4D Ultrasound Pictures!

Good Morning!

So it's still hotter than heck over here and I'm sweating like crazy but even if it was 1000 degrees I'd still be sitting in front of the computer right now because this proud mommy has pictures to show!!

 Just to bring you up to date if you're not already, we did the ultrasound yesterday and as of yesterday I was 30 weeks...so about 10 more weeks to go! You'll notice her expression is pretty similar in every picture...no it's not the same picture over and over again. She was sleeping. We tried to wake her up but she wasn't having it...I don't blame her. After that long car ride to Mytilini WITHOUT air conditioning, even I fell asleep in the waiting room just before this part. But I was definitely awake for the ultrasound! I wasn't missing a second of that!

So here she is!

Look at those cheeks!

She totally has Antonis' mouth, which we noticed in the last ultrasound pictures. And I think she  definitely has the McClure chin...it's strong gene, I would've been surprised if she didn't get it...

The doctor said she looks very serious...she's probably planning her escape...

The umbilical cord was in front of her face the whole time so her mouth looks a little funny in some of the pictures because it kind of works like a window that needs to be cleaned...you can see through it but not 100% clearly. The doctor had to reassure me on that because I freaked out a little bit at first. Only because a couple of nights ago I had a dream that she was born with a cleft palate, which is not a big deal and they can fix it but still...I think it's normal to hope that your baby is born without anything that may need attention because you just don't want them to go through something like that. But the doctor was confident and very reassuring that she's absolutely perfect!

Turning away a little...she's probably getting annoyed at the thing poking her in the face. I would be.

And a little bit of a smile :)

More smiles!

For anyone who is interested, this was the outcome of the ultrasound. Actually I forgot there was a reason we were doing the ultrasound other than to see her cute little face, but of course they want to see that she's developing normally and that the placenta and fluids are all operating normally. So the green line in each graph, the middle line, represents the average developmental rate. The red dot represents where Eleni's developmental rate is compared to the average. So the main point is that she's slightly above average in everything, or in other words she's developing just a bit faster than the average. And still in other words....in GREEK words, keep in mind....she's a big baby. But I still don't see what the big deal is (no pun intended). If you look at the graph on the bottom left you'll see a blue dot just above the green line at the 40 week mark...this is the doctor's estimate of what Eleni will weigh when she's born, according to what she weighs right now. Right now, she's about 1.67 kilos (or about 3.7 pounds). By 40 weeks the doctor thinks she'll be about 3.75 kilos, which is about 8lbs 1ounce.....I'd say that's a good, healthy size! Not BIIIIG like everyone here seems to think. The doctor even asked me if my sugars are normal....he's the ultrasound doctor by the way, not my regular doctor and by sugars he means "do you have gestational diabetes?" because women with GD tend to have much bigger babies. I've been tested and no I don't have gestational diabetes. I know these are all just estimates at this point and we won't really know anything until she's born but I think I would just be happier if everyone just replaced the word "big" with the word "healthy". Using the word "big" somehow makes me feel like I'm being judged and that I've done something wrong. But looking at these results I would say that I've done a lot of things right and she's doing really well because of it.

This is just more results, mostly the same as the above but with a few extras. The red dots represent Eleni's development and the average developmental rate is the line in the middle of the bar..so again the red dot is slightly above the average EXCEPT her brain size which was exactly at average. That is, of course, a good thing but I, of course, had to ask about it because "if everything else is developing faster than why isn't her brain????!!!!" Calm down Tara. She's healthy. She's normal. There's nothing to worry about. And besides, brain size doesn't have anything to do with intelligence anyway....if it did then the cavemen would have been WAY smarter than us. They had massive brains and they thought wearing wearing a loin cloth was fashionable choice. Enough said. 

*I should probably apologize to all my super intelligent Archaeologist friends out there because there's a good possibility that I may have just made this whole 'brain size' theory up. I took Arch 105 in first year university because I needed credit outside of my Psych major (and also because I really like monkeys), but that was about 5 years ago so feel free to correct me...I should also apologize to my cavemen friends out there....

So that's our first look at baby Eleni! It won't be long until we REALLY get to see her!

Have a good weekend!