Is this a mutant baby I am carrying?

Factual Questions
1

I went for the second ultrasound scan yesterday at 18 weeks pregnancy. Very interesting. The doctor had no other patients at that time so she spent a lot of time with us showing us things about the baby, she even let me count her fingers. The little brat refused to uncross her legs to verify if it is a girl or a boy but the doctor told us that she was pretty sure it was a girl but she would not let us bet money on it. It was a sweet moment seeing our baby sucking her thumbs, changing hands at times and when the doctor poked me a bit to see if she would uncross her legs she started flailing her arms.

Well, the thing is that the good doc was measuring stuff around and even told us a weight estimate, 1 lb and 3 oz, which I find kind of odd because all the books I have list a 24-week baby as weighing just one pound. I asked her if that wasn’t a little too big and she asked me if I was sure I was in my 18th week, which I am, and she told us that she was a little bigger and heavier than average but just a bit.

So… Am I having a mutant baby? Did I misunderstood the doctor or was she wrong about her estimate? Should I dump the crib we bought and buy a king-size bed for the kid?

2

Yes you are. You need to begin a high fat, high starch, high protein diet of at least 5000 calories per day or your baby will begin to starve. Large quantities of mashed potatoes and gravy, fried chicken and roast beef sandwiches are necessary at this stage.

I’m quite suprised your doctor didn’t tell you this!

3

When you’re closer to your due date, they’ll be able to give you a better estimate of how big the baby will be.

If you want a quickie way to estimate, though, just average what you and Mr. Mighty weighed at birth. Provided you weren’t preemies or had mothers with gestational diabetes, it’ll probably be in the ballpark.

4

Well, you are a SDMB Doper!

Silly girl.

5

And pie.

6

The good news is you can save on hospital delivery as well as child rearing expenses, as these kinds of mutants usually just burst out of your chest and scurry off into the ductwork.

7

Erm, just in case you’re looking for a serious answer, since this is GQ and everything…

Ultrasound estimates of a baby’s weight are just that: estimates. They can be, and frequently are, quite a bit off. Hang around a pregnancy board in the last month or so (if you can stand it…) and you’re almost sure to hear the tale of a woman who was induced, or even had a scheduled C-section, because ultrasound exams revealed she was going to have a huge baby… and once out, the baby turns out to be of average or slightly above average weight.

In my case it actually went the other way - a baby estimated to be of slightly above average weight turned out to be, shall we say, surprisingly large. But to be honest I’ve never heard of that happening to anyone else - it’s usually a prediction for Giant Mutant Sumo Baby turning out to weigh 7 pounds even.

8

Thanks Flodnak, although I enjoyed the comic relief I was really looking for some serious answers. My husband is tall, your typical Nordic type and I am a bit on the short side, I was hopping that mother nature had been smart enough to accomodate things to my size. I am glad to hear that this is probably a *misunderstimation *on the doc’s part.

Judging by mine and my husband’s weight at birth 7 lbs sounds quite reasonable.

9

With my second son I had placenta previa and in the last week before surgery ENDLESS scans to try to determine where the blood vessels ran and where best to cut. They deemed him the amazing shrinking baby as the last three scans (all within about five days) had him at 2700g, 2400g and the last one 2100g. He was born the day after the last scan at 2900g. It says clearly on the scan printout that all weights are plus or minus 500g - that’s a whole pound!

My older boy I was told would not hit the seven pound mark, and that he was long and lean. Three days later I had an 8lb 3oz long and fat baby…

10

Mighty_Girl, they will probably run a gestational diabetes scan sometime between 24 and 30 weeks, just to be sure that’s not a problem. (I just got my bottle of orange dextrose to drink before my next visit. Ugh.) It’s a pretty standard test these days, so don’t be freaked out or worried.

Nature does indeed take the mother’s size into acount more than the father’s for size of babies. I know 4 itty bitty women (under 5’2") who are married to really big men (over 6’2") they have safely delivered 7 appropriately sized babies among them. You might want to invest in a really good sling like the Maya Wrap, though, because some of them got to be Gargantuan Daddy’s Babies within a few weeks of birth. You want to be able to carry your little one when she’s not so little. (I like the Maya Wrap best for big babies because the sling itself is really light - only fabric, so you’re not dealing with 5 or 10 pounds of sling material, padding and metal on top of a 15 pound baby.)

