13 weeks tomorrow!

Last week, the day before Thanksgiving, I had my first appointment with my OB’s staff (first official appt – the 10 week u/s was ordered by my RE). I had called the week before to politely request an ultrasound, and was politely told that it doesn’t work that way. Darn.

When we were being taken back for the appt I saw the nurse grab the little Doppler thing. I was thrilled that if I didn’t get to see the baby I would had least get to hear the little heartbeat. We chatted about my family history, and spent a long time discussing my diet. I’ve been an aspiring vegetarian for over a year now, have completely cut out pork, and had also completely cut out beef until the nurse practitioner told me I was borderline anemic and needed to eat red meat once a week. UGH, I’ve never eaten ground beef once a week in my life, but I will do anything to make the baby happy and healthy.

We talked about my anxiety, when I should call and when I should tell myself everything is okay. We debated the merits of metformin and decided to go ahead and stay on it throughout the pregnancy.

I really liked the nurse practitioner. Here I was, 12w1d pregnant, and this was the first time anyone had sat down with me (for close to an hour!) and chatted about my pregnancy. I had a whole list of questions at my 6 week appt that I didn’t get to ask, which just grew in length at the 8 and 10 week appts, when I also didn’t get to ask them. I had nearly 15 questions by the time this appointment rolled around, and she listened patiently and answered them all at length.

Things were wrapping up and she was instructing me to get ready for my pap smear, and I started panicking that she had forgotten and I wasn’t going to hear the heartbeat. So I asked, and she winked and me and said “We’re going to take a little peek.”

She told me if she didn’t take any measurements and we just watched, she didn’t have to bill it or even tell anyone we did it. The “little peek” ended up being almost 5 full minutes of watching the baby on the screen. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Every ultrasound gets better. The baby looks like a baby, and I could tell it had grown a lot since 10 weeks.

The best part was that the baby did NOT stop moving the whole time! It is seriously an unreal experience to see this tiny human dancing and twisting and turning and waving and kicking and know that it’s all happening inside of me. It’s unbelievable.

The appointment put me in the best mood. I woke up the next morning – Thanksgiving – and just cried in my dining room about how thankful I was. We were in such a tough spot last Thanksgiving that this one just seemed surreal.

My next appointment is 12/22, at 16 weeks. I would have to wait all the way till 20 weeks, but I had that nasty LEEP done so they need to monitor my cervical length. I can’t wait to see the baby again!