This picture is a little hard to see...the baby was all curled up with his hands in front of his face, but you can see this is a 3-D picture. His hand (starting on the left) is still on his forehead, which on the right has a white shadow. You can see the eyelid, nose, lips and chin of our second beautiful son.
This morning we had our last (most likely) ultrasound appointment with Dr. Bayliss. I love that we always see him when we go; he's definitely our favorite. When we entered the lobby to Women's & Babies' Hospital, I told Shawn how weird it is that smells can bring back such powerful memories. We both immediately said we thought of the NICU. We spent an entire month there in 2006 visiting Joshua daily, and the smell of just the lobby alone made that feeling of excitement to see the baby, tinged with a little sadness of missing the Bean, come alive.
When we went back, the same nurse tech that we've seen the last several times did our beginning measurements of the baby and took the initial pictures. She told us he had the hickups, and then as we listened to the heartbeat we actually heard them. Sooo cute!
When Dr. Bayliss came in, he asked us what name we had picked out. When we told him we hadn't narrowed down a final one, he asked us the options and weighed in his 'professional' opinion. He cracks us up! The best part was seeing the baby, though, of course. Our youngest son now weighs 4 lbs 1 oz. WOW! He's in the 77th percentile for his size. I remember when Joshua was in the NICU and finally reached 4 lbs - it was a glorious occasion. Babies have to weigh at least 4 lbs to go home, and I think Joshua was around 4.5 lbs when they finally released him. Amazing that this baby is already almost that big and still not up to the gestation age that Joshua was when he was born. Dr. Bayliss said it's amusing when parents have a premature child and then another one that is in the upper percentiles that goes to term...the second baby seems like a giant. We're on target to have a son who should weigh about 8.5 lbs when he's born if all goes well. What a hoss! :) :) :) I've never had a kid so big inside me before...and I feel it, especially as he kicks or moves.
We saw the other limb that the baby was laying on last time, and everything looks good. The heart looks "beautiful" - as Dr. Bayliss put it - and so do the lungs. The spine looks good, and everything is on target for a healthy baby boy! I couldn't ask for more! Dr. Bayliss asked me about my blood pressure and said that it's good that it's been low; that's actually normal for pregnant women. When it's even a little high throughout the pregnancy, it's a good sign of a preeclamptic (sp?) patient.
I told him how last time he told me that Joshua was underweight and my placenta was wearing out and how I would have the baby early...that was a Thursday and I went into the hospital that following Saturday. I joked with him that if he knew it would be that soon, he should have warned me. He laughed and if that was the case, he'd be the Dr. Phil on Oprah making millions. :) But, he did say he was glad to see this baby looking healthy. They can often tell the path of disease and sometimes it's sad to be 'in the know.' He had a patient just yesterday that was 25 weeks, and he told her unless she had the baby removed immediately, she was going to lose it based on the placenta coming apart. He said it's a rough job seeing some of these things...but, he's always glad when he sees a baby like ours that's healthy and well, as far as they can tell.
And, he let us know that he's releasing me out of his care for now, but said he would take another look if my doctor's had any questions going forward. I told him that at this point, we think we may be done having kiddos (not that we're making any 'permanent' decisions, but that's what we're tentatively planning). So, I thanked him for all his help with Joshua and seeing us with this baby. He jokingly said that he has two brothers "oops 1 and oops 2" so he may see us again, but if not he wished us well. Only two months (maximum) until we see our next little miracle! Hooray (said with a tinge of nervousness...and/or PANIC!) :) :) :)
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