Doctor's Appointment

For the sake of this post I will be refering to the baby by "she"...I am using she because that is what the votes say today. But I myself am completely unsure of the sex of the baby. I am sure in my next post I will say he. You know calling the baby "it" would be wrong.

So today I had a doctors appointment. It was boring. They used the doppler and they checked my blood pressure along with my protien and sugar levels. Everything was great. Oh, they also checked my weight...it is the first thing they do and the worst part of the appointment. I know I have to gain this weight and so far I am gaining it the way they want me to...but it is still wild to watch it crawl like that. At this point they say to gain an average of a pound a week. And while we are on the topic of weight gain...I also talked to my doctor about Anne's wedding (http://www.anneandjimmy.com/), the wedding in which I will be wearing a size 18 bridesmaids dress (http://www.priscillaofboston.com/dress_detail.jsp?gid=2&sfid=50631&f). I have been putting off talking to the doctor about it because I have been scared she would say I couldn't travel at that time...but she gave me the green light. It was a big relief. She said she will have to check me right before I go to make sure I am not dialated, but she said I should be fine.

So the doppler is about the only real interesting part of the doctors appointment. The nurse uses it to check the babies heart rate. Today the babies heart rate is in the 140's. Last month it was in the 150's and the month before it was 169. They told me the heart is different at different times based on the babies activity at the time. At first when they do the doppler it is scary because they kind of search around for the beat and in the meantime you hear all sorts of other strange sounds coming from in there. And in my case when they do find the fetal heartbeat you only hear it briefly because the baby moves. Today the nurse was so nice to try to find it and let me listen but the baby kept moving everytime we found it.

Now you would think with all the moving the baby is doing I would be able to feel her...but no. I cannot always feel the movement. The last ultrasound I had the baby was jumping all over the screen but I couldn't feel a thing, same goes for today. I have however felt the baby move. It was the 4th of July and I was sitting outside on the lagoon in Gulf SHores with Mrs. Godwin, Michael, Liz and John and I felt her. It was a very strange sensation and one that would have gone unnoticed had she not kept moving for so long. It felt the way an underwater wave feel brushing against your body. I couldn't feel anything from the outside though. It happened again last Friday and Michael got to feel it this time, but the movement is sooo slight that you question whether or not you felt it. I guess we will have to wait until the baby gets larger to really feel her.

Sorry this post just keeps getting longer and longer...but speaking of size I just found a guide on http://www.babycenter.com/ which says that, "Your baby equals a large heirloom tomato in size and weighs 8 1/2 ounces. (length: 6 inches, head to bottom)". Here is the picture that it shows in reference to 19 weeks, and today I am one day shy of 20 weeks, but I will save that picture for next week.