First OB Appointment

Today was my first OB appointment with the new doctor. It was (hopefully) the longest appointment i'll have...i was there almost 2 hours! They asked me all kinds of questions about us and our family medical history and things. Then i had to pee in a cup. I'm not really sure why, but i'm sure they had their reasons. That part was easy since i have to pee all the time anyway.

Next they ushered me into an exam room. This is the part where i get to wear a paper gown like it's in style. Jake said it looked like i was wearing a roll of paper towels. Unlike my GYN's office, at least this gown reached my knees so i wasn't walking around mooning everyone. They told Jake he could just stay in the room with me, which was slightly awkward, but he was sitting by my head so he didn't get to see any of the good stuff. The doctor did a quick exam and said everything looked good and that my uterus is properly enlarged. So that's my new excuse for why i've got a pudgy belly already...it's my uterus' fault. (I need to save the Peanut excuse for later.) Anyway, he decided to try the fetal doppler even though he said it'd really be a miracle if we heard anything this early. It looked almost identical to mine! It was definitely a little more powerful, i could hear the ocean a lot clearer. Dr. Webb said that the ocean i keep hearing is actually the baby moving. So we didn't hear a heartbeat but he said he heard baby-moving sounds, and that's something at least.

After the exam i got to put on real clothes again and we went to the doctor's office to talk. I wasn't exactly forthright in describing the ultrasound i had at my GYN's office. I told him we didn't hear a heartbeat, but i might have left off the part where we *saw* it beginning to flicker. So he scheduled me for an ultrasound on February 15th! With this one they should be able to take Peanut's measurements and determine exactly how far along i am and when my due date is. PLUS i'll finally get to hear a heartbeat! Jake and i were going to go out of town for Valentine's day but i guess we'll just have to come home late Sunday night or something.

When we finished talking to Dr. Webb he sent me for blood work. I suspect there might be vampires on his staff because they took about half my blood. They're testing my blood type, Rh type, complete blood count, to make sure i don't have HIV, HepB, or syphilis, and to make sure i'm immune to Rubella. I should get these results Monday or Tuesday. I wish i had asked them to go ahead and check my HepB immunity. I'm at-risk to get it because my Grandmom has it and we didn't know about it for awhile and therefore weren't being extra careful about cuts and stuff, but i did get the vaccine before starting pharmacy school so hopefully i have immunity anyway. I think the only HepB test they're doing in this batch is just whether or not i'm infected.

I received a lot of pamphlets and information. I discovered i'm not allowed to eat deli meat, and i had to get my steak *well* done when we went out for Jenn's birthday dinner. It also says i'm not allowed to have "mexican-style" cheese, but i had Amanda call the mexican restaurant and confirm that the cheese they use is pasteurized. Whew! That would have been bad news if i couldn't have mexican for 9 months. I really like the new doctor's office so far. Everyone was very nice and helpful. I liked Dr. Webb a lot but since this is a group practice i'll be rotating between the four doctors on staff so i won't get to see him every time.