My baby is how big?

**Warning this post contains pictures from inside of me**


So we just got back from the baby doctor.  We were scheduled to have an ultra sound today as my fundal height has been measuring about 4cm large.  I bet you can't guess how big our sweet baby girl is...  Let me preface this by saying the average fetus at this stage is around 3.75 lbs on average.  Babies are also putting on around a half a pound a week from here on out.  I'm letting you in on this information so you can grasp the surprise we were faced with today.

I've known that large babies run in our family forever.  My mom's children ranged from 8.5-10.8.  So I wasn't too surprised when he said that she may be a bit bigger, but wanted to check her weight anyway.  Leena, our ever sweet ultrasound tech, took us back to look at the little one. She was being somewhat active this morning, so we did get to see her doing some pretty cool stuff.  For awhile she was sucking on her hand and we could see her little tongue bobbing in and out.  Then she grabbed her toes and was double kicking me with her foot and hand together.  She also turned and looked at us to say hi. All in all there were very sweet moments realizing just how developed she is now.  I'm confident that (God forbid) anything were to happen where we'd have to deliver early, she'd be just fine.  She's already filling out into a newborn.

Chewing on hand

32 weeks hand and arm

32 weeks profile

This one is harder to see, but she's grabbing her foot with her hand



So now that the fun stuff was over, it was time to take the measurements.  They measured the circumference of her head and belly and few other parts to put together their best estimate.  We asked how accurate these measurements are, and she said usually within a half pound or less.  She then pulled up this graph that shows where average babies are and where we were currently sitting.  Curious yet as to how big our child is?  Because I was....

She is weighing in at a whopping 5.5 lbs already!  On the graph she was teetering right below the upper line.  Still "average" but really close to being larger than average.  If that won't make a new mom's mind spiral into scenarios about birthing a baby, I don't know what will... I have (up till this point) conveniently avoided thinking about having to birth a baby at all.  My mental blocks fell today as the reality hit that this child has to enter the world somehow. 

I'm somewhat nervous about sharing this information with the general public, as I'm scared it will inspire even more mothers with horror birth stories to share.  If you've had a large baby and have some horrifying tidbit to share, please don't.  I don't need any help coming up with stuff; and if I haven't imagined it, I don't need to now.

I am happy that our baby girl is healthy and I love her no matter what.  That hasn't changed, nothing really has except my perception of how this could go.  Our doctor said that it's nothing to freak out over.  It just means she'll likely be over 9lbs.  It may also mean an alternate birthing plan when it comes down to it, but we'll take that one contraction at a time when the time comes.  He said we should prepare ourselves to go a little earlier also.  There are still a lot of unknowns, but it adds to the adventure of having a baby.

So there's our update from today.  We have a healthy little girl in there (that was also confirmed again today).  She's looking good and is active as ever.