Yesterday we had our first group appointment. Group appointments are offered as an option through the Nurse-Midwives at the Swedish clinic. Every month instead of a regular one-on-one visit, a group of women all due the same month meets together and shares their experiences and questions. Each visit includes one on one time with a midwife to check fetal progress and discuss anything we don't feel comfortable sharing with the group. The sessions also include a reunion meeting, where everyone brings their baby after the last one has been born. We decided to join group appointments because neither of us have real experience with babies or pregnancy and are glad of any extra support and advice we can get. We also still don't know many people in Seattle very well, and even fewer who have any children so we were hoping we could make a new friend or two for ourselves and our kid. Only 4 of the 8 women in my group showed up to the first appointment because of the holiday, but so far so good!
None of the women in our group are obviously pregnant at this point. I wouldn't have thought any of the others were expecting if I met them under other circumstances, and I guess that I fit in that category as well. Just because my belly is the roundest it's ever been doesn't mean anyone else thinks there's a baby in there! No one I work with has mentioned anything so far, but that's not surprising because no one points out to a woman when she has been gaining weight. Which leads me to believe that I look chubby, not pregnant. Oh well, this stage will pass soon enough!
As for yesterday's stats, my uterus is measuring 17 centimeters. That's right on schedule; it should measure within a centimeter of the number of weeks along you are (16 weeks = 16cm plus or minus 1cm). We FINALLY got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was a fantastic 150! Since they couldn't find the heartbeat at our first appointment and the ultrasound we had was silent, it was pretty exciting to hear the heartbeat. It came through loud and strong, and sounded wonderful.
Amusing little story for you. The other day I was showing Dan my belly. He didn't believe me and told me to stop pushing it out to look bigger. So to prove to him that I wasn't faking this time, I pushed my belly out and made it as big as I could. His eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Wow, you're PREGNANT"!!
So it seems.
I've been feeling pretty good. The last month or so seems to have seen the very last of any morning sickness. These days, as long as I have some kind of snack on hand I'm great. I've found that if I go too long without eating anything I start feeling a bit sick again, so I've been carrying a bag of trail mix with me. It's sweet, salty, and satisfying AND it got the midwife stamp of approval last night so Dan can stop worrying about how much chocolate I'm eating. Turns out the caffeine content of chocolate is very minimal, and I'm past the point in pregnancy where caffeine does any damage it may or may not do. It's cute that Dan is so concerned though. He's been really worried about my diet and it's effects on the baby!
Something a couple of the other ladies brought up last night was having trouble sleeping. I feel lucky, since so far I haven't been having any problems in that area! I'm sure eventually I will be tossing and turning and pining for pregnancy pillows, but for now no complaints. I've been a good sleeper ever since I can remember. I rarely have trouble falling asleep and once I'm out, I'm down for the night. Bathroom breaks are unusual and when they do happen I always fall back to sleep with ease. Apparently, in many women pregnancy messes with that! So far the biggest change for me has been a bit of an uptick in midnight bathroom trips, but even those are not every night so far. So, I feel pretty lucky. I hope I didn't just jinx myself by writing about it!
Oh, almost forgot. We have the ultrasound scheduled and do plan on finding out the sex of the baby! Unfortunately for all you Wisconsin friends and family, it won't be until after I get back from my upcoming trip. It will be the same day as our next group appointment. They don't like to do those scans until 20 weeks along for the best chance of everything being big and developed enough to see adequately, and when I called they wouldn't make it for sooner. Oh, well. I guess we will all just have to be patient for another month!
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