8 week 5 day ultrasound

8 week 5 day ultrasound
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

I had my first official doctor's appointment today, thus the photos...Here's the play-by-play.

My nurse appointment was at 10:00 a.m. They took me back and had me give a urine sample. Eric hadn't arrived yet, but he came in right after I was done. Then they weighed me. I'd gain one pound since my appointment a couple weeks ago. Then we went to an office to sit with the nurse. She took my blood pressure 114/71. Then she asked some questions relating to my medical history/previous birth etc. Then she went over some information they gave me in a packet. A pregnancy book, some flyers on the hospital, pain management, drugs I'm allowed or not while pregnant, etc. Then she did a TB test. After that, they sent me to the lab (still in the doctor's office) to take some blood. I didn't really pay attention to what they are testing for. We finished all that by 10:30, so we went back to the waiting room to wait until Dr. B was ready to see me at 11:00.

Once we went back to that appointment, I had to undress and get under the gown. Dr. B asked me a couple more questions about Grace's birth. We told her about her size (8lb, 11 oz, 6 days early) and the shoulder dystocia). We confirmed no other pregnancy complications last time. Spontaneous labor with my water breaking and contractions starting afterwards. She went over the schedule of visist and ultrasounds. I'll have appts. every 4 weeks until 28 weeks, at that point they'll go to every 2 weeks, and then at 36 weeks, I'll start going weekly. She'll do another ultrasound between 17-19 weeks to look for any abnormalities (and the sex if we want), then because Eric and I were both large babies and we had a large baby, she'll likely do an ultrasound at 32-34 weeks to see what she estimates the size of this one to be. If it looks to be on track to be about the same as Grace, she'll let nature take it's course (at least until my due date). However, if this one looks much bigger, she may suggest an amnio to check for lung maturity and an early induction.

We discussed a couple more important questions including what types of cheese I need to avoid and exactly how dangerous they are. Bad news, I need to completely avoid soft cheeses including blue, feta, gorganzola, goat, and brie unless I can be sure they are pasturized (like my Feta from the grocery store that says it's pasturized on the package). The risk is from Listeria which if you get can make you very sick (pregnant or not), but if you get it while pregnant, you can miscarry or lose the baby, even into the 2nd trimester. The good news is that heating or other processing kills Listeria, so it's ok to have melted blue cheese on a steak or blue cheese dressing that has been processed.

She told me not to worry about my Mammogram and X-Ray. She said that radiation in early pregnancy can cause miscarriage, but since I didn't, nothing to worry about now. It's an "all or nothing" type of risk. She said MRI's are fine and if I need a breast MRI during pregnancy, it would be perfectly safe.

Finally we had the ultrasound. The baby did look much larger than last time. It measured just a hair over 2 cm and appears to have a head area and a body (approximately equal sizes). Upon closer examination, the heart was still happily beating away. My placenta is high up (good) and probably posterior (back of the uterus). We got to see the cord also. As we were looking the baby twitched, so it's beginning to have movement. At this stage it's mostly trunk and torso movements because the arms and legs aren't fully extended yet. Although at the very end we saw a tiny arm fly up like it was waving to us. I think it looks mostly like an alien pinto bean, but I'm sure it will get cuter.