17 Weeks

So today we went to our 17-week OB appointment. It's great getting to get feedback and talk to the doctor about how things are going. We found out that I have gained 4.5 pounds since our last appointment a month ago. This is apparently right on track for my pre pregnancy size. Dr. Yu also measured my belly, which has added 16 cm in size. She said that that meant the baby is about 6 ounces right now, which is a very healthy size. Again we got to listen to our baby's heartbeat. It has slowed to 154 bmp now. It's so neat getting to hear that little beating heart.

We also found out some exciting news. On December 21 when I go in to see the high-risk doctor (which is normal procedure for women with auto immune diseases) they are going to do a 4-D ultrasound in addition to the regular one. This will help the doctor to see if there are any abnormalities. But in general it will just be very cool because a 4-D ultrasound is extremely clear, it's like taking an actual photo of your baby. On the downside, we didn't want to know the baby's gender prior to birth and Dr. Yu told us that generally the 4-D ultrasounds are so clear that you can tell pretty easily what the baby will be. But hey, we are okay with knowing, we just thought a surprise would be fun. Our doctor actually mentioned that we are the minority, she said that she usually only has about 3 couples a YEAR who don't what to know the gender of their babies by ultrasound.

So all and all, things went really well and we are getting more and more excited for our new baby to come!