Tonight I started asking Den about names again, re-hashing the same things. I said, “I’m naming a PERSON! I have to make sure it’s RIGHT!” Finally I just put my head down on my arms and moaned, “Being a parent is so hard.”

Den sighed in exasperation and replied, “Honey, I think being a parent is going to be ridiculously easy compared to deciding on a name!”

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Today was indeed my 28 week appointment, complete with ultrasound. The ultrasound was first, and I was quickly seen to. Baby girl was kicking me, so not much anxiety presented itself. She measured the few things, telling me what she was doing as we went along. I craned my head to see the numbers pop up on the screen – everything looked pretty average. Heart rate was a good solid 158bpm. The abdomen measurement was a little behind, but she tried 4 times to get a good measurement and told me baby just wasn’t in a good position to get a good angle. When done she got me a few pictures of baby girl’s sweet little face profile. There was actually fluid in front of her face today, instead of being completely mashed up against my placenta (she looked like maybe her head was a little lower, below the bulk of the placenta?), but alas still a 3d shot was not forthcoming – her nose was getting cut off, making her look very strange indeed. And she is indeed head-down, as I’ve been saying.

The ultrasound tech sat at her desk for a few minutes calculating and printing it all off, said baby’s weight is estimated to be 2lb 6oz, perfectly average. Then she went to show everything to a doctor before releasing me – which they do every single ultrasound. But of course she didn’t come right back in. I sat there and swung my feet. I patted my belly. I looked at the screen over and over again – only that belly measurement was a little “off,” and even so it was still within the normal range. But you know how it is… the longer I sat there, the more nervous I got, straining my ears to hear her footsteps coming back in. I work really hard in moments such as those to just breathe and not over-think anything, to just tell myself that it’s all fine, all normal, nothing to worry about. Finally she comes back in, chuckling (apparently at something the doctor had said, I can only assume) and said, “He thinks everything looks great, you can go!” Breath exhaled.

From there it was off to see my midwife. I’m officially up 18lbs at 28 weeks, which is more than I would prefer (because I put on roughly 5lbs while on vacation, whoops), but right on track for a normal weight gain. My blood pressure was read at 127/69, which is high for me, but no one said anything. (Not too surprizing, given the fact that I’d just been getting anxious waiting for the ultrasound results!) I also got to do the lovely sugar drink for the gestational diabetes test, yuck. It made me feel rather gaggy this time.

I got to see my favorite midwife today and chit-chat for a little bit. I’m third trimester, holy cow. Now they’re starting to ask things like how many contractions I’ve been having. I asked some questions about kick counting and hospital policies, nothing major. She said their standard procedure for monitoring during labor is a 30-minute strip when admitted, then a 1-2 minute strip every half an hour thereafter. In between they take the monitor off and you’re free to labor however you want to, which is nice. (Of course if you get an epidural they do want the monitor on, but you’re stuck in bed anyways at that point!)

The midwife did look at my belly for a few minutes. I was just mentioning to Den yesterday how around my belly button looks red and marbled and kind of odd-looking. The midwife confirmed that it is definitely not stretchmarks, but it’s not a rash either. She peered at it for a few moments, sweeping her fingers over the area a couple times. She said it’s probably just my very fair skin. Which makes a lot of sense, I know the back of my hands get red and marbled looking when I come in from the cold or when I’ve been exercising – probably from the increased blood flow. And my belly most certainly has increased blood flow. Plus my skin is getting stretched tighter (and thinner) and it’s the middle of winter. My poor see-through skin, ha.

My next appointment – just for the midwife, no ultrasound or anything – is in 2 weeks. Yikes.