28 Weeks Pregnant: The State of the Belly

27w6d (27 weeks 6 days pregnant)

Tomorrow I’ll be 28 weeks pregnant — officially seven months pregnant (on the 10-month pregnancy calendar). I had my final monthly OB appointment, during which they tortured me. Starting now, I go every two weeks for check ups (seems a little excessive to me), but I guess that just means we’re getting close to meeting our littlest family member.

Today I had a variety of tests compared to the past few appointments. For the past three months, I just went in, they measured my belly (from pubic bone to the top of the uterus) and listened to the heartbeat. Today was a poke, prod and disgust me day because I was scheduled for a glucose test (which tests for signs of gestational diabetes), an antibody shot (because I’m Rh negative) and the flu shot.

I drank the nasty sugar drinks (in fruit punch flavor!), and the good news was my glucose came back in great shape; however, in the blood draw they realized I was anemic, so now I’ll be taking a daily iron supplement in addition to my prenatal vitamins. The Rh immune globulin shot was not particularly pleasant — those antibodies had some sting to them! Plus the shot is in the rump, so I guess I got a taste of the whole “losing your modesty” thing a little early.

Baby’s heart rate was 140 — Dr. Fahnlander (unprompted) threw her guess in that the baby would be a boy. She says it’s nothing scientific, but she thinks because of the low (but normal) heart rate, we’ll be welcoming a boy in December. My belly measurement was 28 centimeters, which is right on track according to the doc and the adage that your belly should measure the same amount in centimeters as you are far along in weeks. So overall, a good visit, but I’ll be focusing on ironing up my diet.

I promised a belly picture (yesterday, I know), so here are two:

27 Weeks Pregnant

28 Weeks Pregnant

I don’t want get anyone’s hopes up, but the next belly picture has a good chance of featuring a protruding belly button. It is currently holding out, but I fear it’s fighting a losing battle. A girl ahead of me at the doctor’s office had the same due date as me, and her belly button had lost the battle in a big way. We’ll see. Does everyone’s belly button pop?