When went in for my 28 week ultrasound, I finally got the all-clear. My nasty little placenta has finally done the right thing and gotten out of the way so I can go ahead with my plans for a natural delivery at home. I’m extremely relieved and glad to have the good news but now I have other things to worry about: the enormous size of this baby’s head!
At my 20 week standard-make-sure-everything’s-alright-with-the-baby ultrasound (when they initially found the placenta previa), the tech told me the baby was already almost a pound which was 1/3 of a pound heavier than average. After my 24 week follow-up scan my midwife informed me the baby was measuring a full week big. All this might lead one to wonder: are my dates off? Short answer: no, not possible. So at 28 weeks I wander in for another follow-up and what does the tech have to say? At 28 weeks+4 days the baby overall was measuring 28 weeks+5 days, BUT the alarming part is the head measured 29 weeks+6 days! That’s almost 10 days bigger than normal which puts this kid’s head (according to my personal research) in the 90th percentile (thank you giant headed hubby for that one!)
I find this alarming only because my past two babies had very normal head circumferences and very tiny bodies. Though average weight, hubby and I tend to make very dense little creatures. Honeybun was 10 days past due and weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces but wore preemie clothes for nearly 6 weeks. Sugarplum was a week early and tipped the scale at 7 pounds, 12 ounces but she too wore preemie clothes for nearly a month. This one too seems to be small in the body (note the overall age guess was low compared to the head size, meaning the rest of the measurements—femur, stomach, etc–brought the average down).
I think one of the biggest concerns of many mothers who intend to deliver naturally is “how is that giant head going to fit through there?” I worried about it with the first one since hubby does have an extraordinarily large head, but Honeybun always measured normal (and my fundal height measured 6 weeks small throughout the last half of my pregnancy) and I didn’t worry about it again but this time I have to admit, I’m a little nervous. I somehow avoided “the ring of fire” with the first two (still not quite sure what that term means) but am worried about what this extra-giant head might mean. Hoping it just means that that giant head will be ready to come out sooner and I’ll get to meet my sweet little person a bit earlier :]
