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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Next appointment Friday

Friday is our first real appointment with the regular OB. I love Dr. McGowen. She was wonderful during our whole experience with Jenna, and even though she went on vacation the day we found out Jenna had died, she came up to check on me before they left and called to check on me later. I know she is going to be super excited for us.

I am so hoping we will be able to hear the heartbeat. I was about 11 weeks when we had our first real appointment with Jenna, and we were able to hear the heartbeat then. I can't remember how far along I was on our first appointment with Tessa, but I do remember I heard the heartbeat then. I'll be nine weeks, four days, and I'm overweight. Do you think it's possible to hear it that early?

Brian can't go with me this time. We made the appointment when he was still off on Fridays, but now they've changed his days off to Sunday and Monday. I didn't want to cancel the appointment because I was afraid it would push it back too much, and I didn't want to wait that long. I'm trying to decide if I want to see if my mom can go with me just in case something goes wrong or maybe I should just put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

I am getting so nervous about this appointment. I was like that just before we went in for our last ultrasound. When we didn't see anything abdominally, my heart stopped and my breath caught in my throat. I don't think I took another breath until we did it transvaginally, and she saw the heart beat. I started crying. I know I'll probably do the same Friday if we hear the heartbeat then.

I've been thinking a lot about this pregnancy compared to the one with Jenna. The AFP test measures your HCG levels, and I know a higher than normal indicates Down Syndrome, while a lower than normal indicates Trisomy 13 or 18. A lower HCG level would account for my lack of symptoms with Jenna. Well, not exactly lack of symptoms, because I did feel a little nauseaus and exhaustion with Jenna but nothing major. My beta numbers also started out really low with her, too.

This time, I'm extremely nauseaus. I even threw up in a parking lot the other night after we went to supper with our family. I take a nap nearly every afternoon and go to sleep pretty early (or early for me at least, I'm a night owl). My boobs have gone up a size and are now very, very tender. I didn't do any of that with Jenna or at least not to this extent.

I'll admit it gets my hopes up that everything is going to be ok this time, but not enough that I'm able to let go of all my paranoia. Hopefully, Friday's appointment and then the Nuchal Fold Test will help ease even more of it.

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

Most of the time the physicians that I work with won't even attempt to hear a heart beat until around 12 weeks. But we have an ultrasound in our office and if a mom is worried they will do a quick scan. Do you know if your office has an ultrasound available for a quick look?

I am super excited that everything is going well! Looking forward to more updates...

Anonymous said...

I agree. You may not hear it from the outside, but maybe the doctor can do a scan for you. I understand how you feel about the symptoms... I love the fact that I have stronger symptoms this time around. I like FEELING more pregnant. Good luck and I can't wait to hear how it goes!

Raising Davis Darlings said...

My doctor told me that the more nauseaus you are, the more it is should remind you that your pregnancy is going extremely well. Not saying that those who hasn't experienced it didn't have healthy babies. But nausea is a good sign!!! I am so happy for you.

Jen said...

I hope you appointment goes good and don't be too disappointed if you don't get to hear the heartbeat. I thought that they didn't even try until like 12 weeks or something like that...

Julie said...

My friend just had twins, and at an early appointment they couldn't find the heartbeats and she got worried, so they did an ultrasound to get them. Everything was fine. You don't have to leave without knowing if you don't want to. Just ask for an ultrasound.