First Prenatal Appointment

This pregnancy's first prenatal appointment yesterday morning was much shorter than my first appointment last go around. I do not know if it because this is my second pregnancy and they think I have it all figured out or if this is just how Margaret's new practice works.

I still had to fill out a decent amount of paperwork, and after a bit of waiting out front with Jarrett, we were called back and I peed in a cup -- the first of many, many in the coming months, I now know. I was then weighed, and in comparing their scale to ours at home, I had gained two pounds since I weighed myself after first finding out that I was pregnant (but who knows if our scales are calibrated at all the same). So, basically I am starting out at 124 on their scale. We then went back to an exam room where the nurse took my blood pressure (94/70), and we met with Margaret. It was so good to see her and talk to her, and she genuinely seemed to remember us and gave us hugs and asked about Elsa.

Margaret was slightly concerned about my being sick for so long, and spent a decent amount of time looking up sinusitis and the type of antibiotic I should be on. She asked that I call her after getting back home to confirm what Dr. Owen put me on, as well as the dosage. I did as told and left a message with the front desk, and Margaret called me yesterday evening to confirm that I was taking the proper medication. I also confirmed with her that snow tubing should be safe at this point in the pregnancy. :) Obviously, I will still use my best judgment and will be cautious.

Because my cycles were longer just prior to getting pregnant, she feels that I am probably not as far along as the calendar would show, which was my prediction as well. She did a manual exam to feel my uterus and try to place where the baby might be, and then she attempted to find the heartbeat with a Doppler device. After an extended and honorable attempt, she gave up. She assured me there was nothing to worry about, but that it was probably just too early at this point. She said the earliest she usually hears the heartbeat is at eight weeks, but that she almost always hears it at ten weeks. Her new office does not have the equipment to do ultrasounds or she would have done one, as she feels it is important to date the pregnancy early on, I guess because she believes a better prediction can be made the earlier you do it. This becomes important down the road so that doctors are not trying to push to induce birth once you have hit 40 weeks. So, she had me schedule an appointment with See Baby to have an ultrasound done next Wednesday morning. After that ultrasound, we should have a much better idea of the due date.

After seeing Margaret, I had blood drawn for various tests and then scheduled my next appointment for the morning of Wednesday, February 16. We spoke briefly with Margaret about screening for defects, etc., but just as we did last time, I think we are going to avoid most, if not all, of these tests. So it is probably likely we will not find out the sex of the baby until the 20-week mark, but I guess we will just see how it goes.