11

AND Ice Cream! No husband/SO of a pregnant woman should ever let the household be without ice cream. If you do, the penalty is heading out at 3AM to the local 7-11 or similar 24/7 corner store.

-Butler (T minus 6 weeks and counting till #1 daughter’s arrival)

12

A counter-example: My wife, two days before giving birth, was given an ultrasound estimate of the kid’s weight that was 2 pounds heavier than what he came out at. And this was with the latest-tech 3D ultrasound system. Don’t worry abou tit.

-lv

13

Yes.
Name the child “Jack-Jack”.
Prep him for a career in…law enforcement.
Prepare to spend much moolah on “special wardrobes”. I hear Ms. Mode gives discounts…

NO CAPES!

14

As further evidence that Mother Nature knows what she’s doing, even when doctors sometimes don’t, I present Susie!

Susie(not her real name) was born about 35 years ago. Her mother was an itty bitty woman- probably about 5 foot, and 90 or 95 pounds when she got pregnant. Doctor was concerned about her having a big baby and so put her on a severely limited calorie diet. Mom gained 10 pounds during her pregnancy- and had a 8 pound baby. (Mom and Dad were hungry and miserable throughout much of the pregnancy- Dad voluntarily went on a similarly reduced calorie diet to keep her company. It was good for him, he apparently looks the best, and thinnest he’s ever looked in those pictures.)

15

Ummmm…no.

An ultrasound at 8-1/2 months “proved” to my OB that Bonzo was going to weigh 10 lbs. when he was born (and this was actually a second, turbocharged ultrasound that we had to drive to St. John’s Hospital in Springfield for, after the first ultrasound in Decatur said he might have something wrong with his kidneys. Which he didn’t.) To that end, I was induced as soon as the clock struck 40 weeks, with a potential quickie C-section on standby.

And the moment he emerged from between my legs, I heard the nurse blurt out, “That’s no ten-pounder!”

…8 lbs., 2 oz.

I am still a little unnerved, 18 years later, at how close I came to an elective C-section, all because the ultrasound said he was gonna weigh 10 lbs.

They arrived at that figure, I’m told, by measuring the diameter of his thigh bones. Well, his daddy has those tremendously big heavy chunky leg bones, but it didn’t seem to occur to anybody that Baby might have those, too, and to compensate accordingly.

MG, ask your doctor next time how she’s “estimating” weight in an 18-week old fetus. If she’s measuring thigh bones, then you can take it from me that there’s considerable leeway.

And no, I am not married to Lord Vor. :smiley:
The bottom line is that 18 weeks is wayyyyyy too early for anybody to make any kind of serious, take-it-to-the-bank estimates as to how the baby’s gonna eventually turn out, other than to make sure it has its normal complement of arms and legs, etc.

Those “average” statistics for how big the baby should be at how many weeks are just…averages. That means that some babies will be bigger and some babies will be smaller.

I’m amazed that the doctor wouldn’t just tell you, flat out, “Well, there’s considerable leeway, don’t take that thing as gospel…”

Don’t sweat it. Keep eating right.

If you’re worried about having a “fat baby”, don’t. Trust me, babies in utero do not get “fat”, okay? Don’t cut back on your calories just because you’re worried about the baby getting fat, because it doesn’t work like that.

16

At my 22 week ultrasound, Jimmy was measured at 1 pound, 11 ounces. When he was born, he was 9 pounds, 12.4 ounces. I had a mutant baby.

17

So… you’re concentrated mighty? :wink:

18

Aye…and what strange powers Mutant MightyBaby will be blessed with. :smiley:

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19

At my 18 week ultrasound they told me I was measuring a week ahead, so more like a typical 19 week fetus. Whatever; I know the exact date I got knocked up. Measuring by ultrasound is an inexact science.

I’m due in 2 weeks and so feel huge now but no one is talking about my measuring big any more.

20

When come back…