To start with, I hope that everyone had a lovely Christmas and Santa was good to you.
The madness that occurs in the lead up to any major holiday tends to cause extra curricular activities to take a back seat. As such I haven't been around much in December, but now that work is all wrapped up and Christmas all unwrapped I am back, with much 'Bean-ness' to share.
Visit number 6, 30th week of pregnancy:
We were at our regular doctors appointment, which take place every two weeks now, and as the doc was measuring my belly a disconcerting look came across her face. Bracing myself for a lecture, which admittedly I deserve, she measured again and didn't say anything.
Cue the million things that could be wrong to start flying through my brain.
She proceed to get the Doppler out (regular at every visit) and took time to explain the difference between the 'woosh' sound of the umbilical chord and the 'wump' sound of The Bean's actual heartbeat. Surprisingly, they sound quite similar. She declared the heartbeat regular and started slathering my belly in goop for the ultrasound.
But nothing about the face she pulled earlier.
Ultrasounds are done at pretty much every prenatal check-up in Japan. Friends that have given birth in Canada and England told me that they only get two or three. Definitely a plus on the side of having a baby in Japan; I could watch The Bean scooting around in there all day if given the chance.
A few times the doc has tried to do a 3D scan for us. I have seen other peoples pictures of these and they are amazing, you can see such detail. Needless to say, I want one.
At our last visit she flipped the switch to try and get a 3D picture for us and started to giggle. The Bean was up front and center mugging for the camera, but he was so close that the image was something like you'd get when a kid mashes their face against the window in a passing car. No 3D pic at that visit. My desire to get just one good pic of The Bean in utero is not because we don't have any pictures but they are generally of random body parts or a little on the abstract side.
This is his femur.
This is his...well your guess is as good as mine.
At this visit our ultrasound seemed to be going on longer than usual. The doctor was taking a lot of measurements, after each one she would show us the body part she measured and tell us the size. No comments that anything was out of the norm so I just sat back and enjoyed the show.
She finished up the ultrasound, printed our random body part picture and the midwife cleaned the goop off my belly. We then proceeded to our regular Q&A with the doctor. Usually, I have a short list of questions for her to answer and then we're done. This time she started us off:
"How many grams did you weigh when you were born?"
Good question. And one that I am sure I can't answer in kilograms, let alone grams. Although I am a child of the metric system my mother was not so she always told my sister and I our birth weight in pounds.
"I think I weighed about 8 pounds." At which point we all busted out our calculators: 8 pounds = 3628 grams.
So it turns out that The Bean is measuring a 'tad' on the big side. The doctor was quick to point out that her prognosis was based on the averages for Japanese babies and declared that he must be "Canadian size."
I have always hoped that our son would get his stature from my gene pool, but I was kind of thinking that it would happen during a growth spurt in his teens. For the purpose of being born, I was definitely hoping that he would be 'Japanese size'.
Shin was sitting behind me and as I turned around to give him a look of panic I quickly changed my mind. There he was with a look of absolute pride on his face. Obviously the news of our 'bigger than average' boy affected him differently than it had me. So I squeezed his knee and turned back around, hitting our doctor with the full force of my fear. To which she responded by patting me on the knee.
Visit number 7, 32nd week of pregnancy:
The Bean, face forward (looking a bit like The Joker from Batman), weighing in at 2468 grams (5.4 pounds) and we still have 7.5 weeks to go.
Eek.
The madness that occurs in the lead up to any major holiday tends to cause extra curricular activities to take a back seat. As such I haven't been around much in December, but now that work is all wrapped up and Christmas all unwrapped I am back, with much 'Bean-ness' to share.
Visit number 6, 30th week of pregnancy:
We were at our regular doctors appointment, which take place every two weeks now, and as the doc was measuring my belly a disconcerting look came across her face. Bracing myself for a lecture, which admittedly I deserve, she measured again and didn't say anything.
Cue the million things that could be wrong to start flying through my brain.
She proceed to get the Doppler out (regular at every visit) and took time to explain the difference between the 'woosh' sound of the umbilical chord and the 'wump' sound of The Bean's actual heartbeat. Surprisingly, they sound quite similar. She declared the heartbeat regular and started slathering my belly in goop for the ultrasound.
But nothing about the face she pulled earlier.
Ultrasounds are done at pretty much every prenatal check-up in Japan. Friends that have given birth in Canada and England told me that they only get two or three. Definitely a plus on the side of having a baby in Japan; I could watch The Bean scooting around in there all day if given the chance.
A few times the doc has tried to do a 3D scan for us. I have seen other peoples pictures of these and they are amazing, you can see such detail. Needless to say, I want one.
At our last visit she flipped the switch to try and get a 3D picture for us and started to giggle. The Bean was up front and center mugging for the camera, but he was so close that the image was something like you'd get when a kid mashes their face against the window in a passing car. No 3D pic at that visit. My desire to get just one good pic of The Bean in utero is not because we don't have any pictures but they are generally of random body parts or a little on the abstract side.
This is his femur.
This is his...well your guess is as good as mine.
At this visit our ultrasound seemed to be going on longer than usual. The doctor was taking a lot of measurements, after each one she would show us the body part she measured and tell us the size. No comments that anything was out of the norm so I just sat back and enjoyed the show.
She finished up the ultrasound, printed our random body part picture and the midwife cleaned the goop off my belly. We then proceeded to our regular Q&A with the doctor. Usually, I have a short list of questions for her to answer and then we're done. This time she started us off:
"How many grams did you weigh when you were born?"
Good question. And one that I am sure I can't answer in kilograms, let alone grams. Although I am a child of the metric system my mother was not so she always told my sister and I our birth weight in pounds.
"I think I weighed about 8 pounds." At which point we all busted out our calculators: 8 pounds = 3628 grams.
So it turns out that The Bean is measuring a 'tad' on the big side. The doctor was quick to point out that her prognosis was based on the averages for Japanese babies and declared that he must be "Canadian size."
I have always hoped that our son would get his stature from my gene pool, but I was kind of thinking that it would happen during a growth spurt in his teens. For the purpose of being born, I was definitely hoping that he would be 'Japanese size'.
Shin was sitting behind me and as I turned around to give him a look of panic I quickly changed my mind. There he was with a look of absolute pride on his face. Obviously the news of our 'bigger than average' boy affected him differently than it had me. So I squeezed his knee and turned back around, hitting our doctor with the full force of my fear. To which she responded by patting me on the knee.
Visit number 7, 32nd week of pregnancy:
The Bean, face forward (looking a bit like The Joker from Batman), weighing in at 2468 grams (5.4 pounds) and we still have 7.5 weeks to go.
Eek.
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