Heirloom Tomato

19 weeks. We had another appointment today, with a different doctor since Dr. M. was out. Things continue to be perfectly normal and boring, just like I like them. Uterus height is exactly where it should be (exactly up to my belly button). My weight gain is still below average, but for the first time, it was up a respectable amount from 4 weeks ago, so things are growing like they're supposed to. Blood pressure normal. Nothing bad in my urine. I'm good for another 4 weeks.

The only "glitch" was that I finally asked about those rolling balls of light in my peripheral vision, accompanying my increasingly numerous migraines, and totally stumped the doctor. She looked through my chart, ticking off possibilities. ("Blood pressure normal, so it's not that... gestational diabetes checks all came back negative... weight gain is low to normal... growth is perfect... all other tests normal..........") Then she left the room to consult someone else. She came back and said nobody knew what to say. She's concerned, but she has no idea what could be causing it, so she's not sure how concerned she should be. She finally called Dr. M. to see what he thought, and called me back an hour after our appointment. The official answer: nobody knows. I've been sent to see my normal primary care doctor (appointment next week, after all the family visitors are gone) to do some sort of neurological work-up. But now that all the known pregnancy complications have been ruled out, I'm back to assuming it's just really bad hormone-induced migraines. Which kinda sucks, but is better than all alternatives I've thought of.

Also in the news: yesterday was our big ultrasound. It didn't go exactly as I would have chosen, but you can't argue too much when you're getting good news. The ultrasound tech was incredibly brusk. She acted annoyed when asked if I would get to watch the images (and indeed, her answer was "no" -- gee, thanks). She had a sarcastic answer when S. asked if he could watch (though he happily ignored her, so at least one of us got to see what was going on). She sat in stony silence for the entire 30 minute scan, except for about 15 minutes in, when she happened upon the "money shot" revealing the gender, and suddenly just blurted out, "By the way, it's a ...." I know she probably does a bunch of these each day, but is it really too much to ask for a smile, a "congratulations!", or even just a tone of voice not dripping in acid? At the very end, she finally turned the monitor so that I could see it, but after showing me all of two things, someone else walked into the room to give her a personal message, after which she just snapped off the machine and announced that she didn't have time for more. The end.

The only additional info we got out of her: the baby's length is measuring a full 6 days ahead of the due date, which is 8 days further than just a month ago. More alarming to me: she estimated a current weight of 13.5 ounces, which is way above the website estimates for 19-20 weeks, which say that "normal" is 8-10 ounces. The doctor today told us that it's too early to conclude anything about birth size, and they tend to grow in "spurts" anyway, but I'm now having painful nightmares about giving birth to a giant baby.

As to the gender: I definitely don't have a gender preference (just please please please be healthy), so I knew that I'd be thrilled either way, but I've been feeling for several weeks (based on absolutely nothing) that it was going to be a girl. Well, it turns out that my mother's intuition sucks. It's a boy! Our families are all thrilled, as are we. :)

Our next challenge: hiring a mohel....