Houston, we have a heartbeat!!!!!!

Ahhh yes, just a flicker but it was there on my ob's old abdominal US machine at 8 1/2 weeks. Can you believe it? So I went in for my 8 week appt with my ob. Yes the dr and not the midwife this time, lol. Nothing against midwives but they are perfect for low risk patients which we all know I am not. We talked about several things. Yes it is true I am going to the peri starting at 14 weeks. He is getting the referral started now with his billing person. He said she'll call me in about 2 weeks to let me know it is done and then I can schedule my appt. YEAH another US and that means it is level II. YIPPEE. Good for low dose aspirin. He was pleased that I had started that. He agreed with the prednisone for sinus infection that never goes away. So I will be on it for the next 9 days. He also agreed with the high dose antibiotics to get rid of the sinus infection and prevent my habit of Pneumonia in the first trimester. He gave me more Reglan. Thank God. Oh and how the hell did I gain TEN pounds in 4 weeks when I have been totally nauseated. I checked tonight and my gain is actually 3 lbs on my scale. Problem was his scale coordinated to mine 4 weeks ago. So maybe his scale is off? I think he needs it serviced. Of course I have to eat every hour or I am puking.

He tried with the doppler for a heartbeat. I can't believe it. The midwife in the practice last time didn't bother trying at 9 weeks and here my doc tried at 8 1/2. I was so excited. He said don't get upset if I don't find it. That's yours, that is yours, that is yours. I said you know with S., you would just get the US machine because she was so active. He said, I'm going to get the US machine. He goes and drags it out of the supply room across the hall. (Can I say I hate it when they open and shut the door and I am covered in a sheet!!!!). He turns out the lights and I said hey doc it is really dark in here. It was pitch black. He turned on the lamp. Turned the screen so we could both see it and NOTHING. I couldn't even see a uterus. He pointed out the uterus but it didn't look like a uterus to me. You know it usually shows the black space with a baby in it. This was like all grey tones. I think it was just my abdominal fat he was looking at there. We looked and looked and looked and NOTHING. So being the determined doc that he is and me by now panicking. He said let's try a different angle and BAM there was the black cavity with a blob in it (and it wasn't where he said my uterus was. The first one where he pointed was on the lower right side of the screen. When he turned the angle, the black cavity with baby was way up in the upper left part of the screen). We were looking for movement because his machine doesn't have sound? (He has never turned on the sound for it, I'm sure he won't be able to hear baby on doppler next time too and will get the us. ). There it was for a few brief moments. The flicker. You know, looks like the little flicker things on pinball machines that you hit the ball back in with. It was amazing. The best part was only one. I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. So did my doc. He said I think I see it, a flicker. He goes it is really early for abdominal US. Let's put it this way, I am in no way, shape, or form thin. I said I saw it too and pointed on the screen where I saw it. He said yeah that's it. So I think we confirmed for each other that we saw it. Both of us were reassured. Oh and there is only ONE. Thank God. I was really worried as I have already grown out of my clothes and am now wearing maternity jeans, bigger shirts, and bigger knit pants. It hasn't helped that my dh thought for sure it was twins, my boss mentioned twins because of me already showing, and my ortho doc saying it would be awesome for twins because he has twins. Which I related why I was worried about twins to my ob. Oh and did I mention twins runs in my family??? But alas no twins. We just want one healthy baby. I don't even care about the gender as long as we are both healthy. Time is going by so fast. The first time, it moved slowly because you are naive and pregnancy is new. The second time it moved slow because food was my enemy the entire time and my bp was not under control. This time it is going fast. BP is somewhat under control. It was 138/82 at the ob's. I think it was high because of an incident that happened at work beyond my control that I was angry about and the nurse had to take it about 8 times. The first top number she got was 122. But she couldn't get the bottom number because it is very faint in me when pregnant. So she kept inflating and inflating and deflating and then reinflating. I am not too worried. It was 124/85 at the pcp's on Monday. This was a new nurse in the practice (she was older and grey haired). She said ok, so you'll be seeing Dr. E today (as if I had never seen him before, lmao). I said oh you don't have to explain. I assure you we both know who each other are. I was one of those scary patients last pregnancy. Oh really? What was wrong? So then I told her my history. She didn't run away screaming. I have decided I like her even though it took 8 times to take my bp. She didn't freak out, she told me my bp when I asked without hesitating and she takes Ziac too! My kind of nurse. My ob is ok with me being on Ziac. He said he prefers aldomet, but if it doesn't work it doesn't work. It's not like he won't be watching me like a hawk. I asked him if he thought I would get past 36 weeks. His response, "You know, There are some women that I think man they need to be induced, you think no way are they going to get further, and then they surprise me." Such the diplomat. I'm going to ask my peri and see what she says. I know what they both said before pregnancy. But now that I am pregnant they give hope. I like that. Cause you know, I could surprise everyone.

My pcp is on board. Anytime we come in (for the girls or me), first thing she asks is what is your bp and how are YOU doing. I was in on Monday because of a sinus infection and told her I was really nauseated and on Reglan 4 times a day. She said they say nausea is a sign of a healthy pregnancy. Then I told her that my immune system goes to crap in the first trimester. She said well if you think about it, the baby is a parasite that just sucks everything from you. In order for baby to stick, your immune system has to lower. I found out that she will be the one coming to the hospital when baby is born to check he or she out. It's a great feeling to know she will be jsut as excited as we are when baby gets here. She is fabulous with my girlies. S is already playing dr, like Dr. L does with the dr kit she got for Christmas. So all in all a good appt. Next one is 2/21. We mailed out the cards to the family announcing. Hoping we get good responses back.