Ultrasound and ‘P’ updates.

Just a note: This post is all ‘p’ stuff.

I had my 32 week Dr. appointment and ultrasound last week – I was 31w5d. Butters is facing head down, rear-end up (and will hopefully stay that way!), and everything checked out fine except for one very minor thing – while Butters is still within the normal growth range, he/she (nope, we aren’t finding out!) is in the 20th percentile. At my 20 week ultrasound, Butters was in the 75th percentile. The Dr. wanted me back in three weeks for another ultrasound, just to make sure the growth didn’t drop further. I’m not too worried, (ok, maybe just a teeny bit, but I’ll be worried until I’m actually holding a baby…) and assume that Butters just had an early growth spurt. Many people don’t even get ultrasound after 20 weeks, so I’m glad I get to have another peek in just a few weeks.

As far as pictures go – we must have the worst ultrasound pictures ever! Even the ones at 20 weeks weren’t too good because someone refused to get in a decent position and insisted on blocking his/her face with an arm! This time, Butters was facing forward but the head was far down and once again, arms were in the way. We do have a couple of pictures but they aren’t very clear. The tech also tried to get a 3D picture but, because of the position, the picture just looked like a mass of blobs. Stubborn little baby. ;-)

‘P’ Stuff
I’m enjoying feeling more movement, and am still thoroughly fascinated when I see lumps move across my stomach! I still wake up every night to go to the bathroom, usually with an accompanying leg cramp. However, I have been extremely lucky so far and have not experienced any swelling… and yes, I chalk this up to just pure luck. While I am still exercising and not going too nuts with food, (well, maybe just a little…) I know you can eat right and exercise and still have a terrible time with water retention – my SIL is a perfect example. She has a very healthy diet, didn’t gain too much weight and was always at the gym – the girl was doing an hour-long step aerobics class at 39 weeks! Yet she still swelled up – especially her poor feet and legs. Of course, now that I’ve said this, I’ll probably start swelling tomorrow!

I joke with DH and say that all the swelling must gone to my chest – the ‘girls’ are bigger than ever (32.E, anyone?) but seemed to have taken a break from growing at the moment, thank goodness. My porn-star chest doesn’t bother me as much now because it’s less noticeable with my bigger belly, though I can’t imagine what will happen when they start filling with milk. Eeeegads.

Work
I’ve been working extra hours this past month, and it’s beginning to wear on me a bit, but not terribly. However, I decided cut back my hours for the month of September, and will be working only three days a week, mainly because I want to get everything done that needs to be done (still working on the house – that’s a whole post in itself) and have a little time to relax. Since I work as a sub-contractor, my hours are rather flexible, and I did tell my employer a few months ago that I would probably reduce my hours in September, and they were totally fine with the idea. I don’t have maternity leave, but I do qualify for temporary disability, and I plan to stop working at the end of September. My contractor status also makes it very easy for me to come back to work without having to provide an exact date right now, though I did tell them that they won’t be seeing me again until sometime in 2009…. maybe. I actually don’t have concrete work plans at the moment… I’m thinking of working part-time… but there is a small chance I may not. Of course, ‘not working’ means not working outside of the home – I’ll still keep the small home business thing in either case. We'll see.

And speaking of work… perhaps I should go do some now…..