30 week scan - small femur - worried but feel it might be me being silly

[DontGrumbleGiveAWhistle]

So this has been on my mind for the past 3.5 weeks and I need some hand holding or some face slapping to move on from it!

My previous babies were 7lb 13oz, 8lb 13oz, 9lb 13oz and so I've said all along that I'm expecting about a 10lb baby this time around. I'm 5' 3 and husband is about 5' 8 so we are both small - I just grow big babies (always tested for GD with full GTT test but always negative)!

Baby at 20 weeks scan was on the 50th percentile (as were all my others). When I saw my midwife at 30 weeks she felt that I was measuring small for dates and sent me for a scan.

Femur length - 17th percentile
Head circumference - 70th percentile
Belly circumference - 70th percentile

With the other measurements so high and the femur length so low I'm starting to worry that something may be wrong with the baby. Movement for this one has always been less than with the previous babies.

Has anyone else had these sorts of measurements and baby been ok?

Sorry that should read

Femur length - 13th percentile

Anyone? Please...

I would not worry. Baby is obviously well-built but not particularly tall, although that may well change. My baby had a tiny little head (10th centile) but everything else was higher than average. She is here now, and completely normal.

Yes, my ds1 was on 9th centile for everything but femurs were very little (2nd centile I think). We were seeing Prof Nicolaides at the Fetal Medicine Centre, he is probably the best foetal doctor in the world and he wasn't overly concerned at all. They kept scanning ds1 once a month from 20 week scan, when they first noticed the little legs, and thereafter and centiles stayed the same but DS1 was absolutely fine and now a very leggy soon to be 8 year old.

If you continue to be concerned you could get a private scan to check (or plead that you are very worried and need to check again, get midwife to send you for another growth scan) but I am sure all will be fine

If they were concerned about this then they would have told you and arranged further scans etc. take comfort in the fact that they haven't so they are obviously not thinking it's an issue.

Thanks all. That's what I needed to hear.

It's good to know that the centiles can vary so much for the one baby.

(I'll be expecting a short fat baby )

DD had measurements like this - 50th centile at 20 weeks and then a big difference at 30 weeks (when I was scanned due to GD). She's absolutely fine, but short! I remember asking the consultant about it at the time, and was told that there can be a discrepancy because femur length is the measurement most directly related to height/length.