Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Drumroll, Please!!!!!

We had our doctor's appointment and ultrasound today. The little man is beautiful and looking great, and according to the ultrasound, he's currently weighing in at..............................

8 lbs., 9 oz.!

Er, that's pretty big. Just as a point of reference, average babies at 37 1/2 weeks gestation will be about 6 1/2 pounds. Many babies are BORN weighing less than 8 1/2 pounds. But my (big!) little man is weighing in at this with still almost 3 weeks to go before his due date.

*As another qualifying reference, though, the doctor told us that there is a 10% margin of error with the estimated weight on an ultrasound. So, really Eli currently weighs anywhere between 7 lbs, 11 oz and 9 lbs, 7 oz. Yeah, that's helpful.

Here are a couple pictures from today.This one is basically his whole body in profile - head on the right, back going along the bottom of the picture, and leg/knee on the left. The ultrasound tech showed us a close-up of his little belly because you can see his little fat rolls on his belly from being squished up in there! Soooooooo cute!!!
And this is just a closer profile of his head and chest. He had his hand in his mouth for most of the ultrasound, so in case it looks a little wonky, he may be sucking on some fingers!

The good news, besides the fact that he is healthy and beautiful, is that the doctor is not YET concerned about how much he weighs. She wants me to come back in 10 days for another ultrasound to see how much he has grown. She said they're not going to get really concerned until he starts pushing 10 pounds. (As you know, I'm not even going to be concerned then, but that's when they're going to start really pushing me to at least induce, if not just schedule a c-section.) This is something he may do if he actually reaches his due date. So, the doctor agreed with us in just hoping he comes early and we don't have to worry about it! So we'd appreciate any prayers anybody would like to offer up that he decides to make his appearance early.

And if anybody has any old wives' tales about how to make a baby come, I'd love to hear them... We're definitely going out for eggplant parmesan this week, which supposedly sends many women into labor. Any other ideas? :)

10 comments:

JTapp said...

Just as added info, 3876 grams was the estimated weight (for people who think metric rules).

Andrew's Mommy said...

Just FYI - Andrew was born at 37 weeks 5 days gestation and was 8 pounds, 9 oz and 21" long at that time. (And I delivered him!) Also - watch the mail. I sent you some Nurtured Family stuff off your registry! Keep posting!!!! I am checking it everyday!

Jan said...

I'll let Jessica tell you about her eggplant parmesan experience!!

Eli's looking wonderful! I can't wait to hold him.

Anonymous said...

Well, I did go into false labor after eating eggplant parmesan. It was pretty emotional and disappointing. But it was also after Patriot's birthday party where I overextended myself. And I thought the eggplant tasted yucky.

My dr. said there's a lot of sodium (I think) in eggplant and it creates a chemical reaction that fools the body into thinking it;s in labor. Sometimes it fools it enough to push the baby out.

Can't hurt to try it! Love you!

Jessica said...

Hey -- don't know why that posted as anonymous, but it was me -- your sister.

Jami said...

Hi - its your random blog commenter again. A few of the things that were recommended to me: nipple stimulation (either using a manual or electric breast pump), acupuncture, evening primrose oil, labor induction tea (generally sold at health food stores or herbalist), and castor oil. Pumping and acupuncture both caused me to have pretty intense contractions, but I didn't go into labor until 4 hours after I'd taken castor oil for the 2nd time, but my baby did come a week early. Feel free to email me at schellmamaatgmaildotcom with any questions.

Jeannie said...

this one will sound gross, but last night our childbirth coach said that using an enema can induce labor. Something about "cleaning out the system" sends the signal to your body that everything is ready to go. (She suggested it for mommas post-term who were being urged to use medical interventions) I have also heard that walking helps, but the first one will get more conversations going!
Jeannie, your mom's friend

Mollie said...

A friend of mine was told to eat sardines to get labor started. She was desperate so she gave it a try and went into labor that same day or the next, can't quite remember! But it worked! Smile.

Norwood Mama said...

I considered or tried most of the things listed on here for my one-week-late Charlotte (it felt like 3 weeks because my first was 2 weeks early). One other thing that I tried was the Zoo. Someone had said that the hormones and pheremones at the zoo could start labor. It didn't work...not even the cat house!

Jeannie said...

Joni, my cousin is "Ava's mom", she posted this in response to your comment on my blog "Both of you can have natural births. Both of my darlings were born drug free. Train well because this is an athletic event. Do your exercises and eat well, then help and let your body do what God designed it to do (at least one of the things he designed it to do...eating cake after the birth is one of the other things that your body is designed to do!)."