Our First Official Appointment!

So, Peanut and I had our first official appointment today (sadly, Dad was tied up in the OR and couldn't make it.) Things looked really good. I was guestimating the baby to be about 10 weeks and 5 days. The ultrasound placed Peanut at 11weeks and 1 day. Not only was the heartbeat visible, but the baby was dancing up a storm! Dr. Dempsy commented on how active and photogenic Peanut was, though Little wouldn't cooperate for a profile shot. (Oh and no, the irony of nicknaming the baby "Peanut" is not lost on Tom and I - peanuts not being one of Tom's happy foods.) I could have lain there all day and watched the baby wiggle and jiggle. It was just like when you lay a baby down and they squirm and coo, as though Peanut was saying "Hey, Mom, look at me!" It was so great! We also got a flue shot and had blood work done. Well worth the excitement. We have another appointment scheduled for some genetic stuff on November 12th and then our next appointment will be November 26th.

What's That?

I think I am actually beginning to feel the start of a baby bump! My pants are tighter then last week, I find myself unbuttoning my pants when I'm sitting on the couch or after I eat. I think my overall trunk area is looking a bit more "padded" these days. I haven't weighed myself lately. I had a few days last week when I weighed myself and it said I had already gained 7lbs since I got pregnant. I'm guessing it was the Chinese food we had the night before. The next day it said I had only gained 2lbs. Whew! I know I'm going to gain weight, but...7lbs? Peanut is smaller then a peanut in the shell at this point!

Tom spent the first day of his vacation at Babies R Us working on our baby registry with me. He really wants to be involved which I just love. We found a crib set while we were there that we both liked and that will work for a boy or a girl. Since we couldn't add it to the registry, we bought it. It is the first thing we have bought for Peanut. Tom also spent a lot of time on the phone with people from Craig's List and found a dresser he liked that we could use for baby cloths and a changing table. It needs a few new handles and a good cleaning and it will be good to go.

Mmm, Mmm, Good!

Good News! Food is beginning to taste good again! That is good and that is bad. It's nice that I can satisfy my cravings now, but, that just makes me want to eat more! I'm still exhausted, but it takes a lot of energy to grow a baby. I can also still fit into my "skinny" scrub pants. These are the pants I bought two summers ago when I was dieting and walking 6 miles a day. They are also the same pants that didn't fit for a while in between now and then. I still have my "fat" scrub pants (now in all honesty there is only 1 or 2 sizes between the "skinny' and "fat" pants) to fall back on when things get tight, but eventually I'll have to order some maternity pants from Scrub Med. Probably sooner rather then later since they take a while to fill orders. All of my jeans and Khaki's still fit, too. I think I am beginning to notice that there is a little less room then there was, but oddly enough, I think I still have more room then before I knew I was pregnant. My necklace is also longer, as though my neck got thinner. Maybe my pudge is on the move.

Oh, and after last weeks communication debacle with my OB's office, apparently the doctor I saw Friday night talked with my doctor at their weekly division meeting and my OB made it a point to call and talk to me on Tuesday and find out whats up. Then her office called me again tonight to say they had been looking into it and still didn't have an explanation, but if I wanted to get in for a "nurses" appointment before my scheduled appointment to do blood work and answer questions, they would do that just for me. Awwwwww! Now where was all this pampering LAST week?

Hello? Anybody home?

Well! Last night I was just exhausted when I got home from work. I finished off the left over Pork Fried Rice in the fridge and passed out on the couch, I don't remember a thing! Not until Tom called at 10:30 to tell me there was an exciting late night case and he wouldn't be home. Well after my long nap, I wasn't tired, so I was marinating in front of the boob tube.

About 1:30 I went to the bathroom and had a scare. There was pink on the toilet paper. Not really spotting, but weird. So in an effort to stay calm, I investigated. It felt like there was a weird polyp or something on my cervix. So I talked myself down. "Calm down, it's weird, but it's probably nothing, you're not cramping, call the doctor in the morning."

