Brief Update

So yesterday I had my first "by myself" prenatal appointment. I went in somewhat confident, mostly because I found baby's heartbeat on the doppler just that morning even though it is starting to take longer than usual. I think my baby has learned to swim and he/she hates the freaking doppler! Baby, if you're listening to my inner dialogue as I type this: MOMMY DOESN'T LIKE BEING SCARED!!!

Ok, now that's off my chest, I can report that the prenatal appointment was pretty routine. I started off the morning by PIAC with FMU. Those two acronyms won't go away, even when I'm not TTC apparently! I had to bring in a urine sample to the doctors office. When it's sub-zero temperatures, there's a real chance that your urine sample might freeze. Ohhhh Iowa!

I get my weight taken, up 1 pound since my last appointment which I consider a healthy weight gain at this point. So does my midwife thankfully. Vitals are taken and my blood pressure is great. They go over the blood test results from my last appointment. Apparently all my stuff is good! Especially my hemoglobin! My midwife was surprised to say that I'm at 14 (however they measure it) and that 11 or lower is considered anemic during pregnancy.

Q&A with midwife
Q: Is it ok to sleep on my stomach or back?
A: (Short answer) It's totes fine to sleep on your stomach/back
(paraphrasing a long answer) I don't know how this happened but every pregnancy book and website all decided to freak pregnant women out by saying they need to sleep a certain way during pregnancy. Well guess what - women have been sleeping while pregnant for millennium's before THE BOOK came out. Here's what happens - you're on your back and the weight of the baby pushes on your aorta/vena cava which are arteries/veins that are thick like hoses. It's like stepping on a hose, water pressure might be lower but you're still going to get water. If your putting pressure on these, then you're likely going to not feel well because of dropped blood pressure, you wake up and readjust your sleeping position and you go back to sleep.

Q: What about baths - are those ok?
A: As long as you're not overheating yourself.

We also discussed the results of my NT scan. I think I may have mentioned before that the results came back negative - which is the good result. Medicine is tricky with it's negative=good/positive=bad lingo. I have a 1:10,000 chance of having a baby with some sort of defect.

Of course, my midwife made it super clear to me that just because I got a negative reading doesn't mean that I have a perfect baby. And even if I got a positive reading it wouldn't mean that I DO have a baby with some sort of abnormality.

Wow this update wasn't so brief after all!

NEXT APPOINTMENT: ANATOMY SCAN! Countdown ticker until that appointment is on the right! SO EXCITED!