Baboo #2 was due November 28th. I was blissfully confident I would make it to my due date–after all, Tyler was three days late. Salem arrived three days early, which was more than excellent after a somewhat interesting third trimester.
Back in September, my fundal measurement–the superscientific measurement of your pregnant belly from pubic bone to top of the uterus using a tape measure–was small. Normally, your centimeters match your weeks pregnant. But all of a sudden I was measuring almost four centimeters smaller than I should have. I wasn’t alarmed–after all, the way they do it seems kind of ridiculous, I felt fine, and our 20 week ultrasound showed baby growing on track. But the OB wanted another ultrasound, so we happily obliged. We learned that our baby was pretty small, particularly the baby’s head–it was in the 3rd percentile. The OB sent us to see a specialist for a more in-depth ultrasound. She wanted to confirm the baby was growing and it wasn’t a case of IUGR, intrauterine growth restriction. Or Zika. What was happening?! We stayed positive and tried not to think too much about it. There was nothing we could do about it. But the OB told us if they did suspect IUGR the baby would be delivered at 34 weeks. Which was a week after we received this news. It was a tad unsettling to say the least.
Fortunately, the next ultrasound both confirmed our baby had a tiny head and also that there was no growth concern, and it was overwhelmingly likely that we would just have a proportionally smallish baby with a dainty noggin. Tyler’s head has always measured below the 10th percentile, and I can fit a child’s XS ski helmet on my cranium, so it follows that our baby had a genetically small head. Because of my “advanced maternal age” (I don’t remember getting old, BTW) I would receive weekly ultrasounds for the remainder of my pregnancy. Baby’s head continued to be small–at the very end, we were down in the 1st percentile. But still, we were told not to worry, so we didn’t.
We enjoyed a wedding weekend in Cincinnati.
We enjoyed a beautiful weekend in Aspen.
We had our 9th(?) Annual Fall Fest with our friends in Winter Park.
We hosted a kid-friendly Holleween Party in lieu of our traditional Happy Holledays ugly sweater party. I came across an adorable dragon costume for Tyler, so naturally Eric and I went as Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen. Because I’m the Mother of Dragons, obviously.
During the World Series, my blood pressure went up. A couple of nights I thought I might deliver right there on our couch. But that passed and I was still pregnant and we were still banking on November 28th, the Monday after Thanksgiving. I had the week of Thanksgiving off from school, and I really wanted to enjoy it with Tyler and getting ready for the holidays. And for the most part, I did. Salem’s birth story, coming soon!