1st Midwife Appointment

Well, I had my first prenatal appointment today for this pregnancy!  How exciting!  If you are just catching up, we were just added to my husband's company insurance a week or two ago.  We had been on the 3 month waiting period.  So thankful to have insurance again!  I sleep a little better at night.  It's all in God's hands though.  He knows what we need, insurance or not.

So I had my appointment this morning.  Totally different doctor's group than my last pregnancy.  Also, I had an OB last time.  This time, I scheduled an appointment with a midwife.  You can read my reasons for switching in my last post...make that second to last post.

My wait was a good bit longer than at my old OB's office, but I kind of expected that since I used to get in and out of that office in 20 minutes or less.  Plus I had to fill out paperwork today.  When they first called me back, they checked my blood pressure and asked me a few questions about my history.  My blood pressure was 136/74, and it is normally 110/60.  I am hoping that was just nerves.  Plus my husband has had a stomach virus with a fever for the past several days and has been in bed, so I have been on August duty alone for 3 days.  That can be a little stressful.  I also didn't sleep much last night since I slept on the couch.  I am trying my hardest not to catch that stomach bug!  So I am hoping I can attribute the higher blood pressure to nerves, stress, and lack of sleep.  After weight and all that (I won't be revealing that lovely number, but am I the only one who hates doctor's scales??  They are always higher than my scale at home!), the nurse told me that I would be getting an ultrasound today so that we can get a due date!  How exciting!  I did not expect that on my first visit.  I thought those had to be scheduled.  I didn't bother telling them that I had an ultrasound at a pregnancy resource center, because I knew they would want to check for themselves anyway.  I told them I figured I was around 10 weeks though. 

The ultrasound tech was super sweet.  She acted almost as excited as I was to see the baby.  I was so glad I can get the belly ultrasounds now instead of the internal ones.  The internal ones don't hurt, but they obviously aren't on the bucket list.  The ultrasound estimated me at 10 weeks 6 days, so I gained 2 days!  That's exciting. :)  So tomorrow (Thursday 2/7) I will be 11 weeks!  I know that the 1st ultrasound is usually the most accurate in determining the due date, so I will keep that in mind when I hit 40 weeks and am "overdue."  Here is a picture of our sweet baby!  Check out the 4D!  That's crazy.

August used to always have his hand up by his face in ultrasounds!  He has also done that ever since he was born when he gets sleepy.  It is the sweetest thing ever.  The baby was moving and kicking around.  So sweet.  You can see that he/she doesn't have a ton of room in there, so it's no wonder I can feel the movements. :)  The heartbeat was 164 beats per minute!  How exciting!

After the ultrasound and a short wait, I met with the midwife.  I had to completely undress and do the whole paper gown thing.  I was happy to see that their tops were actually colored and had buttons.  At my old OB you just got a white paper shirt, which I somehow managed to rip every time.  Awesome.  So I thought the buttons were nice. 

It was kind of funny though, when the midwife walked in the first thing she said was, "You got a haircut!" 

I looked at her kind of funny and said, "You must be thinking of someone else, because we have never met." 

She replied, "I know we haven't, but it still seems like you recently got your hair cut off."  LOL.  Strange, but she was right.  I just got it chopped off not long ago. 

She spent at least 10 minutes with me, maybe even 15 talking about the ultrasound and how great everything looked, my history with preeclampsia, breastfeeding with August, and she even told me about her history and her family.  Her eyes got a little bit teary when she told me that she had 4 children even though she desired at least 6.  She said she let society get into her head, and the negative comments about having so many children got to her.  So she had her tubes tied, and she told me that she has regretted it ever since.  I thought it was so sweet and so human of her to open up like that.  I would have fallen off the table if my old OB had ever talked to me that way.  It was a nice change.  We also discussed my hopes for an unmedicated birth, and she told me that she thought that would be great.  She told me that she would labor with me as much as she could unless she had a waiting room full of patients that day.  She also said that she would tell me different things to try during the birth to avoid the medications that I will ask for.  She said after we have tried everything, if I am still asking for medicine, we will do a small amount of medicine through the IV first and then go from there.  She was very supportive of natural birth, which is refreshing! My old OB would not even discuss the labor with me until late in the pregnancy. She kept telling me it was too early to worry about that. Then we I told her I would like to labor naturally, she laughed.

The midwife ended up doing a pap (anyone else hate that word?), which was uncomfortable of course.  She told me that I have a very pregnant looking cervix.  LOL.  Nice to hear.  I am spotting and cramping now.  I wasn't really that happy that she did it since I have already had one since August has been born.  I know some doctors don't do that while you are pregnant because it can be a little risky.  I guess she just wanted to be thorough and start off with a clean slate. 

After all of that, she scheduled me to see her again in 4 weeks.  I can't believe the visit after this coming one will be the visit we find out the sex if we want!  Wow!  At first I didn't want to find out just for fun, but now I really want to know!  I don't know if it's hopeful thinking for a girl, but I kind of feel like it's a girl.  But it could totally be a boy, and I would be ecstatic with that too. 

At the end of my appointment, I had lab work.  6 viles of blood....super fun.  It was the blood work lady's first day, which was super scary.  Someone was instructing her on each step, but thankfully she did great.  I usually don't bleed very well.  My blood is usually thick and slow, but she must have hit an artery or something because it didn't take long to fill them up.  Haha.  After the appointment, I treated myself to a Bojangles chicken biscuit.  Delicious! 

Well, I need to get ready for church.  Gotta wake up my little sleepy head.  He refused to nap all day, and then he konked out about 30 minutes ago.  Talk to y'all later!