35 Weeks and The Best Photo Shoot Yet

Another week down. The third trimester is like the first trimester in many ways, one of which is that every week that passes feels like a major accomplishment. The next time I go for a checkup with my doctor, I will be 37 weeks (full term), so I'll feel a lot better then. Even if the BP starts to shoot up or they see troublesome labs, it would be a no-brainer to deliver after that point.

Monday, I had a non-stress test involving a slight kerfuffle in which baby had lots of good-looking heart rate accelerations, but also a big decel (they think he kicked his cord). They ordered a followup ultrasound, which--after a very long tenure in the waiting room--revealed everything was all good. This morning was a checkup with the OB and an ultrasound (biophysical profile) afterwards. Both went very well and were definitely good points on this whole roller coaster of recent appointments.

Blood pressure was fine this morning; she is still watching but is not alarmed or considering any treatment or course of action. Negative result for protein in the (now-standard) pee sample, so all's good in the 'hood. She said there is no way to predict which people with "watchable" BP readings progress further into problems and which remain ok, so they just keep watching. And a little bit of an elevated BP isn't abnormal this late in pregnancy...I mean, that's a lot of extra blood being pumped around...so it's just a thing.

Ultrasound was fabulous--the sonographer really took her time to look around and get some good pictures for me. The funny thing is that she did my previous ultrasound on Monday (after the NST) and I didn't really like her...she was brisk and a little rough and there was another guy in there shadowing her who was kind of annoying. But today was totally different. Maybe she didn't like the shadow guy either. I've done this enough at this point to know she really went above and beyond, so I intend to commend her on the little comment cards they leave out at the front desk. I'm glad I got her on a better day, because it was a great experience. She said he was "going to town on his practice breathing" --no buzzer today!--and heart rate was perfect. She said he looked so good and she could just look all day. Obviously, that was great to hear and goes a long way in reassuring me. And everyone.

AND he was pretty cooperative for some photos. We got some nice 2D face and profile shots, and I mentioned that we didn't have a bunch of great pics because he's usually not cooperative. She said his position looked good today so she would flip to the 3D and see what she could get. About half an hour later, I left with, like, a 3-foot long strip of photos. We were just laughing and looking at stuff and I think it was a nice fun break for both of us. I know they look at babies all day, so I kind of feel like she wasn't just being polite when she said such nice things. Or maybe I'm wrong, but it was a good appointment on a day when I felt like I really needed a good appointment.

3D images ahead...fair warning. These got too much glare on them in my scanner and look better in person, but I think you can get the general idea??

Good shot of hand underneath chin

Chubby cheeks and little lips

And a little smile.

Same photo but as iPhone pic, so with a little less glare: 

The end. Have a smiley day.