Present day.
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On Friday, Jamaal and I went to our first ultrasound appointment. I was super nervous. The ultrasound tech at first gently touched my belly with the wand, and so we could see the little guy, but there was no flicker in the chest. I panicked for 1.5 seconds. Then she pressed down, and that little flutter was there clear as day.
It is amazing how clearly we could see the little "gummy bear." The head even has some definition of eyes nose and mouth. I was not expecting that. I was expecting to see a mess with a heartbeat. The tech called it a gummy bear because at this point it has little stubby arms and legs and kind of looks like one. She let us listen to the heartbeat and it was going at 179 bpm, so it was nice and strong. After all the measurements of my uterus and of the baby, it was estimated that I was 9 weeks along and not the 8 weeks 4 days that I thought I was.
I am pretty proud of myself for being within my predicted range of +/- 4 days.
So instead of a due date of January 3rd, I'm due December 31st.
After the ultrasound, we met with our midwife for the first time. She told us that about 40% of the time we will have the same midwife at our delivery as we see in the clinic. That really isn't all that great of odds. But I don't think I'll mind too terribly. I understand that they cannot be on call every night. They'd never get to go to sleep that way. :D
I'm thinking I'll begin my maternity leave a little bit before Christmas, so I can have the holiday off this year. It'll be nice to have new years and Christmas off for once. I usually have to work at least one (Christmas eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve or New Year's).
I'm hoping I continue to take after my mom. She said she felt the best when she was pregnant and then had really short labors. So far I've had very few symptoms of early pregnancy, and only 3 more weeks til this first trimester thing is over! :D
Aubri, you are so cute. I loved reading all your posts all of a sudden. I was definitely looking forward to your appointment, too, cause I knew afterward you'd be able to write all about it and everything that's happened so far. It's so awesome that we are pregnant together - and only three weeks apart after all!
ReplyDeleteI'm always surprised when other women have ultrasounds so early...our OB office only schedules them at 14 weeks, at the earliest - they prefer 16. I wonder why that is?
Also, I'm sorry about the peeing thing. And at night is the worst cause all you want to do is sleep! But of course you know all the crazy pregnancy things are worth it, in the end. Well, keep up the posts. We all know Aubri isn't the type to hold things back so we'll get the good the bad and the ugly! (unlike me, who tends to sugar-coat things on my blog :) haha; love you! Congrats AGAIN!!!
Oh, I should correct myself. I asked Mike and he reminded me that we actually did have the option to do one (an ultrasound)sooner but both times we decided against it because they said it was more of a screening for genetic stuff or something like that. (Not an amnio of course) We said we just wanted to wait until we could see the gender. I can't believe I forgot that. Oh wait, I'm pregnant :)
ReplyDeleteI am not exactly sure why they did an ultrasound so early. It might have something to do with insurance; mine is excellent and I can have as many ultrasounds as I want without having to pay out of pocket for them. They did not do a genetic screening at mine. Also it could have to do with the fact that my due date by LMP and my predicted ACTUAL due date were so far off. I think it was mainly to check to see how far along I was measuring. I don't really care. I got to see that heart a thumping away. :D
ReplyDeleteVery exciting! Glad the due date is even earlier than you expected. It would be nice for you to have the holidays off. Thanks for all the new posts. I feel up to date ;)
ReplyDeleteIm so happy that you and Kayleen are so close together in this pregnancy, it is so fun to have a close friend going thru the same things as you, like Shayna and I did. :) Congrats to both of you!
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