Baby's First Appointment

Wednesday was Baby’s first Dr. appointment. Nathan had finished on the car overnight and got home about 10 minutes before we had to leave for the appointment. He jumped in the shower and back out, and we left. The car runs beautifully, by the way. We sat in the little room waiting for the doctor for what felt like hours, and I was freezing in my stylish gown and paper lap cover. Nathan and I both were about to fall asleep right there. He from staying up all night, and I because I was sick L Finally Dr. H. came in and talked to us. He didn’t do another pap ( I did just see him 2 weeks ago after all) but he did do a cervical exam, which basically consisted of tickling my tonsils while pressing on my tummy. He has to watch my cervix more carefully because of the Leep procedure that I had done last year. He said my uterus was enlarged which was a good sign of pregnancy, and I told him that my baby is going to bite his finger when it comes out. He thought that was funny. (This has to do with the manner of the exam. If you don’t get this joke, you are probably a man and I am not going to explain it to you.) We talked for several minutes, and I got to ask him a lot of my questions. Unfortunately at that point I was feeling so sick that all I wanted to do was go home, so I just hit the high points and figured I’d ask him the rest at another appointment. Mostly what I wanted to know was if he would support and assist the way I would (ideally) like my pregnancy and labor to go, which is as naturally as possible. He said that he, and his partners, all try let things happen that was as that was the way women were designed. I then had to get my blood drawn but after much pumping and poking and prodding the nurse decided that she couldn’t find my vein. So she sent me down the street to Labcorp, where they managed (painfully) to find a vein and draw some blood.

All day Tuesday at work I was feeling crummy, freezing and I knew I had a fever. I got home from work and laid right down and went to sleep. I woke up around 10ish and called my mom to see if I should take a Tylenol. (Too high fever is bad for baby). She said it was probably ok, so I took it and went back to sleep. About an hour later, I woke up sweating the fever out. I had a little soup and drove over to say hello to Nathan, who was working on the car. I stayed with him for about a half hour, then went home and went back to sleep until my alarm rang Weds morning for the Dr. appointment. My fever was back when I woke up so when we got home from the Dr. I called in sick to work and went right back to bed. I slept until about 8 that night, woke up, took more Tylenol, drank some soup, and went back to bed. That night I tossed and turned with the most horrible pain ever in my hips. I literally could not find a comfortable way to lay, and woke myself up moaning in pain several times. When Nathan got home from work around 5 AM he accidentally touched my hip and it made me cry. I don’t know what was going on, but I swear if there had been a Dr’s office open at that time of day I would’ve gone. I’m guessing that it was a combination of ligaments and stuff stretching for baby (which normally doesn’t hurt me much at this point) horribly compounded by a couple days of fever. I don’t know. I gave up on sleeping around 7 AM, called in sick again, and went out to the living room and sat in Nathan’s recliner with the TV on low. That actually felt a lot better, and I was able to nap for several hours before people started waking up. I started to feel a little better throughout the day and really enjoyed actually being able to watch TV on our TV! Everyone was avoiding me like I had the plague so by the evening my Father IL, Mother IL, Sis IL (Andrea), and her husband (Justin) were all hiding out in Andrea and Justin’s room. Usually they are all in the LR and Nathan and I are in our room. It was kind of nice, and I might be mean but I didn’t feel bad about it. The recliner was the only place I was comfortable, so that was where I was going to sit. I wish I’d had my mommy though. My mommy’s takes care of me when I’m sick.

The really scary part, though, about last night was that late in the afternoon I started having some bleeding. I got ahold of the on-call doctor at Dr. H’s practice and talked to her, and she made me feel a little better, but I was still a little scared. Just because it wasn’t a planned baby doesn’t mean that I want to miscarry. I’m doing what she told me to do, but…. I can’t wait to get out of the place where we live. There is a lot of stress living where we are. A lot. We are looking for a new place.

But, here's a happier note. In three weeks Baby has its first ultrasound, and which point we will see it (OK, we’ll see a dark blob), hear it’s heartbeat, and even find out if “Baby” is “Babies”. I’ll put up the Ultrasound picture, if I can find a way, so that all of you can ooh and aah over my dark grainy blob! ;) And you better ooh and aah, or else! We’re very excited, can you tell?