Bubby is 100th percentile at 31+4

A little history first, if you can bare with me..

I just had a progress scan as I was recently diagonosed with GD. I had it with my first bubby too, controlled it with diet, and he arrived on due date at 7pounds 10 so by no means huge. This time everyone including the middies have been commenting for a while how huge I am.. I had a GTT at 16weeks, and all clear, then another one at 29 weeks which came back borderline so I am back testing blood sugar levels and monitoring what I eat. As it was always a risk that I would get it again I have not been going crazy food wise anyway and have not put on too much weight, but my bump is big.

As standard procedure my doc sent me for a progress scan and I went along thinking that it would all be fine, and that the high fundal height measurment I got last week was just cause it is second bub etc. We got in there and started scanning and the numbers started coming up on the screen at 34+ weeks for each meaurement. The sonographer started to get really worried and stopped and checked all his paperwork to make sure we had the dates right.. but since he did my 6 week scan and it was spot on he couldn't say I got my LMP wrong or anything. Bubby was a little on the big side at the 20 week scan, but nothing unusual.

So he goes back and re-measures everything and says, WOW, this is a BIG baby. Every measurement was over 34 weeks with the humerus and head diameter coming in at nearly 35 weeks. In the end he fiddled round till it averaged out at 34+4 making me 3 full weeks bigger than dates and at the 100th percentile.

Has anyone else had this at this stage?
Was bubby born really big?
Did you have to get induced early due to bubs size?
Were you preasured to have a c-section?

Do they take into account you/your husbands size? I am 5'10 and DH is 6'4 and while I have a quite slender build, DH is very solid. Does this make a difference?

I'm very worried as I had plans for a very natural birth, with no induction or intervention as much as possible this time due to complications from having these things last time..

Any feedback would be great! As I live remotely, I can't just go and see my OB as we do shared cared with a local GP, so I am trying to call him to discuss, but he is very hard to get hold of..

Thanks..
Feu

Hey Feu,

I was going to respond with the standard "fundal height and growth scans are notoriously unreliable late in pregnancy" blah blah blah but it sounds like you had a pretty thorough scan, so it might be a bit more reliable than most!

But I measured bigger with each of my FH measurements, as much as 4cm at one point. I also had a growth scan at 32wks which showed bubs measuring already 3kgs - that's around 8lbs I think. DD was born at 39+5, weighing 3.83kg. There's no way she only put on 800g in the last 8wks, so the scan must have been slightly off!

With regards to your questions about induction - did they talk about induction with your first bubba? If you went naturally on or near your due date, they might be happy to let you go naturally again this time?

I don't know much about GD sorry... it seems some people are induced, some not. My friend recently had her first, they were worried it was going to be a whopper and he was only 8lbs. She was induced at 38wks.

The other thing to rememeber is that you are in control! You can't be forced to have a c-sec - even if they schedule one for you, you can choose not to turn up.

Even if they want to induce and you decide to go down that path, they can start the induction very gently - gels over night, and that may be enough to start labour naturally, esp given that it is your second bubs. Your body knows what to do, it has done it once!

Then even if then you don't go into labour with just the gels being inserted, they can rupture your membranes and you can ask to be given as long as possible to allow labour to start naturally.

There are options! Good luck trying to get onto your Ob! Don't fret too much just yet - they will surely not want to induce or anything this soon so you still have some time.

:hug:

I have type 1 diabetes and at our 31+5 growth scan our bubba was measuring on the 97th percentile in all areas..his weight at that stage was estimated to be 2.4kgs give or take 500grams so a bug bubba.

He was born by caeser at 36 weeks weighing 4.4kg. If he had made to to full term they estimate he would have been in the 12pd plus region...we were not pressured into a caeserean but he ended up devloping tachycardia and was in distress at 36 weeks and needed to come out.....i was not looking forward to pushing out such a bug bubba but then I am just over 5 feet tall so a little tacker in the scheme of things!

i had GD and was put on insulin with my pg. DS measured bigger in each scan that I ended up having and at my last scan at 34 + 3, the sonographer asked if i was sure of my dates because he was measuring at 40 weeks. he was born the next day and weighed 2.71kg. all i can say is try not to stress because they arent always accurate with measurements. they told me he was over 3.3 kg in the u/s but was born much smaller.

If your DH is that tall, then genetically it is possible to have a large baby because of that and the GD isn't a factor. The measurements that they also use to calculate babies weight in utero is their femur measurement, so for all you know, you could have a really long, 8lb baby kwim? I don't think you need to be ringing alarm bells yet, but it is information that you take in anyway. How do you feel about having a vaginal birth for a 'big' baby? Do you think that even with the knowledge that your baby could be large, that you would still want a vb anyway? Again bearing in mind that you could agree to a c/s only to have a small/average size baby and how would you feel about that? I don't think that there should be any undue pressure on you for a c/s unless there is a medical reason for one, but it is something you should prepare yourself for jic and have a think about how you would feel about all these things.

I was wondering the same thing, as I am 36 weeks and my FH was 39cm. I had a growth scan a few days ago and was told bubs was in the 95th percentile. They told me that there was a possibility of not being able to birth vaginally and possible induction (which I'm not keen about).

:

---

The measurements that they also use to calculate babies weight in utero is their femur measurement, so for all you know, you could have a really long, 8lb baby kwim?

---

It depends on how detailed they actually do the growth scan, I had a growth scan on DD as they were checking her size due to excess amniotic fluid and were check for GD as well, so they checked her growth to see if she was bigger than the average. To do it hey took at lot of measurements, HC, abdomen, limb length, like the femur, she also measure the amount of amniotic fluid and all the figures went together. And a figure was generated based on that, which I believe is significantly more accurate then just using the femur measurement. The people I know who had had the same level of scan as I did, that it was significantly more accurate than just the femur length, but by no means is it failsafe.

In reality they are attempting to measure a 3 dimensional bubba in two dimensions so certainly room for error ;)

I can relate a bit to this!

when I was 36 weeks, I went in for my last jab of blood stuff (as I am -blood group) and the MW noticed how swollen I had become.
From there it was like a whirlwind, more BTs, a growth scan and foetal monitoring for the rest of the day, all because my fundal measurement was 44cm (ie, they told me I was measuring waaay too big for that stage) they ruled out polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) then thought they should do another GD test (but they never did) at the growth scan the sonographer said, yes, hes big, but not huge. The problem was that I was huuuge!

Jacob was born at 40 weeks and was 9pd 10, I was induced due to prelabour going on for 2 weeks or so and the OB told me straight up that she thought Id end up with a ceaser.
I did, after 10 hours of labour after AROM, and then put on syntocinon for 4 hours, I just didnt dilate.

I am probably your height but a bit stocky, DP is tall and solid too, BUT they do say that babies take after the mother in the beginning so they CAN be born.

oh, just remembered, my cousins GF had a 12pd little girl last year, VB (with drugs!) and she is tiny, skinny little thing, she also had GD. but wasnt diagnosed till afterwards.

Hi Feueriosa,

I have GD and my measurements are all over the place.

I am 36 weeks preggers

my fundal is 35 weeks
bubs femur is 37 weeks, tummy is 37 weeks and head is 36 weeks. She already weighs 3kg.

My hubby is over 180cm, Im over 170cm.

My OB told me that because both hubby and I are "above average in size" that he wouldn't expect any less - so there is nothing to worry about, in fact it could have been worse due to my GD.