17 weeks- onion (a day early)

OK, so I am a day early in posting this, but I've had two doctor appointments this week, and needed to write what happened at the appointments. So, First, I saw Dr. C-B. I was quite worried, since I get "the Crazies" before every appt. She had to search for a while to find the baby's ehartbeat, but she found it and it was in the 150's. Excellent. We also talked about DECREASING my midday insulin, since I keep crashing in the afternoons. I mean, I am eating three to four snacks in the afternoon and my blood sugar won't come up over 70. So, that was good.

We also discussed wehn we would be scheduling the C-section. She said 39 weeeks. I told her that I meant at what appointment, and she said 30 weeks. So, just 13 more weeks until I find out when my baby will be born. So that was kinda cool.

Today I went to UIC and saw Dr. S. Well, first I saw the midwife and her student. Very nice. I spent more time with them than I did with the doctor. (I actually hate that.) But I got the results from our genetic testing. A 37 year old woman in good health has a risk of having a baby with Down Syndrome of 1 in 100. My risk was 1 in 4,500!!! I was ecstatic! Also, there was no signs of any chromosomal defects and all other bloodwork and stuff was great. I was so very relieved. Especially since I had been waiting for 3 weeks to find out. My fundal height was 17cm. (It is supposed to grow 1 cm a week, so it showed that I am 17 weeks pregnant.) The student found the heartbeat (a lot quicker than the doc the day before) and it was 147 and had perfect accelerations as the baby moved.

The doctor also decided to move up our anatomy scan to Feb. 23rd, instead of March 1st, so that was good. It will coincide with my doctor appointments better.

So here is the info on what's going on inside, according to the bump:

Try not to get freaked out by the numbers on your scale. At 17 weeks, baby’s working on getting stronger, and your body’s working on getting bigger. That means putting on some pounds and -- we hate to break it to you -- getting some stretch marks. Make sure you document your growing bump by taking lots of photos. Sure, you might not always feel so pretty, but one day you’re going to look back at pregnancy and reminisce (really -- we promise). You’ll also want to start figuring out some plans, like whether or not you’re going to find out baby’s gender (you should be able to soon!), and what kind of childbirth class you’d like to take. As you start making these decisions, the pregnancy will feel even more real, which is probably super exciting, but part of you is probably feeling a little nervous. After all, you’re at week 17; that’s almost halfway there and there’s still a lot left to do. Chill! You’ll get it done. Just remember not to try to do it all yourself -- ask for help!

your baby's the size of an onion!
Baby continues to beef up. Now she's about 5.1 inches long and weighs about 5.9 ounces.

your baby at 17 weeks
Her rubbery cartilage is now turning to bone.
And she's growing some meat on those bones -- putting on some fat.
She's growing a stronger, thicker umbilical cord, too.