Wednesday, December 12, 2001 -- Dr's appointment, Ultrasounds

I had my 33.5 week doctor's appointment yesterday. My blood pressure was 130/60, which is a little high for me, but the same as last time, and not high enough to be a concern. I'm measuring 34.5cm - the same 1 week ahead. The baby was very awake and had a heart rate of 169. The minor swelling in my wrists and ankles is perfectly normal. I gained 3lbs in 2 weeks - so that was good. And.... the baby is head down and butt to belly!!!! YAY!!!!! The butt to belly thing means that the baby's butt is towards my belly, so we are not spine to spine - which would cause horrendous back labor. My next appointment is in 2 weeks. Then I go once a week until this kid shows up.

Lilly posted about an article that suggested that ultrasounds may disrupt fetal development. Yahoo Fertility and Pregnancy has an article that says that the fetus hears ultrasound, but it's not harmful.

The first article found that of almost 7000 infant males that had ultrasounds, 32% more were left handed than expected. The second article says that even though The sound can get loud -- about the equivalent of 100-120 decibels of airborne sound, or the level of sound of an approaching subway train. the sound is focused on a very tiny spot and it goes away quickly, allowing the fetus to move away from the sound.

Argh!

Now, as you can tell from the pics above, we did have an ultrasound done. I originally didn't want to have any done at all, but I felt it was VERY important to have my official due date be right. I know when this kid was conceived and it's a week later than where "the biology textbook description of a woman's monthly cycle" would put it. My doctor had no problem believing me and this practice will let you go to 43 or 44 weeks as long as everything still looks good. (Of course, to determine that everything still looks good, you need to have an ultrasound every 2 or 3 days at that point.) But, if for some reason, I ended up in the mainstream medical community, past my official due date, then I'd have a fight on my hands to try to convince some induction happy doc that I really wasn't past due. So, in order to officially move my due date, they needed to take measurements via ultrasound to verify that the baby was "small for dates". It was, my due date was moved from the 22nd to the 28th.

Later, I will rant on this being one of the many reasons why every woman should track her cycle and know what's going on with her body. I wouldn't have been sure without my handy-dandy chart!

So, because there is still active debate as to the safety of routine ultrasounds, and that my docs consider them unnecessary, we will not have any more, unless something starts to look wrong or I go way past my due date. And, that's why we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl.

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