After giving my sample [and noticing that the lady before me left hers on the rack with the rest of the clean cups--yuck!] I watched Dr. Phil for 15-20 before being called back. The nurse took my weight [4 pounds less total gain than my at home weigh-ins] and then lead me into my room for the routine checks. How are you feeling? How's everything going today? was the question that I regretted answering today. My response? Oh, everything's fine. I'm getting kind of bored with all of these appointments. I come in, wait longer in the lobby than I am even back in the room getting checked. [Now usually I just think this, and I don't express it, but I guess you could say I was a bit more irritable this morning and although it was my first experience with this nurse, I knew she wasn't going to be a fav lady!]
Heartrate was in the 140s. [This is the only nurse so far who hasn't let me see the fetal heart rate moniter while she took it either. Odd.]
Measured 27 cm--Until I sat up for her to take my blood pressure [120/60] and asked her to repeat that because that's what I measured at my last appointment-- "Oh, I mean 29. I was thinking and writing at the same time." [For those who don't know--like me pre-pregnancy--up until about week 35/36 the measurement should correlate with the number of weeks pregnant that you are. So I'll be 31 weeks on Monday, so I should measure 31.]
After 20 questions all with the response, "Nope, no issues with that." The nurse left to get the doc. When they returned, the doctor said that felt around my stomach a bit and said that she wanted to have me schedule an ultrasound for next week to try and see why I was measuring small. Okay. So this appointment isn't quite as boring as the usual, but still no red flags as my measurement could've been off simply because of the way our baby was laying today.
As I went to the nurse's desk to schedule my ultrasound and then the following 2 appointments, I explained that I actually will be out of town all next week so my appointment would need to be adjusted a bit. Well come to find out the sonographer was pretty much booked for the next two weeks anyways. I mentioned that if there happened to be an opening today, I could run across town to the other office for that appointment as I didn't have anything that I had to do afterwards. It was 11:08. They had an opening at 11:30, so I slid in there. Off I went across town.
Of course I immediately called Chris [he usually goes to the appointments but since they have been so boring lately and this one was thought to be equally as dull, he was doing some training at OG] and explained to him that something was a little off, but don't freak and I was off for an ultrasound. I also asked if Jodi was able to tell the gender, did he want to find out. I didn't know this answer to this question either as I hadn't thought it a possibility, but Chris said no, he already has the mindset that it'll be a surprise so he'll just still with that. That was until I suggested that if Jodi could tell, what if I had her put it in a sealed envelope and then we'd be able to find out together, or decide later if we wanted to even find out.
This idea he liked.
So with the promise of letting him know what I found out, I continued across town. I've very intentionally tried to not text and drive lately, but today was an exception. I had to let my momma and a handful of others know what was going on as I got a bit more nervous with every block I passed. I arrived across town, took a deep breath and signed in. As I waited in this much less crowded lobby, I began to get more and more nervous that potentially this easy, peasy pregnancy of mine could have taken a turn. It didn't help that halfway through the wait a lady patient left from the back office crying. Oh geesh. Will that be me?! Deep breaths. It's probably just the way the lil' one is laying.
Shortly thereafter Jodi's friendly voice called me back and I instantly felt a bit better! She was her normal, kind self and didn't seem alarmed so I tried not to be either. She even jokingly asked, "What's wrong Rach?! Aren't you eating enough ice cream!?" As we went into her room she asked if we still weren't going to find out the sex. I told her that after calling Chris we weren't sure if we wanted to know at this point and decided on the envelope thing. To which I think she doubted myself control and commented that we'd likely go home and rip it open to find out. :)
We continued to chat as she did several necessary measurements. Immediately I noticed that with each measurement I was actually measuring ahead of 30 weeks 4 days not behind. Jodi confirmed this information. Any even bigger sigh of relief! As she continued to peek into my womb [technology is amazing], the point finally came where she told me to close my eyes as she was looking for the "goods" or lack thereof! After searching and a chuckle she said I could open my eyes and I still was going to have a surprise because this babe's legs were closed!
Welp, no need to have to later decide if we wanted to open that envelope because there was nothing for her to put in it! Jodi finished up the ultrasound and printed me some pictures as I was quite relieved that there was nothing to worry about and I had a chubby babe [over 4 lbs. at this point] growing well inside of me. She also revealed that even if she was able to tell, she was going to write her number in the envelope to hassle us just one more time before we'd be able to know! :)
I called my momma and headed to Olive Garden to update Chris and show him the lastest pics of our lil' one. We were/are all relieve that there is nothing to worry about and everything is continuing to look good! So before wrapping my thoughts up with two conclusions, I'll give y'all a glimpse into the future...
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| Profile View with Baby's Lips Puckered |
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| 3D Button-nose Babe |
*The quality and clarity is much better in person. I think that may have something to do with taking a picture of a picture on a cell phone and then uploading! I wanted to add a picture of the baby's foot with its fingerlike toes, but the clarity is bad using that previously mentioned method. :)*
In hindsight, here are my two that potentially would've changed my whole mindset had I thought a little harder and not been so "in the moment":
1. Perhaps the nurse who did the measuring was a bit
2. My schedule is what caused this all to be more an immediate response. My doc didn't come in and say, "Rachel, you need an ultrasound asap!" She said she'd like me to get one next week but that just wasn't going to work out, so I suggested that it be slid in today if possible. I'm glad I didn't have to wait out the two weeks though as I would've likely been Nervous Nelly.
3. I know I said I only had 2. The lady who left the 2nd office crying. Had that not existed, I would've probably felt a bit better!
Regardless, the good news of it all is that we were able to get another glimpse into the future and a healthy little surprise is continuing to grow well inside of me and we are so incredibly excited to see our love in 9 weeks... or less! ;)
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