Week 16 (part II)

week 16

Well, I've outdone myself once again in...wait..what was it again?

Never mind.

Presenting...(drum roll)...Baby's photo in 4-colour format. Yes, for those of you who don't know, black and white are colours too. So who said we only had colour transmission since 1974...heh...



Some explanations here...

The "femur" is the thigh bone. The "os" is the opening of the cervix. Well, the cervix is more like a channel, meaning that it has 2 openings, one facing the outside and one facing inside, hence the term "internal" (i.e. the one facing inside lah...)

Go here for a diagram to make sense of things...

The placenta's pretty far away from the os, which is a good thing. Had been worried that it might be too close or even covering it, which is a condition known as placenta previa. Some women were known to bleed profusely, even mortally, from this. It's not something that you'd want to have, trust me...

Baby's spinal column seems to have grown quite nicely, excluding a condition that's known as spinal bifida. It happens when the baby's backbone doesn't close properly over the spinal cord during the early stages of pregnancy. For a photo of it, go here (NOTE: PICTURE MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME VIEWERS) . So to all mothers-to-be out there: never, ever skip the folic acid pills. If you do, take lots of WHOLE grain (not white rice, but BROWN rice), vegetable (especially spinach), meat (especially beef & pork liver) and dairy products...

Week 12

Well, this is a rather late post, having visited the OBGYN 2 weeks ago. Happy to see that Baby's doing fine as far as the scan can show. The head and limbs are pretty well-formed and the vertebral column may be seen clearly.



G's feeling a bit tired these 2 weeks and she's eating lots more than usual. Will probably need to monitor her blood sugar and pressure closely. Now where're my stethoscope + sphygmomanometer...hey, wait, I think they've got those electronic gizmo at the pharmacy nowadays...

Week 9

Here's another view of Baby at either 9 or 10 weeks. The OBGYN's having some problems dating Baby, who's supposedly at 10 weeks from last menstrual period (or LMP for short, 40 weeks from LMP being a theoretical full-term baby, but the range may be from 36 to 42 weeks LMP) and the crown-rump length (or CRL, crown being the tip of the head and rump, well, it's a PC term for the butt) is at 2.8cm or slightly over an inch, which is about average for 10 weeks from LMP. However, the date on this scan shows 9 weeks. The last scan was done 3 weeks ago and dated Baby at 7 weeks from LMP. From the monthly cycle chart that G & I had been doing, Baby's supposed to be 10 weeks from LMP. Anyway, the scan's accuracy is +/- 6 days so I'm not about to quibble. This is a good site for information on fetal ultra-sound scans.

All we're hoping is for Baby to be healthy. Nothing more, nothing less. There's always a temptation to compare & contrast with growth charts and hope that one's child come up above the 50th percentile. Tsk, tsk, how typical of 1984-ville mentality...

Week 6

Just had the first trip to the OBGYN with G. Rather nice lady, although we had to wait for an hour plus to be seen. Anyway, here's a photo of the ultrasound scan of Baby...



...hoping that I've got it correct, having returned all of my embryology knowledge to the pre-clinical lecturers. The body stalk is the beginnings of the umbilical cord while the amniotic membrane is what's commonly known as the "water bag" with the "water" filling the extra-embryonic space. Of course at 7 weeks, not everything's formed but it's really amazing that give him/her another 2 weeks and every organ and body part will have been formed, this is at the end of what's known medically as Carnegie stage 23 of the baby's development, the 1st trimester being divided into 23 stages, this site has a whole lot about Carnegie stages. For even more amazing pictures and diagrams of the developing human, visit The Visible Embryo website.

Well, now that Baby's expected to arrive around mid-November 2005, we're all conscious about what we eat and how we conduct daily routine. Just bought a whole bunch of vitamin B complex, C, folate and calcium pills. You know, I really wish we had the time to plan and cook our daily meals according to healthy guidelines but in fast-paced 1984-ville it's nearly impossible. Besides G's having weird food cravings and appetite's unstable so I'll probably wait until end of 1st trimester. Really thankful that she's not feeling nauseous or vomitting. When eating out, I've also adopted the strategy of waiting for her to finish her food, which she sometimes doesn't. I'll hold back to mop up the leftovers. Ha! This saves me from ordering too much food and keeps the pace of tummy development (mine, I mean) in check...