So far so good

Yesterday’s ultrasound was absolutely fantastic. At first I was a little weary, because not only was the ultrasound tech there, but there was also a lady in a white doctors’ coat. I lay there silently with my mind working on overdrive about why the hell there were now two people in the room after being asked for an extra ultrasound. How could they have not told me that something was wrong and that they needed an expert there to oversee things? After a wee internal freak-out I casually said,

“So, why are there two of you guys today?”
“Oh, sorry!” said the young one, “I’m a student and she’s just overseeing me.”

I thought that was cool and proceeded to ask all about her new career. Did you know it’s a two and a half year course to be an ultrasound tech? There’s tons of information to know. Also, they don’t just look at babies; they have to look at cancer and bad things also. She said that she doesn’t mind doing diseases because when people come in to scan those, at least they’re expecting the news and know what’s going on. Her least favorite part of the job is when there are actually things wrong with babies, because unlike cancer, people come in expecting good news and it’s difficult to give them bad ones. I felt a bit validated in the fact that I always hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Back to the ultrasound. She started scanning me and I was kind of craning my neck to see, as usual. My barrage of questions started, and she said, “Oh! You can look on the screen!” and turned on a huge fifty inch TV mounted on the ceiling! Can you friggin believe that?! It was a dream come true! Toby and I stared at her forever, and she looked really happy and comfortable in her apartment. The reason we had to return was because at the last ultrasound she was curled in a little ball so they couldn’t get proper pictures of the four distinct chambers of her heart, but they did see that she indeed had four chambers. This time she was stretched out fully and they got every picture they needed. The neat thing is that the tech really didn’t know what she was doing, so she kept asking her instructor for assistance. This led to a very long and detailed ultrasound. We looked at baby for well over an hour and it was perfectly fine with me. So long it was that she had to re-gel my tummy about six times. It was also great to have Toby there because he held my foot the whole time. (Got it, Becca? Hold my foot next time! :P )

All in all, she looked amazing. She was doing flips and turns and little jigs. At one point we had a great look of her face, which includes eyes and a nose and lips. She was moving her little mouth in a suckling motion also! It was awesome! There was a huge “awww” in the room when we saw that. She’s absolutely healthy and normal and freakishly smart and beautiful.

A brief recap on the most important information learned:

Weight: One pound, eight ounces
Height: Twenty three centimeters long
New Due Date: November 19th 2010.

Yay!!!

Five more months until my family goes from three to four

The midwife appointment went great. We heard the heartbeat and it was a quick woosh-woosh-woosh. She said it was about 150bpm, which is considerably slower than last time but still perfectly normal. I’ve heard the old wives’ tale about a very fast heartbeat (160, like last time) indicating a boy and a slower one meaning that a girl is coming. Now I’ve had a bit of both so we’re pretty in the dark about who will be giving the sex-talk ten years down the road (we’ve agreed that if it’s a boy Toby has to do it, and vice-versa). He’s swimming right in line with my belly button, which is soooo weird! I would have thought it’d be lower, and have a feeling that a higher uterus indicates an older baby. We’ll see at the next ultrasound, I suppose. She also showed us how to feel my uterus/the baby from the outside! She easily felt it and kept going, “Don’t you feel that ridge? That’s him!” I totally didn’t feel it, but even this morning Toby kept touching it and saying, “I can feel him!!!!”

In terms of my midwife vs. doctor dilemma, I’m still so totally torn. It was Toby’s job to be really aware of which experience was better for us, as now he’s been to both the doctor and the midwife. Like me, he could see the benefits of both. The midwife was a really nice and relaxed atmosphere. Instead of sitting on the doctor table thing, you sit on a nice futon with throw-pillows and face a “lending library” of pregnancy information. The midwife was attentive, easygoing, and gave validity to my typed list of questions. One thing that I really appreciated about her was how she really acknowledged Toby and asked him questions specifically related to him. She asked about his job, whether he had questions about the whole thing, and she asked also if having the baby brought up any feelings about his being adopted. I really like how they put a serious emphasis on to how he was feeling, rather than it being all about me and baby. I know this is so much about him too and I appreciated seeing that coming from the professional. So, all in all it was a good experience with the midwife. Obviously, I have no idea which is the better decision and I won’t know that until I’m actually going through it. We’re going to go through the process of moving over my paperwork and hopefully it all goes well with going through the midwives. And if it doesn’t? Well, if it doesn’t go well, we’ll deliver the next baby through the medical clinic!

When I told the midwife about my fears of something going terribly wrong, she acknowledged that it was not just me being anxious and paranoid, but that it’s a valid thing that happens to everyone at this stage. I inquired as to whether I should do something drastic, such as buying a Doppler, and she found that notion a bit funny. She said it was entirely up to me, but that I’ll truly find a sense of calm and acceptance next month once I feel the baby start moving around. She’s dealt with a lot of people who experience the exact same anxiety as me and then completely move away from fear once they have the constant reassurance of movement. So, since everything is fine, I’ll hold off on the Doppler purchase for now.

I’m so happy he’s swimming around in there.

Stuffed like a sausage

It’s been a happy pregnancy day. We started off with a mini argument (I was eating cheesecake for breakfast and the love of my life called me “piggie” in a supposedly “loving” way while I think in actuality it was in a very MEAN way), got over it, and were on our way to the clinic.

We went through all of my (negative!) test results, and I smiled and thought, “Whew, dodged a bullet…” In my young and irresponsible days, getting test results for those types of icky things was fairly nerve-racking, but now that I’m old and responsible and in love with only one person, they’re a breeze. Anyway, since I don’t have HIV or syphilis or anything, we proceeded to my plethora of questions. At the first appointment I had about twenty bullet-point questions, and this time it was only about four. Blood pressure was fine, and then we listened to the heartbeat.

We listened to the heartbeat.

My baby has a heartbeat!

Up until now, I’ve always had something to worry about. I’m young and healthy, but… I just didn’t want to love too much and too soon. All of my books mentioned something called “missed miscarriage” where the miscarriage goes undetected for weeks. Not only did this lead me to taking about a pregnancy test a week for the past eight weeks (okay, maybe I exaggerate), but also thinking and worrying and thinking and worrying. ANYWAY! After the cute little 160bpm “thumpthumpthumpthump!” the doctor assured me that the combination of being into the second trimester as well as having auditory confirmation of his little heart was a good reason to stop worrying.

And now, I will buy maternity clothes!