Okay, story time. Today my appointment was with a different midwife than I've had before, Janna. She was nice, but a bit rushed, probably because she was running late and it was the end of the day! I don't think that anyone informed her about the ultrasound that was the entire point of the visit, which was part of our problem.
I went to my appointment with a very, VERY full bladder. The last time we had had an ultrasound they ended up having to use the vaginal probe because my bladder was so empty, and I was not about to let that happen this time. I also ate some cookies about an hour before the appointment, because I've heard that infuses the baby with sugar and helps get him/her moving around for the ultrasound. We were admitted by a nurse pretty quickly, and got my blood pressure (still pretty low at 90/58) and weight (88 lbs., so down 1.5 from the last visit). After the nurse left was awful. We waited for probably 20 minutes in the room, and all I could think about was my exploding bladder. It was probably worse just because I was thinking about it, but it was really driving me crazy!
After the 20 minute wait, Janna came in and introduced herself. She talked to me about the losing weight (which is probably because I'm eating less because I'm nauseous fairly often + spicy foods make me sick to my stomach), and instructed me to eat high fat content foods so that I would gain more weight! She also told me I could take some extra vitamin B6 (50mg) or try some ginger to help me with the nausea. And she said I should never stop eating all day long because that will help, too. How about that? Permission from a doctor to eat whatever I want, whenever I want?!? Woohoo! Jonathan is making it his personal mission to get me to eat more fatty things, which, of course, involves his eating more fatty things, since he won't make me eat alone! (Janna is probably his favorite midwife ever now.)
After "discussion time" Janna suggested that she try the doppler, since I'm so skinny she figured she might be able to hear something. It didn't work! (This was the only time during the appointment that I was actually nervous for!) It was probably a combination of their probe being only 2 Mhz (3 Mhz is supposed to be able to hear a heartbeat earlier) and the baby being in a turned around position (I've heard that even if they're facing backwards when you're this early, that can stop you from being able to hear it).
At this point, I realized that she probably was not thinking about doing an ultrasound, so I brought it up, since I really, really wanted this (especially after not being able to hear the heartbeat!). She acquiesed to my "demand" and brought in the dinosaur. She found the baby right away and it looked just like the picture up above - except that she was having a really hard time keeping the baby in the picture! I think he/she was moving around a lot, probably because I was shivering (it's cold here today!) and all of the sugar I infused him/her with. :) Hehe, whoops. We saw the baby and she pointed out the heartbeat, although I couldn't see it very well because I couldn't move even a centimeter without jiggling the baby off the screen... Then she promptly wiped me off and turned off the machine! I was in a state of shock - I really thought she was going to freeze the baby's picture and measure the heartbeat, which is what they did last time, and I didn't even get a second to ask for a picture! So no picture, folks. :( But now I know for next time that I am going to start the ultrasound by asking for a picture, and then if they forget I will not feel bad asking for it if they start to turn things off. Also, since our next ultrasound is the nuchal transluceny scan, that picture will probably be much clearer, any way.
I'm going to order a doppler sometime today or tomorrow, I hope, and I'm going to try to get one that I can record onto the computer with! I'm really looking forward to hearing our baby's heartbeat for the first time!
3 comments:
Oh the ultrasound drama! sounds like you had an interesting visit. Sorry you had to pee so bad. I just got off the phone with our insurance. The cranky old guy explained to me that unless its medically necessary to do an ultrasound then they wont pay for more then one. UGH! I called my doc office and she said that the first US will be for dating the baby and then we will have one around 20 wks to make sure everything is where it should be and of course so we can see the sex of the baby ;) she said she hasnt heard of an insurance not covering either one of those. I dunno. I hate insurance companys! I will pay out of pocket for the 20wk one if I have to if it comes down to it. I am glad to hear thumper is doing well. We are just a few weeks behind you!!
Congratulations! We're happy to hear the positive news. :)
I heard (from my Nurse Practitioner) that--although it used to be recommended that underweight pregnant women gain a ton of weight during their pregnancy-- the tides are changing and it's now recommended that anyone only gain between (I think) 10-20 pounds during pregnancy. I was always concerned that I wasn't gaining enough when I was pregnant with Alaina (in the end I only gained 15 lbs from start to finish), but my nurses were reassuring that my baby was growing just fine. I hope this is encouraging to you! I'll keep praying for you, Jonny and baby! Love ya!
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