20 week ultrasound pics & appt.

i had my 2nd appointment with dr. s. yesterday at MFM - he is funny. jeff thinks he's a little "dry", but i had to explain to him that some dr.'s have a different sense of humor than regular people.

i asked about my two main concerns - weight gain and the contractions. i have gained absolutely no weight so far in this pregnancy, and it worries me because i wonder if the babies are growing correctly if i'm not eating enough to pack on the pounds. and i'm terrified of going into preterm labor, so the contractions are stressing me out.

so here's the scenario from yesterday. dr. s. is at the ultrasound machine scanning, and i'm lying on my back gooped up to my neck in ultrasound gel. i whip out my neato little index card with my questions on it.

me: "dr. s., i'm worried because i can't gain weight. what if the babies don't get enough to grow?"

dr. s.: "i'm an outlier on this subject, but the babies are growing fine. i'm measuring them every four weeks, so as long as they are growing each month and measuring okay, i'm not worried, and neither should you."

me: "good, 'cause all the books say you should gain 20 pounds by now and....."

dr. s.: "now's the time to quit reading those books." =)

me: "i'm having braxton-hicks contractions every afternoon and evening, about 10-15 minutes apart. i'm freaking out thinking i'm going to have an incompetent cervix or i'm going to go into preterm labor."

dr. s.: "well, let's take a look at your cervix and see what's going on..." (whips out the dildocam) ".... everything looks corked up tight. you are nice and long and not funneling at all. you can contract out the wazoo but as long as your cervix stays the way it is, those babies aren't coming out anytime soon." =)

his exact words, i kid you not. so, i'm feeling much more relaxed now that i know i'm not starving my children and they are squatting for a few more months.

so here's the few pics we were able to get - the kiddos were acting like gymnasts and wouldn't stay in one place long enough to get many good shots. but they each have four heart chambers, two kidneys, and good cord blood flow - the important stuff. also, just as i predicted, these two are still head up, tap dancing on my bladder with all twenty of their little toes.

here's jeffry, contorted into a position i could never get into - feet over the head:



jeffry's profile, thumb going into the mouth:



and jeffry's foot:



we got one blurry face shot of sadie, and that's it. we had a talking-to after the appointment and she now knows that if she wants to get on the blog, she has to cooperate next time.