Appointment/Belly Mapping

Time to talk about my doctor's appointment yesterday! YAY!

To begin, I had a few questions this time around. Usually I have none because I am on the computer so much I research everything at least 10 times until I'm certain of the answer. This time around I had questions about travel regulations, cord blood banking, position of the baby, and that shaky seizure like movement little Ava does in my belly.

I won't discuss the travel regulations because I don't talk about vacations on here until after I take them. I don't like people knowing I'm gone. When the time comes for this little trip I will tell you all about it...WHEN I get back.

Cord blood banking. I didn't know much about this, but I got so much crap in the mail and in Ava's email (yes, Ava has her own email account because I don't want all those coupons and baby stuff being sent to my personal email). I've heard so much about it and wanted to know more. I was interested in donating the cord blood to a public bank, not keeping it for myself later down the line. My doctor told me that I would have to contact a public banking center and discuss it with them and find out if they needed it or not. He said so many people are doing it now that they have a surplus of it pretty much. Basically its just more for the doctor to do after the delivery for it to possibly just be thrown away. He said if I found a bank that needed it I would arrange it all with them, they'd send me a kit, and I'd bring it to the hospital the day of my delivery. He also said he had no problem doing it, but I just need to let him know if we end up deciding to. Verdict....not doing it. Sorry, but I've got enough going on right now and if they might not need it anyway I feel like I'd be wasting time. I hope that didn't sound insensitive, but he made it sound like unless you're a paying customer keeping it for later in life, they aren't always jumping on the opportunity to take it. 

Position of the baby. Good news! I was RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT! Ava's head is down right now, back to my left, butt up above my belly button, and limbs to my right. Thank goodness for spinningbabies.com!!! It taught me how to "belly map". If you want to know the position of your baby I highly suggest going to that site and trying to figure it out on your own. Its fun to do. How did I know the position of Ava BEFORE my appointment you ask? Well...

1. She gets the hiccups ALL THE TIME. We're talking at least once a day, usually 2-3 times though. Glad to know she's practicing those breaths! I feel them strongest mid-belly to my left side. In this position there is a lump. This led me to believe that her chest was in that area because that's where the hiccups come from. Also, last time we were at the doctor we heard her heart beating on that side. I have an at-home kit that lets me listen to it as well and I've heard it in the same area more recently.

2. There are two big lumps that move...one on the left side (back) and one smaller above my belly button (butt). The smaller one was a big enough lump that I knew it wasn't a limb and it seemed too small to be the head.

3. I get the strongest kicks on my right side in the upper part of my belly. I get smaller punches on my right side in the lower part of my belly. Legs are bigger than arms so I assumed the legs/feet were up high and the arms were down low. Occasionally I can feel a knee jabbing me a little in between the butt and a foot.

So I took out a piece of paper like they say to do and drew a big circle. I divided it into the 4 quadrants keeping in mind that certain body parts had to be in opposite quadrants or adjacent quadrants, etc etc. I marked where each thing was. I marked where the heart beat was heard and where hiccups were heard. I marked where there was a lump and where I felt kicks/punches. Here are the drawings I came up with!

Now for those shaky seizure-like movements I was wondering about. The doctor said its nothing to worry about. He said that many pregnant women experience the same feeling and wonder if there's something wrong, but the truth is we just don't know what types of things the baby is doing in there! He said that all of the mothers who have asked about it have gone on to deliver a healthy baby though and there's nothing I should be concerned about. This was what I expected to hear, but having him tell me face to face just made me feel better. :)

Lastly, I just want to show you all a pic of the cloth diapers that we got. Like I've said, they're the BumGenius Flip Day Stay Dry Cloth Diapers...long name, I know. There are 4 covers and 12 inserts. 4 of the inserts are already put in place in the covers. They have a ton of snaps on them so you can adjust them for the baby's size. The bottom folds up and snaps and the sides fold in and snap. There are 10 columns of snaps on the upper part (so that you can adjust it for 5 different widths) and 2 rows for folding it up so you can have it not snapped, snapped at the lower row, and snapped at the top row depending on how tall your baby is. I hope they work out well! Better hope she comes out a girl like they said because if its a boy he's going to be wearing pink diapers! lol. Eeks!

Have a great weekend everyone!