Fifteen Weeks

As of yesterday, I am fifteen weeks pregnant. I had an appointment on Wednesday with the midwives, and this time had the opportunity to meet Amy. Although maybe a bit more serious and certainly not motherly like Margaret, she was very nice and answered all of my questions. Of course at this point I would still love to know that Margaret will be at the birth, but there are, obviously, never any guarantees. That became much clearer in the past couple of weeks, as poor, dear Margaret both broke her ankle and lost her husband to a fatal heart attack, each just within fifteen minutes of each other. Not only does she have to deal with the heartache of losing her companion, but also has to put no weight on her ankle for eight weeks. My heart goes out to her and everything she is having to deal with right now.

The appointment went well. I peed in a cup (must have been fine), was weighed (I weighed 129 pounds, up 2 pounds from the February 16 appointment), and had my blood pressure taken (100/70). Amy came in and we went over some questions I had, primarily having to do with exercise and how much is too much when it comes to things like jogging and yoga. I can basically do whatever feels okay, and when it comes to yoga I just need to stay away from inversions (so no worries there!). We also talked about sleep and the fact that I am already waking up uncomfortable, which seemed way too early to me, but she said that most often the things that made you uncomfortable the first go around begin much sooner the second time. Lovely. That is certainly holding true thus far for me. Thankfully I seem to be pretty lucky with pregnancy (knock on wood), but I am dealing with the tossing and turning and heartburn at this point. After the question/answer period, Amy listened for the baby's heartbeat, and claimed it sounded like "a very happy baby."

Jarrett came with me to this appointment, with hopes that we could have his blood drawn to find out his blood type. Thankfully, unlike the last go around with Elsa, they complied, as Margaret said would be the case, and they took his blood. So we should find out the results of that test, and whether I'll need the Rh immunoglobulin injection, at my next appointment. Jarrett has had a bit of a history of feeling faint after having blood drawn (as have I), but he seemed completely fine after this draw. That is, until we were actually outside, walking to the car. Then he went completely white and said we needed to hurry so he could sit down in the car. Thankfully we made it before he decided to crash to the concrete parking deck floor, and once he was seated in the car, I ran back inside to find a vending machine and buy him a Coke. That seemed to help well enough until we could go get lunch, but he still was not feeling great. It's weird -- he is not afraid of needles and is not bothered at all by the actual injection. Our family doctor told him that some people's bodies just do not like blood being taken out of them, so I guess this is just something some people have to do deal with.

I will not go back to the midwife for another six weeks, on April 27. At that time they will schedule the greatly anticipated ultrasound, where we will hopefully be able to find out the gender of the baby. Amy said See Baby seems to be able to get patients in within a week, so I am hoping I will not have to wait long, and hopefully we will know by the end of April or the first week of May.

As far as the baby goes, BabyCenter says the baby now measures about four inches long, crown to rump, and weighs in at about two-and-a-half ounces (about the size of an apple). It is busy moving amniotic fluid through its nose and upper respiratory tract, which helps the primitive air sacs in its lungs begin to develop. The baby's legs are growing longer than its arms now, and it can move all of its joints and limbs. Although its eyelids are still fused shut, apparently the baby can sense light, and if I was to shine a flashlight at my tummy, it would likely move away from the beam. There's not much for the baby to taste at this point, but it is forming taste buds. And they say that if I was to get an ultrasound at this point, the gender could likely be detected. Oh well -- still have to wait a few weeks!