Ultrasound: 36 Weeks

As it turns out, there's a pretty good reason for my ever-expanding middle section. Z Baby Girl has been quite busy growing and putting on weight the last few weeks!

Our 29-week ultrasound estimated her at 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs) and her length to be 38 cm (15 in).

Yesterday we had another ultrasound and she came in at 2.37 kg (5.2 lbs - the 45th percentile for her age) and 46 cm (18 in). She has almost caught up to her Daddy's birth weight, 5 lbs 11 1/2 oz, but still has a way to go before she catches her ol' Mamãe, 8 lbs 11 oz.

But might I add that staying closer to Eric's birth weight would suit me just fine? I've been counting on it, actually. You see, I come from a family of 4 children. At over 8 1/2 pounds, I was the smallest. Two of the others were 9+ lb babies and my middle brother was right at 10 lbs. (And bless my Mama's heart, she delivered all of us naturally using good ol' Lamaze!) Sometime shortly after high school, I started judging men much like you do bulls: low birth weight = desirable trait. I'm pretty sure I did wait until like the third date or something before I inquired as to Eric's weight at birth though. Fellas that weighed 12 pounds at birth needed not even apply . . . I just couldn't take my chances with those kind of genetics. I mean, I lived on the farm; I'd seen calves get stuck. ;)

Anyhoo, we got an all-around good report from the ultrasound doctor again. I wasn't able to capture any fabulous images from the video of the exam, but here are a couple anyway.

For the picture above, tilt your head slightly to the right. The yellow arrow is pointing to her right eye and from there you can make out her other eye, her nose, mouth, chubby cheeks, and what the doctor informed us is a head full of hair. He also told Eric with a great big grin that she looks just like her Mommy.

This one leaves Z Baby looking a bit skeleton/alien-like. But, you can see her left fist up to her mouth; she spent most of the exam with both hands against her mouth as she sucked away at her fingers.

Besides her multi-times-per-day-hiccups that keep my belly bouncing around, she gets extra wound up when we play music for her - especially anything with a Samba beat. And she'll kick me nice and hard whenever Eric asks her to. (I thought I had a little more time before those two started ganging up on me, but apparently I was mistaken!)