Baby Update

Rachel and I are right on track. We went to the doctor this morning and everything is fine. I've put on nearly 10 pounds so far, and my fundal height is just right. Today the doctor even whipped out his tape measure and measured, in inches, the size of my uterus. I'm not really sure how he does this. Before he'd just poke around and say, "Yup, right on track." This time he poked around, pulled out his tape measure and took some numbers down.

Andrew and I have tried to figure out how he does this. We're still puzzled. Everything just seems to blend in to one semi-mushy lump.

Anyway, Rachel's heartbeat is strong and she moves often enough, so chances are she's nice and healthy.

The doctor told us to try to not worry about the choroid plexus cyst because there were no other signs of abnormality. That's what we've been trying to do for quite some time now, but it was nice to hear our doctor tell us that we had very little to worry about.

I think this doctor should write a pregnancy book. Most pregnancy books (okay, so I only have two) tend to scare the wits out of poor innocent mothers. My doctor is pretty relaxed about the whole thing, which is nice.

For example, most pregnancy sites I have visited, as well as both of the books I have say that pregnant women should avoid sleeping on their right side and/or back. Sleeping on your stomach eventually becomes rather uncomfortable, so you're left with only one option: your left side. That's great, except who can really sleep on their left side all night long...and I really do prefer my right side...or back...and then the left side. To be honest, I rarely stay in the same spot for long and usually end up sprawling all over the bed leaving Andrew very little room. He's a pretty sound sleeper though, so he doesn't ever seem to mind too much.

I asked my doctor about this and he said that it can compress the inferior vena cava that runs down your right side of the body and into the umbilical cord, but that it really isn't anything to worry about. Since the baby seems healthy, and since there isn't a whole lot of extra weight, it doesn't really matter how I sleep. The more important thing, he said, was that I sleep, however and whenever I can. Plus, he mentioned that my baby doesn't weigh that much anyway, so the "full weight" of my uterus really isn't a whole lot to worry about.

For some reason though, every site/book mentions that sleeping on your left side is best and cautions against any other position.

Anyway, my doctor is good at discrediting a lot of the myths out there, which is nice because there certainly are a lot of them!