Belly and Ultrasound Pics

Baby Alisa will arrive in about 11 weeks! My belly has definitely grown over the past 3 weeks and I've become a little more uncomfortable. It is hard to watch movies in the theater because my back starts hurting and I have to constantly shift my position to get some relief. Also, when I walk around too long or sleep at night my back hurts. I still wake up every few hours and have to roll over, but at least that strange ache in my legs doesn't happen every night anymore. My left ankle and hands have been a bit swollen for over a week now.

Here's my bare belly with my belly button popping out:



Alisa's movements are a bit stronger now and just the other day I started feeling them up by my belly button (they had all been really low before). Craig was finally able to feel her move last week (end of week 27)!

This week we had our 2nd 3D/4D ultrasound. We had one the day before we left for Tulsa (see details at end of this post) but the ultrasound tech scheduled a free redo for us because we didn't get a great view of Alisa's face from the front (the placenta and umbilical cord were in the way sometimes or she turned away). This time the view was better, but still not ideal. Alisa sure likes snuggling up to the placenta and keeping her hand near her face!

It was really cool for me to see Alisa's movements while feeling them at the same time during the ultrasound. The tech took still images from it and burned them onto a CD for us. She also recorded the whole hour long ultrasound onto a VHS tape so we can watch baby Alisa's movements again whenever we want. We actually have 2 hours worth of video since we got the free redo. Nice! Also, she recorded Alisa's heartbeat and put that on the video and took a still image of the heartbeat graph. Groovy!

We saw Alisa open and close her eyes, suck her thumb, open and close her mouth, throw her head back, move her limbs (one time she put her hand under her chin as if she was resting her head on her hand), etc. It was wonderful. So amazing that you can see all that just with them rubbing a transducer around on your belly!

This profile shot during the 1st 3D ultrasound on 12-15-06 revealed that Alisa has chubby cheeks already:



Here is Alisa on 12-15-06 with her eye open (the dark spot, so she's looking out of the corner of her eye)...her hand is up beside her face:



The placenta, umbilical cord and Alisa's arm obscure her face some in these 3D ultrasound pics from 1-11-07:





Looks like she's puckering up those big lips here as she snuggles back into the stuff of the womb (her nose looks bigger in this shot):



Sometimes the ultrasound tech displayed the regular ultrasound view and the 3D view at the same time. The regular view on the left was usually a profile shot and the 3D view on the right was from above:



Here is Alisa's foot, ankle bone and lower leg (the tech said she has big feet):



Here's what happened during my 1st 3D ultrasound on 12-15-06:
I drank most of a soda in the lobby beforehand as instructed so baby Alisa would wake up and move for us. The tech couldn't get a good front view of Alisa's face so she kept having me shift around. She had me lie flat on my back for a bit until I felt hot/flushed (you are not supposed to lie on your back for long this late in pregnancy because your circulation gets cut off). I switched to my side and felt fine. After a bit Alisa stopped moving and we didn't have a good view so the tech had me finish the soda and walk around a bit. I also jumped up and down and poked my belly to wake her up. I did that in the bathroom and accidentally knocked over the tall trashcan because I wasn't watching where I was jumping. The nurse outside asked if I was okay and I laughed and told her what happened. The trashcan had a lid so it didn't spill...it was just loud.

We continued the ultrasound but still couldn't get a great shot because of her position and sometimes because of her arm or the placenta. I started to feel really hot again even though I wasn't flat on my back anymore. I told her and she had me roll on my right side. I still felt hot and said I really needed to burp but couldn't. Then I felt nauseated and she had me sit up and asked if I needed a trashcan. I said yes because right then my mouth filled with saliva and I knew it was coming. I puked twice in the little trashcan and then felt great. I laughed and asked if anyone had ever puked during an ultrasound before and she said no. We continued the ultrasound for a little bit longer but realized Alisa looked like she was going back to sleep so that was about it.

So, the thing about having to pay for a 3D/4D ultrasound is that you never know what you are going to get (it just depends on the baby's position...and the other stuff drifting around in the womb). It's a risk we wanted to take though...for a chance to see our baby better. We are sure glad the tech didn't feel that we got our money's worth the first time. And I learned not to jump up and down after chugging a soda. :)