By Kim Blakely, infertile pregnant lady
I almost jumped for joy when the nurse in my ob/gyn’s office told me I would be having an ultrasound at today’s appointment. Going into it, I was hoping that I would at least get to hear the heartbeat (you know, as reassurance that there is actually still something growing in there), but to hear the heartbeat and to see the baby, too – wow!! That was a fantastic surprise!!
We saw the baby wiggling around on the screen, and we could see the little heartbeat flickering – the heart rate was recorded at 171. Everything measured on target, although apparently the technician who did the ultrasound a couple of weeks ago recorded the predicted due date as June 7 instead of June 17 and caused some momentary confusion.
My doctor marveled at the thickness of the umbilical cord, remarking that she didn’t usually see them that thick this early and that she wondered if that meant this was going to be a big baby. (Mojo was born three weeks early at 6.0 pounds. Not big.) She didn’t seem concerned about the cord thickness at all … and I wasn’t either, until I left her office and started panicking about whether that could be an indication of some sort of problem that didn’t instantly spring to her mind. Surely not, right?
My morning sickness is still around … most of the day and night. I was blaming it mostly on the progesterone supplements, but my doctor informed me today that it’s probably the baby’s fault – not the medication’s. I should know by now that if I haven’t eaten dinner by about 5 p.m. I can just forget about it because the nausea sets in in earnest shortly thereafter. I haven’t actually gotten sick yet, but sometimes it’s strong enough that I wish I could just throw up and get it over with. Mostly, food just sounds … unappetizing. In general. All the time. And to my husband, who questions whether thinking everything edible is utterly disgusting can actually be termed morning sickness, I only have this to say … Bleh.
I have a more detailed ultrasound, with a nuchal translucency test, scheduled for Dec. 1, the same day as my next ob/gyn appointment. That seems like forever and a day, away.
But, then again, maybe it won’t seem like such a long time after all. This pregnancy tends to go unnoticed (by me!) for hours on end – so unlike my pregnancy with Mojo, when I could scarcely think of anything else. Does that just mean I’m busy (I am, extremely), or am I already playing favorites? Egads. Having two kids is already harder than I thought it would be.
(By the way, someday soon, I really will tell you why I think the South Beach Diet got me pregnant … )
