FINALLY an OB check-up update! (18w3d)

I was supposed to have an OB check up last Thursday, but the OB's nurse called me and postponed it until today. At first I was bummed, but now that I had the appointment I am super happy again! I love getting to find out more about baby. The results of this check-up were just as positive as last time

First, I got weighed. Now, lemme tell you... I've been worried about this weigh in for about 3 weeks. I was SURE I had gained at least 5 pounds because my belly is starting to pop out much much more. Also, I hadn't gone proper grocery shopping in literally a month and as a result didn't have totally healthy food for a week or two (but I ate as well as I could and gulped down TONS of water). So, I got on the scale and was very pleasantly surprised when the nurse told me that I had stayed at the same weight as my last appointment, and am currently 2 pounds less than when I got pregnant! WOOHOO NO WEIGHT GAIN! Hopefully from here on out I will gain slowly and healthily so I have a good birth/recovery. I want to stay in the 10-15lb goal that the doctor recommends for someone my size and am doing well so far at the 4.5 month mark.

Secondly, I got my blood pressure taken. Now, every time they take my blood pressure at the office it reads high the first time (and they ask me if I have a history of high blood pressure) and PERFECT the second time. Today way no different. The second time, they had me lay on my left side for 5 minutes and took it with the bigger cuff instead of the normal one. It came out at 108/66 which I guess is great.

Then, Dr. Lasting came in and measured my fundal height. He said "wow...baby is definitely growing!" as soon as he touched my stomach and determined the height to be about 24cm (usually fundal height=your weeks along in pregnancy). He said that the baby is measuring big but not to worry. When I go for my detailed anatomy scan at the specialist's office in 3 or so weeks I will get a more accurate reading on baby's size (which I am suuuper excited about...more pics and Nick/my mom will get to see baby too!)

The best part yet again was getting to hear my baby Nanobyte's heartbeat on the doppler. Last time I only got to hear if for about 5 seconds because s/he was moving around so much. This time it still took a while to find the heartbeat but once Dr. Lasting did it was nice and strong and I got to hear it for over a minute. The heart rate is 135 which he said is perfect! Yay! Since Nicholas couldn't be with me at the appointment today he had asked if I could record the heartbeat for him. I asked the Dr. if it was ok and he was totally supportive of it. :o) So, I got out my phone and used a little voice recorder app to record Nano's heartbeat. Dr. Lasting even put the doppler speaker right up to the phone so it sounded the best and held it there for a long time to make sure I got the heartbeat recorded. He is such a caring and cool doctor.

With that said and done I got to go on my way, scheduling another appointment for a month from now with him and getting a referral to that specialist who does the detailed anatomy ultrasound. In 4-5 days I will get a call from them to set up that appointment. Rest assured I will be posting pics when I get them from that ultrasound! :o).

I will leave you with the recording of Nano's heartbeat, which Nick magically converted into an acceptable format for blogger/email for me. The picture is one he snapped real quickly of me this evening as I was getting up to make dinner. Excuse me for wearing the same shirt in both my pregnancy photos so far...I haven't gotten a chance to go shopping yet (school's out in 17 days).



Til Next time!
~Heather