Halloween Treat

After a few days of unnecessary anxiety (caused by a few friends who told me that the pain I was feeling in my right side was an early symptom of pre-eclampsia), I went in to get my BPP (biophysical profile) which is a test they do to check the overall health of the baby. I will be having these every week starting two weeks from now, since my "advanced maternal age" puts the baby in the high risk category... especially early and late in the pregnancy.

"Bruiser" at 32 weeks

TT came with me to see her grandson on the ultrasound, and because the BPP is a timed test, the sonographer couldn't really spend much time looking at Baby in too much detail. But TT got to see him open and close his hand, move his spine, breath (which, apparently, is really rare to see so easily on an ultrasound) and suck on his thumb. The first thing he showed us when he got on the screen was a special present for TT that she's been talking about ever since: his boy parts. I was guessing Baby was about 4 pounds at this point (based on all I've been reading from various pregnancy sources) but the measurements taken of his abdomen and femur and head indicated a weight of 5.1 pounds. His new nickname is Bruiser, though TT still keeps calling him Sam.

After the BPP we met with Dr. Peck and he told me that I shouldn't listen to any women I know because they will just cause me undue anxiety and I do not need to worry about pre-eclampsia. He said the pain I'm feeling is likely the little guy's butt pushing up against my ribs.

"Get used to feeling a lot of new pains," he said. "It's pretty cramped in there, and he's going to be pushing things that have never been pushed before."

My weight gain is now up to 24 pounds. My blood pressure was 123/70 which is high for me (I've been consistently 102/68 for a while) but Dr. Peck said unless that lower number reaches 90 there is no reason to worry. And thanks to my anxiety earlier this week I now know where the free blood pressure check is at Target.

I go back for my next BPP in two weeks, and then weekly after that. Not because the doctor or the sonographer see anything wrong (everything looks great, as a matter of fact), but because stillbirths are one of the risks of "advanced maternal age" and if we check Baby every week we can see if he seems to be struggling at all. Doctor Peck stressed that I should not worry about this because I am very healthy and Baby's BPP results were fantastic. We got an A+ this week.

It was a great Halloween treat to be able to share all that with TT, and we've started the countdown. Less than 7 weeks until we finally meet him!