Doctor visit numero dos

written March 30, 2011....11 weeks, 6 days

I was very anxious the few days coming up to our second doctor appointment and was ready to get it over with. The doctor office was like night and day from our last visit. There was hardly an empty seat in the place when we went a few weeks ago but today it was a ghost town.

It was a pretty routine check up. First, I was called back to get my stats from the nurse. I should note here that every time someone calls my name they absolutely butcher Tissiere. Every single nurse has asked me to repeat it because they can tell that they are way off. Anyways, I lost 2 lbs which was pretty shocking but whatever! Blood pressure was 120/80 and all of my tests came back negative. The only one that I was worried about was whether or not I'm a carrier for cystic fibrosis. If I am a carrier, Joe would have to get tested as well. If he is also a carrier, we would have a certain chance of our kid having the disease. Thankfully, I was negative so Joe won't have to get tested. I also found out that my blood type is O-. This means that I can only receive blood from another person who has O blood but I can give blood to anyone. I'm a giver like that.

Next up, the nurse got out the doppler and I was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time! It took her a bit to actually find it which had me nervous. (Good thing she already took my blood pressure!) Soon, she got a strong beat and measured it to 163bpm which is great and just slightly lower than what it was at our last visit. I was really glad I got to actually hear it and it was pretty much exactly like I pictured.....a sort of whooshing sound. Dr. Bennett came in to answer any questions, talk about labs and run through some things quick. Did I mention that I really like her? Our first visit she was wearing high black boots and fishnets. :) She's pretty laid back which is totally my style. I'm a no-intervention, minimalist type person and she seems to be like that. There was a bit of a mix up with my scheduling due to a new computer system so they sent me to get my ultrasound after my check up.

Take a look at our 11w6d old babe!


My tech, Julie, was the best! Seriously, I hope we get her next at our 20 week. She was cracking up at the kid rolling around and dodging her. We scheduled an ultrasound this week so that we would be able to complete the First Trimester Prenatal Screening. It's a voluntary screening that has to be done at the end of 1st tri and it tests for common birth defects. The ultrasound is used to measure the fetal nuchal translucency which is basically checking out the back of the neck for increased fluid. Can you see those two bright white lines around the spine in the picture above? To test the nuchal fold, Julie had to measure the distance between those two tiny white lines. Crazy, right? The baby is only 2 inches right now so I can't even imagine how teeny tiny that little gap is. We won't get the results until my next appointment at 17 weeks. It's something else I get to worry about until then.

As you can see, I got a pretty good look at him/her. The arms and legs were moving around like crazy! It's amazing what is going on inside me without even knowing it. Last thing on the schedule was more bloodwork which is my least favorite part. It doesn't hurt and it is pretty easy in general but it's just not very fun. This time I only had a fill a couple viles though. It was an all around perfect appointment. My next visit is on May 4th and it will just be a simple check up and bloodwork. No ultrasound until 20 weeks when we get to find out if it's a boy or girl!