#3 update

this morning we had the second and last ultrasound for the baby and all went well. at 30 weeks the baby weighs approximately 3lbs 10oz, 51% so that's great. we were able to see the baby's profile really well, it's hand up near it's face and the mouth opening and closing. he/she has been head down the whole time and is still in that position so that's good (kieran was like that, andie flipped several times before she was born). the baby doesn't seem to have much, which is interesting, kieran and andie definitely had fringe that you could see from the ultrasound at this point. but there are still two more months to get hairy in there! we still don't know the sex, just like the last tech, this one said that if we didn't want to know she didn't even need to look in that area, so looks like we're still going to be surprised! and i'm officially penciled in for October 29 to have the baby, yay! it's cutting it close to Halloween but i'll be home for trick-or-treating and might be able to answer the door with a newborn in some cute little target halloween outfit! that may be a bit ambitious, we'll see ;) with both of the other kids i didn't go into labor on my own and they were a week late, luckily, i barely had to be induced with them and i immediately went into labor on my own. and for both kieran and andie my doctor was on vacation and i delivered with a different doctor, so this time he *promises* to be the one! but the the big reason for scheduling it is that i'm having a hysterectomy in december. i have been so fortunate to have carried three children and i do not take the gift of fertility lightly--i would never have this procedure if it weren't absolutely necessary, but unfortunately it is. at the beginning of the year i had the option of having a baby or a hyst. and amazingly we found out we were expecting a month later. but each subsequent child makes the condition of my uterus worse (pain, months of bleeding, and a pregnant sized uterine muscle--sounds fun doesn't it??) they can't perform the hyst. when i have the baby, the uterus needs to contract back up a bit and shrink down, so that's out. and ultimately, we save thousands of dollars by doing the surgery within the same calendar year as having the baby. and knowing that i could be having it done within months of having the baby anyway, 100% covered by insurance makes the decision that much easier. and the earlier i have the baby the more time i'll have to recover before the surgery go-ahead at my six week check-up. sooooooo, that's the update :) now i just have to figure out how to make a web poll so people can gamble on the sex of the baby!

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