That's what I did. On the way to work, say 8:26, I called and got some dude who assured me it was the right number, but that he couldn't help me and I'd have to call back in 5 minutes when they were answering phones for the day. ARE YOU KIDDING!? Deep Breaths. So I did. Then I left a message for the nurse with my work number and my suspicions and went on my merry way. 10:30 rolls around and I still haven't heard from anyone, so I call again. I am assured that my call will be returned in a timely manner. I admit that by this point I have freaked out a little. I was just looking for some reassurance. But, I busied myself with work and tried not to worry and waited. Then, I called as I got in my car to go home to let them know the number on the message is no longer any good because I'm done with work...only to find out that they are, too! THEY NEVER CALLED ME BACK! So when Tom got home I got him caught up (he got some details I've spared you here) and we talked and he paged the doctor on call. No one called him back. So at 7:30pm, he paged the Doctor on call again and left the "Dr. Person CT Fellow" title with the message.

FINALLY, we got a call back. After rehashing all the details again, we headed off to the friendly L&D floor at MUSC to "have a look see." Well the look see showed that there is in fact something weird with my cervix that will need some follow up. But the best part is that the look see also showed us a healthy little Peanut! We said 8 weeks and the doctor countered with 8 weeks 1 day. We got to see the our little Peanuts heart beating and the doctor clocked it at 152 beats/minute.

Needless to say we both feel much better and having actually seen the baby, things seem a whole lot more real. I do apologize for no photos, but since this was all happening at 9pm while he was taking time out from the four women delivering tonight, it seemed like asking the doctor for copies might be pushing it. Our REAL appointment is only 2 and 1/2 weeks away now, so I'll try and get some then!

No news is good news

So far, so good. I really can't complain at all. I mean I don't want to jinx myself, but I really feel okay so far. I definitely feel more aware of my female bits (I don't want to say "I'm more aware of my uterus" but sort of, not crampy, but there is definitely an awareness I can't say I had before) but generally I don't feel pregnant. I'm definitely more tired. Especially the days I work, I'm just exhausted when I get home. I am also having food cravings, but unfortunately, unless it's really salty or sweet, generally nothing I eat is satisfying my cravings. It just doesn't taste good anymore. That sort of stinks, but considering I don't really need to gain as much weight as Heidi Klum, I think it's okay that food is turning me off.

It's just sort of hard to think " Yeah! THAT would be so good right now!" and you sit there and think about it and want it and then you get it, and the food just doesn't satisfy that desire. That and I can't have Sushi - which I have wanted a lot since we moved here, and we don't have a decent Chinese restaurant to fall on, which would help. I REALLY wish I could drive up to Lilly Market (in NE Portland near my old office) and get an order of Pad Thai and their chicken fried rice. Generally, I have been underwhelmed with restaurants here in Charleston. They have the variety, but not the flavor. Even before I got pregnant, I was disappointed in the general taste of food here. Don't get me wrong, I have had some good food here. I've had two Great meals here. However it isn't affordable to go to those restaurants on a regular basis, not until Tom is a full fledged surgeon and we have a lot more disposable income then we do now. Those two restaurants are Peninsula Grill and Carolina's. Both have GREAT food. Sushi is a crap shoot. I really liked Oriental Garden and Sushi Hiro was good, too. Unfortunately they aren't as affordable as Saburo's in Portland and the servings are small. (But as I said before, that isn't really an issue right now, unless I just stick to Ebi and veggi rolls.

So far though, my pregnancy has been uneventful and smooth. I'm just impatiently counting the days until my first prenatal visit. Sadly, I've found out that I won't be having an ultrasound that day which is REALLY disappointing. I pushed out the appointment to Oct 29th so that I would be 10 and a half weeks along and there would be something to see. Tom is also planning to make it to that appointment if his clinic schedule goes well that day. So I thought it would all fall into place. It turns out though, that they have you back within a month for the first ultrasound. So no pictures for a while more.