Big Baby

I have yet to update you all on how our big move went. In a nutshell it went well except for a few glitches such as my mom falling and twisting her ankle and me earning a trip to the ER to stitch up my finger after cutting it on a sharp pocketknife. I recovered quickly and was able to get out of the old place and clean it up with lots and lots of help from my amazing sisters and two of my nieces. We are now mostly unpacked and have more functional rooms than dysfunctional rooms. I will update more on that later but for now I am going to update you all on the status of baby boy.

Tuesday of this week marked my first official midwife appointment in Salt Lake. I have been feeling like my baby is much larger than Liam ever was and I was justified in this belief when the midwife measured my fundus (top of the pubic bone to the top of the uterus) to determine how large my baby is and if he is close to the expected size of his gestational age. The strange thing is that the OB I was seeing before making the switch never measured my fundus and it has concerned me greatly. The midwife was concerned when instead of measuring 27 cm as expected baby boy was measuring in at 30 cm. There is a little leeway with plus or minus 2 cm but to have a baby that is 3 cm over his expected size is alarming and warrants looking into. We had to go back down the next day and have a battery of blood work and an ultrasound done to determine what was happening. I was so impressed with the care that I received and the concern that all parties treating me had for me and my baby. We are still waiting for the test results but we are thinking that I have gestational diabetes. I have been effectively managing my diet and weight for the duration of the pregnancy, however in the last three weeks with our huge move I have been stressed and slacking off on my diet just a bit. I am shocked that only three weeks of slightly loosening the reigns on my diabetic diet has had such a HUGE affect. The frightening thing is that five weeks ago at our 22 wk appointment baby boy was measured through ultrasound right on his due date. A 3 cm discrepancy in only five weeks is a lot of growth and one heck of a growth spurt. In the ultrasound baby boy's legs were really long and his belly was really wide. His face looked very similar to Liam's ultrasounds. He has my Maori nose, Bill's ducky mouth, and round features like me and Liam. His ears even looked similar to Liam's. I was very proud of him that he was already in the correct position, head down feet up and not breech like Liam was. With his large size this is a good sign that he will remain in this position as he continues to fatten up and finishes developing in preparation for being born. The lab technician was amazing and really combed baby boy over and got amazing shots of him despite his large size. I marveled at every square inch of him and I felt closer to God as I witnessed again the amazing miracle of life that is growing inside of me. Baby boy gave us a hilarious thumbs up shot and I swear his hands look similar to Bill's huge hands. The attending physician looked over our ultrasounds and said that baby is a big baby a large baby but not a giant baby. There is some concern that he will have enough room to continue to develop properly and we are concerned that he will have a hard time being delivered vaginally if this growth spurt continues. I am praying with all of my might and faith that we will be able to get on top of my blood sugars and get them to stabilize so that baby boy can be born naturally. I have worked really hard to have a natural birth and I would like to have a healthy birth free of complications and health scares. I did all that crazy, scary stuff with Liam and am in no hurry to experience it again! I just seem to get over how three weeks of stress and some slight sugary indiscretions can have such a HUGE affect on everything.

UPDATE: All of our blood work and test results came in today and I shockingly and miraculously DON'T have gestational diabetes. The doctors and midwives are pleased with how baby boy looks and are happy that he is healthy. He is just genetically larger--it looks like my husbands tall genes won out and that we are just having a big boy. A few weeks ago I had a dream of a fat rolly polly baby and I dismissed it thinking, " That can't possibly be my baby since my babies are petite and small." Yeah, not with this baby so much! He is definitely taking after his daddy with his tall Fullmer genes. I am relieved and feeling so grateful that he is healthy above all and that our plans to continue with our birthing plans are still a go. I am also relieved that all of the hard work at monitoring my diet and blood sugars for the past two years has paid off as well. I feel relieved and so blessed!