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Hi
:help: We had our scan yesterday and our little one seems perfectly healthy :heartbeat: I picked up the scan today and the composite age was a week behind what it should be. I'm not sure if this is something to worry about or something that happens all the time. I'm pretty little so I thought she (they think it's a girl :))may also just be small but I also thought babies all grew at the same rate.
Thanks
Hi hon.
Nothing to worry about - as you can see on the report, there are "normal" values. My baby was under the smallest value of normal at the first scan, and is now bigger than normal, although still in the normal range. Babies in utero have growth spurts, just like babies after they've been born.
For the first 13 or so weeks, babies do grow uniformly. After that, the whole genetic thing takes over - after all, every baby measures and weighs differently at birth, that difference starts remarkably early! The early uniform growth (sorry, skip this bit if you're not interested - it's all sciency stuff) is because of cell division: the original zygote doesn't grow in size at all for the first 10 days after conception, but just increases the cell count. After that, the cells grow and form the little blob, as well as getting ready to differentiate into the organs. A zygote has omnipotent cells (the cell can be anything), an embryo multipotent cells (the cells can be 3-4 different things) and a foetus mostly unipotent (the cells are one thing only). So once the cells are laid down as "lung cell" or "muscle cell" or whatever, the genetics takes over as to the actual size of those organs and the cell doubling rate. It really is exciting! However, this is the potential of the baby: if you are on a diet then the baby has restricted nutrients, so won't grow so big. This is why it's daft to diet in pregnancy, unless there's a medical reason and you're seeing a dietician. Same as with a child - you can cut out junk food, but a child shouldn't actually restrict calories. (BTW, I'm sure my DH should be taller from what his mum said about the fact that he was always moaning he was hungry as a teen, but she doesn't hold with keeping snacks in the house so he went hungry.) Anyway, I'm tall so I'm thinking it's normal that my baby's tall at this point. You're small, so it's normal that your baby is small.
The other thing is that you may be one week less along than you think you are - unless you know exactly when you ovulated, this is possible. If you know your date of ovulation then you can be sure that your baby is just either waiting for a growth spurt or is just a bit small right now.
Hope that reassures you somewhat!
My sonographer said that 9 days either way is normal. Any more than that and they recalculate your due date if its the 18-20 week u/s.
Congratulations on your little girl :)
thank you so much! I'm not dieting and trying to make sure I eat enough. All the women in my family are small (at 162cm I'm the second tallest) and I have size 5 feet so it's likely I wouldn't be having a big girl.
After having numerous scans with both my boys pg's (mainly DS#2) it is common for sizes to vary due to the position of the baby and i think the skill level of the person doing the u/s. DS#2's measurements kept fluctuating throughout my pg so don't be alarmed, just like out in the real world bubs will grow at his or her own rate whilst in the tum. I was told that as long as they were within a certain range not to worry as one way or another they will catch up. As both of my boys were small (5lb,9 and 5lb,5) DS#1 is now a good size against his peers who were full term/higher birth weight.
I wish you all the best for the remainder of your pg!
I too was a little worried with my emergancy u/s, when i had the scan i was supposed to be 10wks 1 day and they said 9wks 4days (which is 6days difference), but the guy doing the u/s said not to worry that my next u/s will say something different and that b/cos bubs had a really nice strong h/b that everything looked good. And each pg is different!
I am sure that is the case for you too and everything is fine. Goodluck
Don't stress!! It will all be fine! My dr made me have a late u/s because bub seemed so small - but he was all healthy - just small! hehe. He still is quite small but I'm the same -size 6 feet and only about 160-165cm or so. I was worried because dh is a foot taller than me but it seems like my little boy will take after me and my side of the family!