A Portrait of Our Son...So Far

32 weeks - final ultrasound. For this last snapshot moment, Alex and I invited my mom to join us. She had never seen an ultrasound, as they weren't common practice when she had children. We were hoping to get a better glimpse of Baby Carlson, but he was pretty sleepy and had situated himself directly behind the placenta so seeing his face was nearly impossible. Here is the one picture we were able to get, although it is by no means clear.

The technician went through a series of examinations including a monitor of growth, movement, and practice breathing. He was not super active, which worried me, but after drinking a glass of orange juice he started wiggling around a bit. We also payed close attention to the movements of his diaphragm as this is the period in which baby begins to exercise that muscle for future air breathing. The movements weren't regular, but he did sustain thirty seconds of practice breathing which was the goal. Lastly, the technician measured his head, waist, legs, and arms to determine an estimated weight. From all of my reading and research, baby should be between three and four pounds at this phase and stage. Guess how big Baby Carlson was? 5lbs 4oz!!! Now as much as this is an estimate, the fact that he has eight more weeks to cook somewhat freaks me out as babies gain about a half a pound a week at this point.  Math isn't my forte, but I'm pretty sure that adds up to a 9-10lb baby - yikes! No wonder he wasn't moving around so much - he's running out of room!

My midwife later measured my uterus and said that it was right on track for average growth so the estimate could've been off. She also assured me that children grown in spurts so we could've just caught him right after a growth spurt and his growth could plateau. Either way, it did make me second guess my birth plan. As much as a drug-free water birth is ideal, I'm not sure that it will be entirely possible if our baby is pushing 10lbs. For now, we hope to keep our birth plan the same but will remain flexible to what our big baby needs :-)

When I was born, I only weighed 7lbs 6oz - Alex, and the rest of his siblings for that fact, weighed upwards of 9lbs (9lbs 6oz to be exact)! Like father, like son, I guess. Here are some photos our parents dug up of us as babies:

Alex - jolly, ginger, and double-chinned

Katie - eager, buggy-eyed, and Mohawk-headed

 Between the vague ultrasound photo and this birth-weight conundrum, I can't help but wonder what Baby Carlson will really look like. So, what would any sane person do with such curiosity? Seek out a baby photo generator online! I made two attempts at the baby generator, one with our baby photos and one with more recent photos. Neither one yielded a particularly adorable child:

 

The good news is that the bottom photo at least predicted that Baby Carlson will be a ginger.  Of course, this modern technology is highly advanced so relying on its accuracy makes total sense...not. In the meantime, I'll just allow my imagination to run wild and my odd dreams to get even odder (more on that in future posts). Whatever he looks like and however chubby he may be, I hope that he is a healthy, happy boy and I know that his momma and papa already love him more than he could ever know!