First all the good news: My 18 week appointment went great. My uterus is right around my belly button despite the books saying it should be 2 inches below it. Yeah, I don't really have 2 inches between my hips and belly button, lol! Previously the little bean was always hanging out really low and it took awhile to find the heartbeat but on Tuesday it was right below my belly button and she found in about 10 seconds. Nice and strong. And I got to schedule my gender ultrasound for next Thursday at 10 am. It could have been as early as yesterday but....
Now the bad news: Since I kept getting different dates on my ultrasounds and didn't get a positive read on my ovulation tests for the week of Feb. 25th and I'm moving they've decided to change my due date. My earliest ultrasound said 11/28 as the due date. Since they don't want me induced too early, they're going by that one now. What that means is the standard procedure for a midwife care is to induce between 41-42 weeks, whereas with some doctors they'll do it in less than half a week "over due." So if they stick a 11/18 button on my file then I'd be induced probably after Thanksgiving, sometime around the 11/26-12/1. But if the later date is right, or closer to right, then I'd really only be 4 days over due. The less medical procedures and interruption the better for everyone. That being said, I would have had to had insanely high HCG levels in my blood to get a positive on a home pregnancy test on 3/12 if the 11/28 date is right. The levels that are usually only found in multiple pregnancies and there is no reason to believe that I have or ever had 2 in the oven. Also, that would have been only a few days after ovulation. You hear advertisements about finding out maybe 5 days before your expected period, well I would have found out nearly 2 weeks early. Also, the earlier ultrasounds are better at dating than the later ones. For example, at 4 weeks the embryo looks very different than at 5 weeks. Whereas 19 weeks developmentally doesn't look so different than 21 weeks. They also can't really go by the size at this point. Some babies measure smaller or larger and it doesn't mean the due date is wrong. Usually women will measure a few days ahead or behind at their mid-pregnancy scan, though 10 days is a bit extreme. All that being said at my second ultrasound I was only measuring 3 days behind. So I think I'm much closer to 11/18 than 11/28.
So in my mind I'm sticking with 11/18 but medically they've decided to choose 11/28. I've contacted the midwife I'll be using in Harrisonburg and she agrees on the need for the later date, though would induce me closer to 1 week instead of 2 due to the liklihood of that being the better date. But, here's hoping that it's all a moot point and I won't need to be induced at all! I just hope it's not in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner! But since I'm of the mindset to make this a bit more old fashioned of a birth (but with modern knowledge like sterilization) I'm ok with not having a perfectly set due date that there's not questions about. At least I've got a better idea than women in the 1800s did when they simply expected a baby sometime in a given month, or worse in a season.
And on that note of being in touch with my VA midwife, her link is at the bottom if anyone would like to take a look. I actually know her, she went to EMU and we had a class together. That puts my mind even more at ease.
So if I'm closer to 19 weeks the baby's brain is really developing senses now. Some research shows that it can hear my voice, so once I get to know the gender I can talk to it more! It's about 8.5 inches long and weighs around 6 ounces, around the size of a mango in length. And it's coated in vermix caseosa which protects it from getting all pruned up for the next 5 months.
I can't wait to see him or her next week and finally be able to call it by name!
http://brookhavenbirth.com/index.html
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