5th scan at 16 weeks

Can you believe it? I'm almost halfway there. I'm 16+1 now (i.e. 16 weeks + 1 day) into my pregnancy. Saw my gynae here in Jakarta for the first time.

I can't post any pics of the scan. The machine they were using gave grainier images than the one my doc in KL used, so I can't quite make out myself which bit is which. This much I know - Little Monkey's head is to the left of my belly button (when I look down towards my toes) and it's pointing downwards. Her body is horizontally across my belly with her legs curled up somewhere past the right of my belly button.

She is now a mighty 12.18cm in length. I'm really pleased because the book I'm reading called Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Curtis and Schuler gave an average measurement of 10.8-11.6cm for a baby at this stage of pregnancy. I was initially a little worried over Little Monkey's progress because I didn't seem to be gaining much weight even at 16 weeks even though I was eating 5 meals a day. Looks like now I know where those 5 meals have been going!
I'm doing the 5 meals bit because 5 small meals at somewhat regular intervals throughout the day are easier to digest than 3 large meals. I generally have cereal and fruit for brekkie, maybe a banana around 11am and then lunch at say 1pm. At about 3pm, I'll get hungry again and have a sandwich. Dinner is generally at 7-8pm, depending on what time Top Monkey arrives home from the office. I don't do the crisps and fast food bit, I try to eat things like fruit and some nuts if I need a snack and I try and drink as much water as I can throughout the day.

The book also says the baby should weigh around 2 3/4oz. I have a weight measurement here on my results card that says 6oz. ??? I forgot to ask the doc if that's the baby's weight or the baby + sac weight. I can't imagine it if Little Monkey is about twice the weight of the average baby at this stage. Eek. Maybe we should be changing the baby's nick to Big Monkey then!

The nurse said I have a very active baby. And yep, she is one active little one all right, squirming away all the time, kicking and wriggling. Each time the nurse pressed the ultrasound probe a little harder against my belly, she would throw up her arms and wave frantically as if to say, "OI!!! Not so hard! I'm inside here!"

I still can't feel any movement. Mums can usually start feeling it from Week 16-20 but the timing differs for every woman. I mean, a book can only give you an estimate of what's going to happen on average for every woman. Talk to other mums and ask them when they had this and that happen to them and you'll get different responses from every woman. I know because I ask all my other friends who've had children. I asked my mum but she can't remember now, it was so long since she had a baby!

I also took a Triple Screen Test. Yuk. I hate blood tests. This test checks for levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) and unconjugated triol (a form of estrogen produced by the placenta). The levels of these chemicals will indicate the chances the baby has Down's Syndrome.
There is a high risk of false positives with this test. One is due to the wrong due date. For example, if you think you're 16 weeks pregnant, but you're actually 18 weeks pregnant, then your hormone levels will be way off. Another reason may be if you're carrying more than one baby. Anyway, if your test results are abnormal, the doc will carried out amniocentesis to verify the test results.

I'm not going to think about the outcome of the results for now. I'm just going to relax and just think about how funny it was to see Little Monkey being so active in the womb. I read somewhere that the baby can do backflips in the womb at this point in time and the thought of it is just hilarious.

Only one teeny bit of disappointment for me this time: We couldn't see whether Little Monkey's a boy or a girl. She was lying on her stomach inside me and no amount of trying by us would make her turn around. All the baby did was wave her arms more frantically each time and I just wanted to laugh. Finally, we gave up and decided to try again at the next scan.

So happy. 16 weeks and all is well so far. We are happy Monkeys indeed.