20 Week Appointment

It's a boy!!

Sept 1st we had our "big ultrasound." This is the 20 week ultrasound that is done to measure the baby's bones, organs and overall growth. Also, this is the best time to determine gender. Of course not all parents want to know until birth -- but we did!

The ultrasound seemed to go by relatively quickly. The ultrasound tech knows what she's looking for so she speeds through the measurements pretty fast. At one point she needed to see his spine better and pushed a little while telling him to move. He switched positions right away and she was happy he listened to her. Later the doctor came in and the tech mentioned that we had the most cooperative baby all day! That's a 180 from our 12 week u/s experience.


Then she asked us if we wanted to know the gender, which I replied, "yes please!" She moved the ultrasound wand over and instantly I was pretty sure I knew what I was looking at. She confirmed my thoughts by telling us we were having a boy!


We're definitely excited about having a boy. Truly we could have gone either way, but just knowing one way or another was the best part. Now I can move on to planning his nursery.


Right after the ultrasound we had our 4 week doctor appointment. The dr already came in towards the end of the u/s so he read the basic measurements. He said that everything he saw looked perfect. Our son is growing right on schedule. He also assured me that my weight and growth were also right on track. Overall this pregnancy is progressing as well as can be expected.


I only had a few questions this appointment:
#1. After week 20 I had been instructed to set up an appointment if I'm going out of town. Since we're going camping this weekend, I wanted to make sure he had no concerns. Since we're only 1 1/2 hours away and my cervix isn't dialating he said we're good to go. In about 4 weeks we'll be traveling up to MN to visit friends, so we set up our next appointment a little early. Since we will be a little further away, he's going to send my records along in case anything were to happen.

#2. I had heard about the gestational diabetes test but knew very little. He tells me that everyone gets this test between 24-28 weeks. Basically I will come in, drink some liquid, wait an hour and they'll draw blood. This will then test my glucose levels to make sure I don't need to go on a diabetic diet.

#3. I asked about the side pains I had been experiencing, which I thought were completely normal but wanted to make sure. He assured me that they were round ligament pains as the muscles are adjusting to my growing uterus. He explained that I should only be concerned if the pain centers around my stomach instead of the sides.


Then they gave me the flu-shot (regular flu not yet the H1N1). I've never had the flu shot before, so that was new. But it was no big deal, though my arm muscle is a little sore the next day.