Newborn Practice and Prenatal Specialist Update

Tonight was our Newborn Class. We learned lots and so much helpful information was covered. Each couple had a baby-size doll for practice. We got to practice holding, burping, bathing, dressing, swaddling and diapering. We even had to put real hand sanitizer on before touching baby. As we listened to a recording of a baby crying, we had to write in two different columns what makes a baby cry then what can be done to stop the crying. We definitely left the class feeling more confident about taking care of a baby. Above is C swaddling our baby. : )

We had our visit with the prenatal specialist earlier in the week. It was interesting to hear the tech say right away before doing the ultrasound "We never change a due date based on a big baby." She did the ultrasound, showed us important parts, organs, etc. and did her measurements.

The doctor came in and shared some good information with us as he reviewed the ultrasound information. He said that yes, we do have a big baby. Our son now weighs 5 pounds 12 ounces and is expected to be 9-10 pounds at birth (wow). He said his opinion is always that it's best to have a baby as close to full term as possible no matter the size. Plus, he said ultrasounds can lie as they're based on averages. They can be based on an average of a female being for example 5 ft. 7 inches in height and of course, the average doesn't apply to all women. The ultrasound is now giving an earlier due date based on current measurements but the most important information to follow is my first ultrasound that confirmed the due date (as this coincided with other information at the time that made my due date pretty certain). If I hadn't had an earlier ultrasound then it would be more difficult to determine the due date and this may have led to delivering baby too early. The doctor recommended that I have another ultrasound closer to my due date to help determine size at that point and to help in making the decision of just how baby is going to come out.

I washed up our newborn and 0-3 month baby clothes last week and now I'm thinking "Hmmm, 0-3 month clothes go to about 12 pounds. And our good supply of newborn diapers go to 10 pounds". Should our baby be the estimated 9-10 pounds, it's time to wash up the 3-6 month clothes AND be sure we have a good supply of size 1 diapers!

We've known all along that there were a number of factors that could lead to an early delivery but we didn't expect the timing to be a month early! It is nice to know that as long as all continues to go well, we will have more than just 3 weeks to prepare for baby. We now have 7 weeks to go!

Baby B continues to be on the move. Sometimes he seems like he's going to burst out of my belly as he's moving with quite the force! My belly seems humongous and I'm still amazed that it has several inches to go.

I've noticed people are quicker to open doors when they see me coming and seems people make a wider path around me when they pass by-either because they're giving me more room OR because they're afraid they'll catch something (like pregnancy) if they walk too close! I'm still adjusting to my size. It's amusing to try to squeeze between spaces that I think I can fit in only to find out that I need a bit more room!