So my husband and I went September 19th, 2014 as to the local private doctor we saw before – who I no longer see because of the practices I talked about my last post about being pregnant in Morocco and prenatal care – to do an ultrasound and see if we could find out if we have a bint (girl) or wld (boy) arriving in Feb 2015 inshaAllah.
My family and Omar’s family were excited to find out – so in the case of my family could get down to shopping. I have found shopping for a baby where you want the surprise of not knowing the gender or choose to avoid unnecessary medical procedures during pregnancy – looking for gender neutral things is near impossible with people being so crazy about knowing which gender they are having now a days.
I also personally think the current trend of gender reveal parties are a waste of money and time.
Well baby decided to play coy or be modest – take your pick. Gave us a nice show of laying horizontally in the womb with its back to the ultrasound doppler. Good news – baby has a healthy spinal column and looks on target for a late February arrival – measuring in at 18 weeks 5 days or 18 weeks 2 days based on bi parietal diameter (BPD) measurements.
The doctor didn’t due the rest of the normal measurements done at an ultrasound such as HC – Head Circumference, Femur Length, Crown to Rump Length (CRL), abdominal circumference (AC) in addition to the bi parietal diameter (BPD) measurements.
The doctor had the nerve to say the reason he couldn’t tell the baby’s gender was because I was too fat for the ultrasound machine. No being obese, over weight or fat has nothing to do with my baby deciding not to show its goods on the ultrasound – HAMAR (ASS) of a Doctor!
Yet another reason I dumped this doctor like a hot rock and stick to the local clinic where they at least keep to the basic OB/GYN care that this private doctor SHOULD be giving.
The ultrasound measurements had me freaking out as the due date calculated based on the first day of my last period (LMP) is 2/5/2015 – so according to that baby should have been measuring at 20 weeks 2 days when we went to get this last ultrasound. So I then of course began to wonder if baby was measuring small for its due date and if the due date was even correct – since it didn’t take into account when I actually ovulated.
However I then did more research on due dates and found that there are multiple methods to calculate a due date and my due dates vary as follows:
Due date based on LMP: 2/5/2015
Due date based on Naegele’s Rule: 2/8/2015
Due date based on Naegele’s Rule adjusted for cycle length: 2/10/2015
Due based on the Wood’s Method aka Nicol’s Rule: 2/17/2015
See how wildly a due date can vary just based on the method used to calculate a due date? This also points to the whole drama of women being induced because they are considered “over due,” completely based in fiction and not in any scientific facts or major studies!
I arrived two weeks late and my mom refused to go in to be induced so I would “be on time.”
So based on baby’s measurements on 9/19 – the due date is looking more like 2/17/15 or perhaps later if baby follows with the family tradition of being two weeks late.
I also have been keeping track of baby using fundal height measurements that I do finding my pubic bone and measuring up to the top of the uterus. Right now my uterus is right at 20 weeks level with my belly button as of 9/27/2014.
I am also feel a lot of reassurance when I feel the little thumps and kicks that keep getting stronger each week that baby enjoys doling out in the evening. This kid is a natural night owl – starts getting active around 5-6 pm and stays up until around 1 or 2 am.
My in laws and other family members from Omar’s side call and ask how big my stomach has gotten which I find very funny. I am still essentially not showing. I can’t suck in the lower part of my stomach any more but it sure is not obvious that I am pregnant to anyone yet.
I can still get away in all of my regular clothing except my jeans – which I have to use the hair tie through the button hole trick to wear with a belly band – got this trick off of Pinterest!
My husband continues to be excited and thrilled with every change my body goes through. He is very anxious, scared and trying to do everything he can to ensure we have a healthy pregnancy.
Poor guy got sent on a Mission for the Protection Civile where he works as a fire fighter up to Al Hociema which is on the northern coast of Morocco for almost two weeks. He calls me at least 2x a day to check if I have eaten, what I ate, how I am feeling, if I felt the baby move and how much my belly has grown.. in the now 6 days he has been gone. We have another four or five days before he returns from his mission.
When my husband is home – he is on top of sharing cooking, cleaning and other house hold chores as well as doing his best to help me deal with being crawl up the walls and paint the town red stir crazy – ready to get the heck back to the USA.
InshaAllah he will be home soon. The visa crazyiness of getting ready for his visa interview will start again bright and early on Monday morning.
“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
American Muslimahs Musings 