our little man

5.22.2006

16 week appointment

we had our 16 week appointment this afternoon. after the nurse did all of the pre-appointment stuff (urine sample, weight, blood pressure), i went out to the waiting room and got sophie and adam so that they would be able to meet the doctor and hear the heartbeat. i think we'll do all of the appointments this way - because the way the practice works is that you see all of the different doctors so that you've met whomever might be on call when you deliver... and obviously, adam wants to be able to meet them all, too.

everything is looking good. they did end up changing my due date (back to what i originally thought it was) because of the ultrasound we had last month. she actually wasn't going to change it because the two dates were within a week of one another, and a due date is really just an estimation anyhow. but i pushed a little bit, asking about what would happen in the event that i needed to be induced again. obviously, if i had a medical reason that warranted induction then we would have to do it. but if like last time, because of the gestational diabetes, they simply didn't want me to go past my due date - i want the benefit of the five extra days. five days can make a big difference at the end of a pregnancy, and if i can have the opportunity to go into labor on my own, i don't want that cut short by nearly a week. the induction with sophie wasn't a terrible experience by any means, but the pitocin did make the contractions more intense and i think maybe i could have made it without any pain relief if i had been able to progress naturally. and so i'd obviously like to avoid an induction if possible. and plus, since this is more than likely our last pregnancy, it would be kind of exciting to experience that "its time" moment instead of heading in for a scheduled delivery. anyhow - the doctor agreed with my reasoning and was fine with changing the date.

other than that, the appointment was really quick. she felt my belly, which was measuring fine, and then we got to hear the heartbeat. it took a little searching because the baby was moving around. she heard some movements, but took her awhile to chase the baby down to hear the heart. when she finally got it, she actually let us hear it for awhile, which was nice. we also got to hear the baby kick the doppler a couple of times, which was pretty cute. the heartrate was right about 165 beats per minute.

it was a nice, quick appointment. i am going in next week to have an early glucose screening (something they do for women who have previously had gestational diabetes - since the likelihood is pretty high that you'll have it again, they tend to test early). and they also scheduled us for our big 20 week ultrasound. that will be on june 15th. i can't wait to see this little baby again and to finally know if we're having a boy or a girl!

posted at 4:48 PM by aimee // 1 comments