Today at our prenatal visit, I got to hear the nurse practitioner read the report of that ultrasound. Everything is wonderful and rosy. And we have a big baby.
Wait. Wut?
That's right. My dreams of a six pound baby have come crashing to the ground. Baby is in the 80th percentile for size for his gestational age. Which, if he stays growing at that rate, would put him at 8.8 pounds or up to 9 pounds at birth. For my first baby. My calm reaction to this news is: ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
To help quell my shock and..well more shock at this news, I happily stare at the boxes of diapers Grandma and Grandpa came up with today during a lunch time visit. I did a bit of math, and luckily for us, they bought stage one and two, so even a big baby will still fit in these diapers for the amount we have currently. Big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for finding diapers on sale! And for a great lunch. We think we've finally settled on a crib and dresser/change table combo as well. Looking and looking and looking and finally made a choice. It's a bit more money than we had hoped, but since the majority of the cost is another gift (thank you again!) we feel lucky to be making a choice that will last for many years and looks nice.
As for the belly - when I lay down for the measurement, a lot of it falls to the sides of my body, not all in front, so I measure perfectly for my weeks. But I am above the typical 'max' for weight gain. Nurse said it was no big deal that I went from 128 pounds to 153 pounds in 25 weeks. I mean, considering the size of the huge baby and all. My blood pressure is coming up a bit now. At the hospital on the 8th (where I was a nervous wreck) it was 114/60. Today (I was calm, no news of big baby yet) it was 100/60. So a steady rise, and still what they consider 'low', which I think is good news all around.
Today is also the day we hired a doula. I am happy we have made the right choice, and after talking to many people am convinced that this will make things a lot smoother for us. I haven't called her to give her the big baby news yet - I'm guessing that a larger baby will probably appear sooner rather than later, but I'm still hoping for a six pound baby that arrives in January. Chances are though that the calls will go out in December saying we've had our boy. Guess only time will tell!