Tuesday, February 9, 2010

12 weeks

I am 12 weeks pregnant as of yesterday.  You may have noticed the new pictures posted earlier.  I had an appointment with the high risk OB yesterday, and had a pretty detailed ultrasound.  I guess that's the good thing about my situation.  I get a bunch of extra ultrasounds that most women with normal pregnancies don't get.  Its extremely cool to see how the development progresses every few weeks.  The rate of change is absolutely amazing!  My next appointment is at 15 weeks with my regular doctor and I am scheduled to have an ultrasound then too.  I'm looking forward to it. :)

Anyway, about that appointment yesterday.  I had to drive all the way into downtown Ft. Worth for it and the weather was terrible.  Thankfully I left with plenty of time because I had to fight slow traffic and an accident.  The paperwork I received in the mail specifically told me I may be waiting a while because they tend to take longer with women when they notice a problem.  I totally understand that and I took my Kindle along just in case.  My appointment time was at 12:30, but I didn't actually get called back until 2pm!  The waiting room was packed the entire time.  When I went back I was taken into an ultrasound room with the ultrasound technician.  She did the initial look and took a bunch of measurements (and the pictures).  The ultrasound equipment looked pretty much the same as my doctor has, but this room had a 42" flat panel on the wall for the patient to see.  Its amazing the detail you can see when the picture is blown up so large. :)  The baby was moving around like last time and looked just fine to me.  The heartbeat was 160.  It did measure a bit longer than what is expected for my due date.  They had me about 5 days farther along than I am, which is impossible, but I guess the baby just had a big growth spurt, or I may just have a large baby.  I hope that's not the case (for birthing sake), but its definitely possible.  So, after the technician left I just sat there and waited for another 20 minutes or so for the doctor to come in.  When he finally showed I was very unimpressed.  I don't like him at all.  The first thing he asked me when he walked in was if I liked taking the shots.  I said no, but it wasn't really a big deal.  Then he proceeded to tell me that I can stop taking them any time because they aren't doing anything for me and he could write me a prescription for M&Ms and they would do the same thing.  Now, I already knew this doctor didn't agree with my treatment, but the way he said it really annoyed me.  He could have a little more tact anyway.  It seems to me that a man in his position would have a bit better bedside manner.  The rest of the meeting went ok I guess.  He did his own ultrasound and took more measurements.  He didn't say much, but did tell me my baby has a nice facial profile.  I guess that's something anyway. :)  He did the nuchal fold measurement for Down's Syndrome and it was well within the normal range.  That was about it.  He said everything looks fine.  They did have me get some blood drawn to do the full Down's Syndrome test.  I got a brochure about it.  The test is a 2 step process.  They do the measurement and the blood test and then if you screen negative, the blood test is repeated in 4 weeks.  If you screen negative after that part the risk of Down's Syndrome is very low.  I think this is a standard thing they do at this office because the desk receptionist gave me the brochure about the test when I checked in.  The good news is all I have to do is go back to this office in 4 weeks for the 2nd blood test and then I never have to go back there again, unless I get a positive Down's screen anyway.  I'm not at all worried about that though.  The doctor said everything looks fine, and I did a bit of my own research after I got home and reassured myself that there isn't anything to worry about with that.  I'm glad, because I will be happy if I never have to see that doctor again.  At least I got some good pictures out of the appointment!

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