I had another ultrasound yesterday. My amniotic fluid is still right smack at the very low-end of normal. Part of me thinks (as Bethany helped point out last time) “At least it’s still in the normal range.” However, the ultrasound tech acted like it was very concerning.
Sometimes when there is low amniotic fluid, the baby has one really underdeveloped kidney as a result. She said that the baby has two strong-looking kidneys though.
She said that sometimes it comes from the placenta aging too fast, but apparently I have a “beautiful placenta” (It’s going to be on the cover of Glamour Placenta magazine!) so that’s most likely not the reason. Who knows? She was going to pass the results along to my midwife and if there are concerns/treatments to be done, she would be in touch… else I just go back in two weeks for another appointment and another ultrasound.
Oh, and I learned I have an anterior placenta… meaning my placenta is at the front so that’s probably part of the reason I haven’t felt any movement yet. The kid is hiding behind that extra layer of protection.
How did the human race survive without all of this information?! (total sarcasm there, by the way)
Last week I explained how I was half way(ish) through my pregnancy due to the weird way a pregnancy is counted. This week I want to discuss a slightly different look at counting… the way counting causes me stress.
I have a lot of friends on Pinterest who are mothers. And the things they pin scare the crap out of me. Things like:
- 8 Birthday Traditions to Start
- 15 Self-Directed Activities for a Toddler
- 20 Ways to “Reset” Your Kids When They have a Bad Day
- 40 Ways to do Sensory Play
- 40 Ways to Distract a Toddler
- 293 creative ways to punish your child
- 495 rainy day activities
- 6721 braid hairstyles for little girls
- 28930 ways to make fingerpainting more educational
(Okay, maybe some of those are made up. But just some of them…)
Honestly, how are you supposed to keep these lists of 9 billion ways to deal with any given situation in your mind for when that moment of need arises? When the kid is having a meltdown and you tell them, “Hang on… I’ve got a pin for this!” And do I really have to do all that… well, CRAP? Honestly it just seems like overkill. And how do people have time to actually put all of these things into practice when they’re pinning these lists on Pinterest all day?
Right now I’m feeling more like I’ll follow the parenting-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method… whatever works will be done. Megan at On The Road Again had a great post last week about this kind of idea: An Open Letter to New Parents (Including Myself)
Trimesters
Another thing that’s weird is counting trimesters… why is there so much conflicting information published about when you are actually in a new trimester? Some of them vary by as much as three weeks!
Milestones
And since we’re speaking of numbers… I had lunch with a friend who just had a baby and I said that our kids would probably be in the same grade in school. She said, “Yep, they’ll graduate in 2030.”
WHAT?!
So here’s the breakdown on some of those things:
– The kid will start kindergarten in 2017
– The kid will be old enough to drive a car in 2028
– The kid will finish high school in 2030
– The kid will graduate from college with the class of 2034, give or take
(Both of us graduated from college early, but I might encourage my kid to play more!)
Jill Will Run 
I cracked up at “28930 ways to make fingerpainting more educational.”
If it makes you feel better, those lists are the same thing as those “397 new looks for spring!” and “804 ways to make your man feel like a MAN” things in women’s magazines. They’re just a headline, to grab your attention. When you look at a lot of those lists, at least half of the things on there are total common sense. Like, on a list of “100 ways to tell your kids, ‘I love you!'” you’ll find such winners as:
Say ‘I love you’ every day!” (Really? DUH.)
Cook them nutritious meals! (Oh, I’m supposed to FEED these people?!)
Take them to the park! (Wait…kids LIKE going to the park?)
Treat them to ice cream! (Okay, that one’s a good idea for anyone.)
Basically, a lot of things you’re probably going to be doing anyway as a parent—or even just as one human being living with another human being, you know?
I hope the low-end-of-normal amniotic fluid is just another number, and all is well! 🙂
Parenting by the seat of the pants actually does work. That’s how most of us did it before computers and Little Einstein, Blue’s Clues and all the rest. Well, we did have Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. But really, I only read part of Dr Spock and the hospital sent me home with a pamphlet which was very good. Now, some of the kids would tell you that we did some dumb things with them and that is absolutely true. But just look at the 6 great kids I have and we only finger painted a couple of times LOL. By the way, back then we laid our baby on his stomach GASP, and started introducing cereal at 6 weeks and other foods by 3 months. A little later, not much, for breast feeders. And we all survived and it was even fun.
Hey, thanks for the link shoutout! You are so spot on about the pinned lists though, too. I’ve been pinning a few of those and just like the books and the websites, they make me feel anxious! But again, don’t fear. You’ll be a great mom, and you’ll figure it out as you go!
hahahaha. i love some of those “pins”. hahaha. seriously. i wonder how the human race survived as well… i see pins for “crib pads” (things that cover the top bars of the crib)… umm. pretty sure none of us had those and, gasp, we all survived with normal-shaped & functioning heads!! what a shocker. or the mom’s you see at the food store who sanitize the whole cart and THEN put that huge babydrape-thing over it and then finally actually put the kid in the cart. OR those cloth things you put on the door knobs so the door “doesn’t make any noise” when you go in to check the kid. didn’t know that was such an issue either? i hope you can refrain from getting into that craze. i am sure i can, because i would never actually sew any of those “neat baby inventions”. i’m opinionated. haha. sorry.
oh… and glad to hear the levels are still holding on to OK. hope the midwife agrees things are still on the right track!!