The Baby Update... 161 days to go!

I had another appointment on Monday, it's amazing how quickly the 4 weeks have flown by since the last one! The doctor seems very pleased with the way the pregnancy is progressing. The nurse had no trouble finding the baby's heartbeat this time, it was a vigorous 155 beats per minute... we may have an active kid on our hands! She also measured my fundal height (which is the distance between the pubic bone and the fundus, or top of, the uterus) which was 16 cm, which is about on target for my 17 week status.



I also gained three pounds since the last visit, which my doctor was happy with. I was worried it would be closer to 10 pounds since I had a HUGE, decadent meal for dinner the night before (prime rib, lobster, asparagus and garlic mashed potatoes)! But my appetite has definitely picked up lately, I MUST eat every three hours now or the hunger quickly turns into ravenous without warning. This hunger has already become pretty annoying while on the wards but I've been carrying snacks with me and I grab a bite when I can. I've been lucky on this rotation, I've been with very thoughtful doctors who give me breaks.



Onto exciting boy/girl news... we did not get a sonogram at this visit like we were hoping for, BUT it turns out they'd already scheduled the anatomy sonogram for us. It will be next Friday (apparently that's the only day they do them), so with any luck, our little one will forget his/her modesty, just momentarily, so that we can find out if we're having a boy or a girl!! I can't wait to buy his/her first outfit... and to be able to have some more direction on names. We're still open to any and all name suggestions :) That's our update... hope this finds all of you well.



You're 17 weeks pregnant... 161 days to go

Your baby weights about 5 ounces now, and he's around 5 inches long — about the size of a large onion. The umbilical cord, his lifeline to the placenta, is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby can move his joints, and his skeleton — until now, rubbery cartilage — is starting to harden into bone. Some of it will remain cartilage for years after he's born. A newborn's skeleton has 300 parts (a combination of bone and cartilage). As your child grows, some of these parts harden and fuse together. By the time your baby reaches adulthood, he'll have just 206 bones.