Thursday, March 26, 2009

27 Weeks: Baby Weight

And when I say baby weight, I'm talking about the weight of the baby - not how much weight I've gained since I've been pregnant. I'm freaking out. For about the past month or so, I have had just about everyone I've seen say, "Wow! You're really big for how far along you are! Are you sure you're not having twins?!" Yes! I'm sure I'm not having twins! I can only hope that one of the various doctors and technicians who were involved in the three ultrasounds I've had so far would have noticed a second baby. They dubbed Lil Wodie a singleton and they seem to be sticking with their story.

This leads me to my biggest fear. I have this feeling in my gut that I am going to go into labor, labor for 20 hours, then spend 4 hours pushing only to find out that the baby is too big to fit down the birth canal and I need a c-section. All that pushing for nothing. I'm sure of it.

Before I go into this too much, let me tell you that the average baby born in the US weighs 7 lbs, 5 oz. My mom had all large babies. Travis was a pretty good size too. My mom smoked while she was pregnant with both my sister and I, as that was before it was made known that smoking while pregnant is not good for the baby. So, while smoking, my mom had me at 8 lbs, 3 oz and my sister at 7 lbs, 6 oz.

THEN, she quit smoking by the time she had my brother - it was in the 90's, so she knew smoking was bad. She ended up having to get a c-section because Alex was a whopping 10 lbs, 9 oz. That's big baby! That also puts all of her babies at above average birth weights.

Travis' mom has a similar story for Travis. She went into labor, but he was breech. Because of that, she had to have a c-section. Travis came out at 8 lbs, 4 oz. (I read that this means I have a 4% higher chance of having a breech baby. Not a significant stat, but a stat nonetheless.)

Another factor riding at the back of my mind is Sara's story with Logan. From the time she was about six months pregnant, she had people telling her she was going to "pop any day now!" Uh, no. She still had three months to go! I haven't had people assuming I am that far along, but the fact that I'm heading in that direction puts me on edge. Logan was born at 9 lbs, 6 oz - again, that's a big baby! I have not had the doctor tell me my baby is bigger than normal, yet, so I guess that's a good sign.

To help distract me, I'm trying to focus on the nursery. My next step is to purchase wall decals, although I don't plan to put those up until I have the shelves (that I registered for). Whatcha think of the curtains? I'm hoping they don't compete too much with the green in the bedding. We'll see!




2 comments:

Sara's Satire said...

I love the curtains...the room looks wonderful. I am going to go ahead and say that lil wodie is going to weigh 8 lbs. 4 oz. That is my guess. I think that is a perfectly average size. My sister had two kids, and smoked a pack a day with each...they were both exactly 8 lbs. She also gained 60 and 70 lbs!!! I think you are doing great...maybe you look bigger because you were so tiny before...people are used to seeing skinny nikki, now all of a sudden you have a belly! This is my theory, because I dont think you look that big at all!

Nikki said...

I would be okay with that weight. Sounds like something I might be able to push out. LOL!

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