ultrasound. I am confident that baby is fine. His just small. I want him to be as comfortable as he is down there. I want to give birth full term. I want a normal delivery. I don't want to think about having to go in a hospital in 28 weeks and stay there until I reached 34 weeks as what has been other people has taken the journey. I don't want to be in the same path. I want my baby to reach 37 weeks at least. I want him to grow, big, normal and healthy. I believe that I am not in the IUGR category as what the doctor might suspected. It's not confirm but I could be at risk. I hope not. I am praying so hard that all they are thinking are incorrect. My baby is just small that's it. I hope for the best.

23 weeks Pregnant

Today marked my 23th week. The past week I have been up and down problem with heartburn. At night, it's hard to sleep even if trying to elevate my upper body to clear some passage. The pressure on my stomach was just hard to deal with but I still sleep through it no matter what. Sleep has not been good. Either I could get 7 hours of sleep or less. I should be sleeping more than that and taking naps too. But I worked full time so there's no way for me to get more of it. Weekends I gained more hours of sleep and I always feel rejuvenate when the weekend comes because I have longer hours of sleep.

Contraction has been the center of my attention for the week. I monitor it when it happen at work. I don't get it if I am at home relax and just do minimal things. At work is different. I give so much time dealing with people on the phone and I don't feel relax. It tightens my stomach and it's a little pain. There's no discharge or whatsoever. The relief I could get is changing my seating position and breathing in and out to help eases the contraction.

Eating food is enjoyable this week. I ate too much actually. Well, I am eating good. Whatever makes me happy I will just eat. But I don't just eat excessively because I know my limits. I have been eating more sweets than I normally do too. It's going to be bad I know but it's not always everyday. At times I can't help it. The reason why because the sour taste in my mouth comes back again. Sweets does help temporarily.

Baby is been punching, kicking and making responsive bubbles. His a delight. I am so glad his so active and make me feel his there all the time. I love my baby boy so much.

This afternoon past 4pm I saw Dr. W for my monthly check up. My weight today is 135.3 wow and 110/64! That's a big jump. Considering all the eating I have been doing no wonder I gained 7 pounds for a month. I hope that helps my bambino to grow more. Dr. W had shown to me the projectile of the growth of the normal, constitutional and show a path of problematic fetal growth. I am a bit on the edge right now whether I am on a constitutional side or problematic growth. The problematic growth comes from the placenta. If the baby don't get so much nutrients it will boil down to the growth problem of the baby. But there's already a remedy to help it. There's nothing a mother can do. So the 2nd ultrasound is needed to see how his growth will come along. She doesn't seem to be so concern and believe that the baby is just small. But she doesn't want to see the baby will fall into the bad projectile so I will be monitored then.

We also talked about my contraction the past days. Yesterday I hit my 5th mark in an hour span. She told me it's okay as long as it's not more than 6. She wanted me to monitor it for me which I am already doing since last week. I told her about what my boss plans are in the office and she told me that if I will be in preterm labor, there's nothing that my boss can do but to take care of myself first. Disability will take it's place. For now, as long as there's no bleeding and the contraction will not be constant I will still work normal. I hate the fact I could still work long hours. I just hope nothing could go wrong while I am at work.

22 Weeks Pregnant

There's nothing much to report that is unusual this week. What I have been experiencing was just the contraction. When I worked, I feel stressed. The contraction will always happen at work. I just found out last Friday when I asked from my doctor where all this contraction coming from. I asked her if it's stressed related. She said yes. My work involves lots of heavy phone calls. That triggers my stress level to be so high. I would always pray every day that phones won't keep on ringing so I could have the sanity. Sometimes I have a relief but oftentimes I don't. It also depends of the quality of the call.

Anyway, aside from stress which is always been part of my job. I have heartburn too. I suspect that when I don't eat on certain hour where I supposed to if I skip a few hours, my heartburn will take it's revenge.

One symptom that is very new to me. I peed once or twice now a night. I haven't had any problems of peeing before. Now my sleep will always be interrupted with the urge to use the bathroom. If I don't I will get problems with my bladder. Also, baby doesn't like holding my bladder that long. His going to wake me up. 

Food wise, I am eating what I can. No food aversion anymore. The only food that I can't fathom without no side effects is mushroom. I think I have a problem with it. I used to like it pre-pregnancy.

Baby wise, his moving, punching, kicking and making bubbles. It's so nice to be able to feel his movement.

Anatomy Scan Repeat

I had my ultrasound yesterday to check baby's heart and cord insertion. Everything looks great and heartbeat 146bmp. His heart rate was the lowest since I recorded but it's good. Baby was just relaxing. We suspected he was sleeping. He didn't jump and bounce like the last time. The russian sonographer has a light hand and when she scan the transducer, the baby didn't budge at all.

For a quick overview, the technician did a 3d image of him. It is so amazing to finally see his features. We can't determine yet as to what features belong to us but he looks like a cute baby. Love at first sight.

On the sad news, the doctor is a bit concern on his fetal growth. His behind of 6 days compare to the 7 days he was the last 2 weeks. At least it's good that he didn't pass beyond 7 days. That's worrisome if it happens. His 12 oz which I am hoping he was much heavier. Doctor said that perhaps his just a small baby considering all his test come back normal. Still, recommended to do a Cell Free DNA test. I know it's going to be an extra cost but we will take it in. Wanted to make sure everything's fine. Just an assurance that his alright and we could prevent something. I also have to undergo an infection test to see if I was infected of something while I was carrying the baby. But I was perfectly fine throughout. I didn't have any fever but I have few slight colds but it wasn't that I could get concern about. I hope the tests will be all right. I believe in the power of positive thinking.

Somehow the baby's position now changed to a vertex. Thank goodness. Better than being breech. I was walking for the last 2 weeks hoping it could help him and somehow it helps. I will be continuing to walk for 30 minutes a day or if I have the energy to do it. I won't force my body to do it everyday. If I feel okay then I will do it. But at least I could do the walk 3 times a week.

For food tips, based on my readings. Protein helps for the growth of the fetus. I am observing I haven't eaten large portion of protein. Though it's part of my routine, I don't think I have enough protein to support me and the baby. From now on, I will be adding more meat. I have been lacking on eating veges too. At times, I just have my fruits and small veges on my smoothie but maybe it's not enough to help the growth of the baby. I will be doing some more shopping then tomorrow.

As for the baby movement, his been very active all day. His pattern did change somehow. A few days ago, middle of the night his awake. Poking me from side to side. He loves to push my bladder too that oftentimes I peed twice a night. I don't complain about it. This baby of mine just want to have some room. His intelligent enough to do it so I could get up and do my thing. His responsive to hubby's voice too. Hubby could hear bubbles every time he asked a question. We wish for our baby to be in a normal state and  healthy as can be.

21 Weeks Pregnant

Emotionally and physically speaking, everything's good. Baby is moving a lot of times. His keeping me aware that his active. I am so happy with this kind of feeling. It's going to be different when he will be born. It will be much more more different but the amount of excitement will going to increase and I will going to love it even more.

I have been doing some walking. I am hoping that tomorrow's ultrasound will give us good much better result. Also, I wanted more good pictures from the technician and baby will be in the right position to get good ones.

Food wise summary, I am trying to eat more with added proteins. I hope it will help the growth of the baby.

Belly is getting bigger and rounder. Pain from the round ligaments are starting to take it's course. It's tolerable though. It tells me that my baby is growing. The snoggle pillow helps me sleep better at night especially sleeping on the left side.