Baby Update and Fun at Oxbow Zoo

We had another checkup on Wednesday, at 21 weeks 6 days. Good news all around. Baby looks good and is growing well. She is very active and I feel her kicking me all the time, especially when I'm trying to get to sleep. The area of blood left over is being reabsorbed slowly and is smaller now. The placenta looks good. The cyst in her pelvis is still there, but we will get a better look at it in 2 weeks when we have our next level 2 ultrasound.

Since we haven't had an updated belly shot since about 16 weeks, here is a new one...at 21 weeks 6 days.
A few shots of baby from that day...

Here is a side view of her with her arm up by her face while she was busy "talking" or swallowing or maybe even sucking her thumb.

It was really cool...we could see her little jaw and lips moving while we watched.

Along the left of the picture, you can see her leg and knee and above her (the gray blob) is the beautiful healthy placenta.

Another shot a little further down. You can see her arm and her leg from the side. The view of the leg is a little oblique, so the shin looks shorter than it really is. Her foot is visible a bit at the end of her leg and her other foot is somewhat visible but shadowed behind the foot you see.

Head with perfectly developing brain.

A picture for the medical nerds among us...this is a cross section view of the cribriform plate in the head (on the right side of the picture). You can see some of her spine and ribs further to the left.

This is a shot of the cyst I've been talking about. It is in the pelvis. The cyst is the black circle at the very end of the yellow arrow.

I'm finishing up my research time at home and will be returning to clinic time for an elective starting next Monday. I'll be half days for the first 2 weeks until my next level 2 ultrasound and then, if everything still looks like it is going well, I'll probably be back to full clinic days after that.

On Thursday, for our weekly playdate with Ingrid, Inessa, and Kyra, we met up with them at Oxbow Park (Zollman Zoo). It was a nice day outside after a week of rain and we enjoyed the animals and the good company.

Austin and Inessa were really excited and ran to the door as soon as we got there and they got out of the car.

As usual, Austin was very interested in Kyra and kept wanting to "pet" her and give her kisses. We just had to be careful to keep him from touching her after he had pet and fed the animals.

Feeding the goats some hay.

Austin and Inessa were very cute together...

They know you can't cross the road without holding hands.
As cute as it is, holding hands with each other doesn't really count when it comes to crossing the street, though.

Trying to climb the "honey tree" together (just like Pooh Bear).
Hugs instead of pushing.

Totally cracking up when the ducks splashing around in their little tub of water got them both all wet.

Figuring out the hand holding rules...holding Steve's hands to cross the road to the other part of the zoo.
Kyra having fun riding along in her stroller.

Taking a break on the swing before heading home.

What a fun day!

One last addition...
Here is a video of Austin from last weekend when he was swimming in Great-Grandpa's pool with Grandpa and Great-Grandpa.