Baby's First Pictures

This morning we had our 20 week ultrasound, and we're so proud to share baby's first pictures (well, the first pictures where he/she looks like a baby and not just a little blob).

Isn't our baby adorable?  Yeah, I thought you'd agree.  My favorite picture is actually the third one down, of the baby's face resting against its arm.  Once you figure out what you're looking at, it's really cool, because you can actually see the fleshy parts of the face instead of the scary-bony-looks-like-a-skull part and I actually feel like I'm looking at our baby's sweet little face.  That's an arm underneath . . . do you think that's the hand from the other arm in the top right part of the picture, with the palm of the hand facing out?  I feel like it might be the bottom of a thumb and some fingers.  I also like how baby has raised his/her arm in front of its face in the bottom picture.  The top picture shows how much room there is for our little smarty's big brain.  :)

I feel so much better now that we've had this ultrasound.  It was awesome to see our active little baby moving around and to confirm that he/she appears healthy with all the right parts.  :)  We clearly saw all four chambers of the heart, the stomach, two kidneys, the umbilical cord, the spine . . . I looked away when she was checking out the legs since we don't want to know if it's a boy or girl.  Greg continued to look at the screen, but since he's no expert on ultrasounds, he doesn't really know what to look for, so it didn't really matter.

For those interested in baby's stats, here they are for 20w5d gestation:

• heartrate: 144 beats per minute
• weight: 14 ounces
• measuring: 21w1d (3 days ahead of schedule)

Our doctor said that our baby is proportioned normally and everything else that she looks for with this ultrasound is normal, too.  My weight and growth are good, my blood pressure is awesome as usual, everything is still looking perfect!  What a relief!  Right now the baby is in breech position, which is common at this point.  I just have to watch out for those kicks getting stronger and coming right down on my bladder!

Taking a look at our pictures, our doctor commented that our baby has BIG FEET.  Neither Greg nor I have big feet, so it will be interesting to see if I give birth to a baby with giant clown feet.  :)  She also thought that, with our pictures being as good as they are this time, we're going to get some really spectacular ones at the 32 week 4D ultrasound.  That will be our last scheduled ultrasound.  I didn't know they did 4D as standard at my doctor's office, so now I'm really excited about that!

What an absolutely wonderful day!  Baby enjoyed his/her first photo session, too; he or she has been squirming around the whole rest of the day from all the excitement!

From Loving the Life We Live