BJ at 20 weeks: Half way there!

The week of June 8th, 2009

According to babycenter.com BJ should weigh about 10 1/2 ounces now, but she isn't quite there yet. We had our 20 week visit on Wednesday and she only weighed 10 oz. I guess she's slowing down from the fast growth spurt she had a few weeks back. She should also be around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the size of a cantaloupe. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.) She's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for her digestive system. She's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate and we will see it in her first soiled diaper (ugggh I can't wait).

I can't believe I'm halfway through my pregnancy!!! Chip's sisters Chanda and Tasha came with us for our 20 week appointment. They got to see their very busy niece at the sonogram. Tasha says she has a chin and eyes like mine. Tasha is a nurse and she's such a wiz at figuring out what body parts are showing on the sonogram screen. I had to ask the lady doing to sonogram to slow down because I just couldn't see what she was seeing. It was really cool seeing her at this stage. At one point, she looked like she was opening and closing her mouth, like she was talking. She wasn't moving much though. Her heartrate was 158 and she was just relaxing. He heart looks perfect and so does her spine and her kidneys and everything else! There are still ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes and the doctor said everything was fine. My placenta is anterior, which means that it's right in front of the baby, but apparently that doesn't bother BJ. Initially, I read that with anterior placenta it can be harder to feel the baby kick, or I might not feel her until much later in the pregnancy, but something very exciting happened this week.

On Monday night, Chip and I were lying still listening to her heartbeat on the handheld doppler ( I have one at home). We found the hearbeat and it was almost 170. She was moving all over the place so I had to keep repositioning the doppler to keep up with her, then all of a sudden, a felt a big jolt and a thud on the doppler wand. BJ was kicking it or hitting it and me!!! It was the most amazing thing. She kept doing it everytime I pushed the doppler down on my belly (her home). I guess she doesn't like that or she was just having some fun playing with it. Since then, she has been kicking up a storm. On Tuesday I was holding her cousing Boston as he slept. He was laying on my belly. He woke up and started shuffling his feet , and wouldn't you know it, BJ kicked back! I guess she wanted to play too. I love those little kicks, it's the coolest feeling in the world. I wish her dad could feel them on the outside. Soon enough I guess. Soon enough.

Here are some pics of BJ at 20 weeks!

Here is a picture of her profile. Her placenta is sitting right on top of her!

And here is a picture of her sweet face!