Ultrasound -28 weeks & update

I had the ultrasound today - I had one two weeks ago but the ob/gyn said she
wanted to do another one because the baby was moving so much and she had a
lot of patients that day and so couldn't spend her usual 20 minutes at it.
Well, everything is fine :-)

Of course, the baby moved during the scan, but it appeared as it has just
woken up so the movements weren't so vigorous so ob/gyn was able to do the
morphology scan and take the usual measurements:
- BPD = 71 mm (28+4)
- FL = 55 mm (28+6)
- AO = 246 mm (28+6)
- heartbeat = normal
- posterior placenta

My ob/gyn is very satisfied, and so am I. We came back on the subject of
fundus height being 4 cm ahead of my dates 2 weeks ago (she didn't measure
it this time), and she said it is really not that accurate, and according to
the U/S measurements everything looks perfect so not to worry.

She asked me if she told me the sex already, and I said, "No, but I don't
want to find out." Then I paused, "Can you tell for sure?" . She said yes,
but then I repeated, "No, please don't tell me, I'd prefer a surprise.".
I looked at the monitor the entire time, but as the baby was moving around,
I didn't see any *gender-specifying* parts myself ;-)

To be honest, although I never wanted to find out the sex before the birth,
I was always curious about the way I'd behave when the opportunity would
appear - whether I'd get so curious and suddenly would want to know, or
stick to my decision. I'm so glad I stuck with the decision!
After the ultrasound, I thought about it for a while and talked about it to
my Mom - she was kind of disappointed by the fact we (she) will not know the
baby's gender until its birth, and I asked her why, and she said it's
because of "baby clothes and being prepared". I said that as far being
prepared goes, I don't believe that knowing I'm expecting a boy or a girl
would change anything about my feelings or behaviour towards this baby, and
as far as the baby clothes go, I think girls can look just as pretty in blue
as boys can in purple or red - I wouldn't buy anything pink even if I knew
it's a girl, I don't like the colour, and anyway, if it turns out it's a
girl, plenty of people will give me pink stuff anyway!
As for the baby's name, I really want to choose both male and female names,
so knowing the sex would spoil that wish - and of course, in the end she
might turn out a he or vice versa (she said she is usually more than 90%
right about the gender) and then I'd be left with no name.

I'm still on the every-4-weeks schedule, my next appointment is on August
7th - so I'm free to join DH at his place and do some major baby shopping
next week - yay!.

Otherwise, I'm doing fine. We went to a wedding last Saturday and stayed
from 5 pm until 5 am and had a lot of fun! In the end, DH was more sleepy
than me or the baby ;-) Of course, people were very nice to me, coming up
and asking me how I feel all the time, the waitresses served me meals first
(*pregnant ladies must eat* syndrome!), we danced a bit (but nothing too
strenuous) and walked occasionally because the chairs at the restaurant were
rather uncomfortable for my back.
In fact, the wedding dinner took place at the city where I'll give birth,
and from the restaurant terrace you can see that hospital - and the floor
where the D&L department is. A few lights were on, and DH & I were thinking
how there must be someone giving birth at that very moment and were sending
them our vibes ;-) (I guess we got a bit emotional - the wedding was really
nice, if not the best we've been at - apart from our own, of course ;-)
Oh, and I wore my pre-pregnancy black dress (slightly stretchy, but very
acceptable) :-) I had people commenting on my bump, from "It's so big, are
you carrying twins?", to "Are you pregnant, you are hardly showing", so I
guess the *size of the bump* depends on who is actually looking at it ;-)
Oh, and there is a photo of me standing there with my hand on the bump -
baby was really kicking then - I must ask Diana (a friend who got married)
to scan and e-mail it to me!

Well, now I'm off to do some work on my baby shopping list (it has to be at
least 98% finalised by the weekend)!

Happy pregnancy/parenting everyone,
Elly
28 weeks + 1 day
EDD October 6th