“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Pre-natal Visit #10 (31 Weeks)

Lisa — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:55:27 +0000

This morning at 10 am was time for yet another visit to the OB office.

Mom and I arrived about 10:05 (I had overslept a smidgen), checked in and sat down in the waiting room. Things went pretty quickly today! Within 5 minutes or so, the nurse had already pulled me back to check my vitals. This week, they had interns at their office and the girl who was doing my vitals seemed to be very sweet, but pretty nervous.

I sat down and she did my blood pressure. I could have sworn she told me 120 over 62, but later learned she had written down 100 over 62. So whether I misheard her or she miswrote it, I’ll never know. But the doctors said that in any case everything was fine. Then I stepped on the scales for weighing. The poor intern had so much trouble with those scales that I felt a wee bit sorry for her. It took probably 3 minutes to get a correct reading. As of this week I weigh 144.5 lbs. Thats a almost a pound less than I weighed last week. At least I didn’t lose any more than that! On a more disturbing note though, that’s only 1.5 lbs over my starting weight. So when people ask me how much I have gained during pregnancy (that seems to be a popular question), my (slightly mumbled) reply right now is only….”Uh, 1 and a half pounds”. It makes me feel like I’m a bad mother or something.

After weighing came the unmentionablepeeinacuptest. Apparantly that looked fine this week because the doctor didn’t mention any protein showing up like she did last time.

Finally, vitals were finished and I went back to the waiting room to wait on an exam room. About 4 minutes later the nice intern girl came and took me back to the room to await Doctor Ann. There have been times where I’ve waited in the exam room for 30+ minutes – but this time she appeared within 5 minutes or so. They must have truly been on the ball today! I guess they had a lot on their plates showing those interns how things should be done.

I like Doctor Ann. She’s an older lady, really skinny, with grey pixie cut hair, and a very pleasant demeaner. She’s really a sweet lady and very easy to talk to. Since she has such a nice, motherly demeaner, I’m never uncomfortable with her examining me as I sometimes am with male doctors.

We went through my vitals, the results of last week’s anatamy scan (everything looked great) and then she measured me. This week I’m measuring 30 weeks even though I’m actually 31 weeks. She said it was nothing to worry about though and that’s common later on in the pregnancy. Then we listened to the heartbeat. While listening, little Jack kicked really hard and we heard his heartbeat start to race. It was cute! The doctor said that was a great sign, because it means the baby is getting plenty of oxygen to him. Everything else seemed fine.

Then we had our little question & answer session. My first question was when would they start checking for dialation and all that good stuff. My friend Cheryl was already 1-2 CMs and starting to thin at 32 weeks, and was put on bedrest. Doctor Ann said I won’t be checked for that until 37 weeks. I also asked if it was normal for the baby to have soooo much hiccups! Jack has gotten to where he gets the hiccups 3-5 times per day. For me, the cuteness of it is starting to wear off and it just feels annoying (kinda like when we ourselves get hiccups for too long). She said it was perfectly fine and that her own son (who is now 21) did the same thing when she was carrying him. Whew.

As for my vitals, she’s still concerned about me losing weight and is encouraging me not to worry myself so much over the diabetes. Because I puked during the 3 hour test and didn’t actually get to have my blood sugar levels checked at that time, she says I may not even have the diabetes. They just automatically place anyone who throws up the solution into the gestational diabetes category. She says she’s worried that I may do myself more harm than good by focusing too much on controlling the sugar in avoidance of other ways of eating. I think there may be some truth to that, as I have been like a Nazi when it comes to sugar control. But just the thought of diabetes scares me and I don’t want to make a mistake with my diet and cause harm to my body or the baby.

“Don’t worry!” is easier said than done when you’re actually the patient who’s has the gestational diabetes.

To ease my worries though, she’s said she’ll have them do a test (hemaglobin test I think it was called?) to check my blood sugar levals. It involves a vein draw of blood, and she wanted to go ahead and do it today. However, with my complete and utter fear of having needles stuck in my arm, I said I needed to be mentally prepared. After looking at my chart, she said it was time for my CBC test anyway, so I could come in next week and both tests could be performed at the same time. That’s fine with me! As long as I have a few days to prepare myself for the fact that a sharp object is about to penetrate my inner elbow, I’m good to go.

After that it was time to go. I was handed my chart, we said our goodbyes, and I headed out to the front desk to schedule my next appointment. We ended up scheduling for next Wednesday, March 12 at 9:15 am, and I have to fast after midnight the night before since blood sugar levels will be checked.

Then I was free to leave. Mom and I usually stop by Target and grab lunch after my appointments. However, I was feeling pretty dreadful today, with nausea, some stomach pains, and tiredness so we nixed the shopping trip and headed back to mom’s house. The couch looked mighty inviting, as did the big huge fluffy pillow that mom brings out when I come over. So the next thing I knew, I was waking up to the sounds of the 6:00 pm news on NBC. Let me tell you, sleep is sometimes the best medicine in the world. I felt tons better after that little long nap. Mom (and I have the best mother in the world) also cooked supper tonight, so after my husband got off work, he came on over to my parents house and we ate supper and then watched American Idol at 8 pm.

And so that’s that.

As for next weeks appointment, I didn’t really know what a CBC test was so I just looked it up on the internet. Here’s a snippet of what I found about the CBC (aka “Complete Blood Count”) test and a link to a helpful article describing the test.

A complete blood count (CBC) gives important information about the kinds and numbers of cells in the blood, especially red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. A CBC helps your health professional check any symptoms, such as weakness, fatigue, or bruising, you may have. A CBC also helps him or her diagnose conditions, such as anemia, infection, and many other disorders.

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“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” Pre-natal Visit #10 (31 Weeks)

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