Wee N' Weigh

Today was my first prenatal appointment. I'm 9 weeks 5 days. I knew it would be the usual pee-in-a-cup, get weighed, give an updated medical history, use the doppler and go have seven hundred vials of blood drawn first appointment. My main concern was that if we didn't hear the heartbeat on the doppler, I might have to wait another month for my next appointment to confirm this pregnancy. This would be stressful in and of itself, but we were planning on announcing this pregnancy soon (as I'm starting to show), and that would mean four more weeks of trying to hide my expanding waist (and enlarging bra size).

My appointment was with the PA (who I need a cute pseudonym for, since I see her often -- I'll think about it). All went as expected (although I've gained four pounds already), even when she told me, "Don't panic if we can't find the heartbeat. It's still very early and you have an retroverted uterus, which can make it even harder to find it." My response was, "I'm just warning you that I am probably going to panic if we don't hear it, because I've been worrying about this pregnancy since before it started."

Then, of course, they couldn't find it.

The PA had a student with her, so the student ran the doppler across my lower abdomen (okay, pushed it hard against my lower abdomen), while the PA tried to move my uterus up and forward (Uh... she did this internally, for those of you who can't figure out how she'd do that). No dice.

Finally, the PA said, "I'm just going to send you for an ultrasound." And aren't those the words that any infertile wants to hear? (Well, they're on the list of words, at least).

In contrast to the office staff of just about every other health care provider I have, the staff at my OB's office is incredibly nice and accomodating. The office manager called and had the ultrasound place fit me in right away, as soon as I could get there.

The upshot: There's only one baby, it had a heartbeat, and it measures according to date. And it looks a little like Gorignak, the rock monster from Galaxy Quest.