First OB appointment

Yesterday Jack & I went to our first OB appointment. They had told us to allow two hours.. but it seemed to take longer than that.

First we met with a nurse and went through all the basics, tons of questions about our previous medical history, mostly mine of course, but a little bit from Jack too. Then she provided us with a ton of information such as all the various screening tests, what medicines are okay to take, what will happen at normal appts, etc. Of course she checked my urine, blood pressure & weight (I'm still at my pre-pregnancy weight, but a good 5-8lbs over my pre-fertility-treatment weight. But I already look like I'm pregnant so I guess it's all from bloating).

Then we moved over to another office to meet with the doctor. He reviewed some of the medical chart plus went over some of the same testing stuff again. The discussion with him went fairly quick and then it was off to another room.

The last room was for the exam and ultrasound. He did a basic GYN exam (pap & all) and then the ultrasound. At first when we talked in his office, I thought he was not going to do one since I'd had one at 6 weeks at the fertility clinic. But then he said 'lets do one anyway and check it out'. The baby looked fine. Jack was amazed at how much the baby had grown in 2 weeks. And the heartbeat looked nice & strong.. a lot more obvious than the tiny blip on the screen 2 weeks ago. The CRL (crown rump length - a measurement of the fetus) was 20.9mm which is normal. He did find a cyst on my ovary though. It seemed big to me (measured at 52x40mm) but the doctor said there was nothing to be concerned about, just we'd keep an eye on it. So he'll do another u/s at our next regular appt (in 4 weeks) just to check it out. If nothing else, it's a way for us to get to see the baby an extra time :)

After all that, they took some blood to run a bunch of initial tests. The nurse called me back with the results this afternoon. She talked so fast that I didn't get to write it all down, but basically all the ones that I didn't write down were all normal. They did test me for toxoplasmosis since we have a cat (I especially requested it but they do usually offer this if you say you have a cat). I was hoping I'd show up immune, but I did not. So, Jack is stuck with litterbox duty (I can't complain!) for awhile. I also did not show any current infection which is also very good. From what I've read, cats apparently get the disease mainly by eating rodents (yuck) and since my kitty is stuck inside.. he's only gotten ahold of one mouse that I know of (one that made it into the house a few years back). The other blood test that was of particular interest was my hemoglobin. I was at 11.8 g/100 ml and apparently at 11.3 this doc requires iron supplements. Taking a supplement doesn't sound too tough, but this one can cause upset stomach which is not something I need to add to right now. She said to just be careful to make sure I'm eating iron-rich foods since I was fairly low on iron.

We have a ton of paperwork to read through, a few lists (foods, medicines,etc that are okay & warning signs to call the doc immediately), some ads, a magazine and a urine sample cup. Didn't see that coming? Actually I did know about that from my therapist who happened to have used the same practice. They have you pee in a cup at home & bring it in with you for your appointment. (I guess to save time?).

They scheudule regular appts every 4 weeks until the 26wk mark, then every 2 weeks until 36wk and then every week from there on. So we go back on November 1st.