He weighs 2 pounds right now. The doctor is telling me that he is measuring a little ahead of schedule, sizewise, so it's possible that he could be here earlier than July 21 (my current due date). He is just a little above average in size.
I have not gained nearly as much weight with this pregnancy so far as I did with Hailey. Just goes to show you how much energy you burn keeping up with a toddler!
Here are some pictures from the ultrasound I had Monday:
sweet little face! I'm hoping he looks like me, since Hailey is the spitting image of her daddy!
Profile. I love this one. He has his hands clasped in front of his face. It looks like he is praying. He is probably praying, "Please Lord, let my big sissy be nice to me!"
If anyone is wondering why I had a second ultrasound, there is a reason. When I had the initial one done at 18 weeks (when we found out he was a boy), they noticed that his kidneys were very slightly dilated. This is due to a backflow of urine. Both the sonographer and doctor assured me that this is not serious or life-threatening in any way and is very common, especially in boys. It is more common in boys apparently because their urinary tracts are slightly more complex than girls'. The "flap" in the urethra that controls the back and forth flow of urine is sometimes not developed completely which is what causes it. The doctor and sonographer both told me that it is the most common "abnormality" in babies that is picked up on the initial ultrasound. My doctor told me in almost all cases of this, it resolves itself in utero (before the baby is born). If not, and the baby is born with a dilated kidney (or kidneys), I am assured that they will almost always outgrow the issue in the first few months of life. In the meantime they are given antibiotics to prevent infection from the backflow of urine until the problem corrects itself, which normally occurs as the baby grows. Very rare cases require surgery. In any event, they wanted to do a second ultrasound to check and see if they were still dilated. The good news is that the left one has "fixed itself" and is now normal size but the right one is still slightly enlarged. The doctor was pleased with this, but still wants to do a 3rd ultrasound in a few weeks to check on the right (enlarged) one. This is because if it is still enlarged, they want to make arrangements for baby boy to be seen by a pediatric urologist after he is born to monitor the issue.
Please do not be insulted or offended if you were one of the many people who asked me how my doctors' appointments went and I never mentioned this. We did not tell anyone, mainly because we didn't want to worry anyone over possibly nothing. We also wanted to wait and see what the second ultrasound revealed. Since the issue is still slightly present, we figured we would let everyone know what was going on and why I was having to have additional ultrasounds.
My pregnancy with Hailey was completely flawless, so of course I can't help but worry a little when a little snag like this comes up. But I have been on many message boards (of course I had to google and find out more for myself) and in touch with several other moms whose sons had the same thing. It has been confirmed to me through all of this that it really is very common so we are not terribly worried.
Other than the kidney thing, he looks perfectly healthy - Thank you Lord! We would always appreciate any prayers you could send his way that his kidney fixes itself!
From now on, he will no longer be referred to as "baby boy". We have finally decided on a name, which will be Camden James Crotts! We are so excited and cannot wait to meet him!
Big sissy Hailey is especially excited. See for yourself:
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