Another fairly uneventful appointment. Peed in a cup, asked questions, answered questions, and then laid down so they could listen to the fetal heartbeat. This time, the doc managed to find it. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... She then moved the little transmitter around a bit and showed me what my heart beat sounded like compared to the baby's. Mine sounded to be about half as fast.
I brought up the topic of blood sugar again (I'd mentioned it in previous appointments) in particular because I'd been noticing that my heart had been beating hard/fast after meals. This seemed weird and had me a bit concerned, though when I mentioned it to the doctor, she said she'd never heard of such a thing. Nonetheless, she said that she'd be happy to send me for an early glucose test so we could know for sure one way or another.
Because of my history of blood sugar weirdness, I figured it would be good to play it safe rather than waiting until the 28th week when they typically send pregnant women for their glucose screening. Also, they'd noticed that I had low levels of ketones in my urine (which can signal blood sugar issues), though the doctor thought it was probably nothing and I was probably just a little dehydrated from the summer heat.
They wrote me a script for the test and sent me on my way.
Showing posts with label heartbeat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heartbeat. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Second Doctor's Appointment
I went in for my second doctor's appointment one month after my first. Not much had really transpired pregnancy-wise since the previous visit. First, the intern came in to ask me the standard set of questions:
Nausea? No. Vomiting? No. Bleeding? No. Fatigue? No.
I smiled at him and said, "I'm not really pregnant."
He gave me a strange awkward look, let out an uncomfortable giggle-ish sound, stood up and walked out of the room telling me the doctor would be in to see me in a minute.
The doctor came in and answered a few of my questions. She then took out the heart doppler machine to listen to the fetal heartbeat. She placed it on my lower belly (actually, I'm fairly sure that initially she was trying to listen to my pubic bone), but she wasn't able to pick up any sounds. She moved it around a bit, but still nothing. For some reason, I wasn't the least bit alarmed, but I did notice that she looked a little concerned.
Let me interject here that I've got a fairly substantial lower belly flap which I'm sure serves as a pretty good layer of insulation against the transmission of sound. Despite my surgery-related weight loss, this flap doesn't seem to have shrunk much - though I'm holding out hope that as I lose weight after the baby, it will significantly diminish.
Unable to hear the fetal heartbeat, the sent the intern to bring in the ultrasound machine. They gooped me up and fired up the machine. Wow - there on the screen was a clearly formed little baby kicking and thrashing all about. I was completely shocked that this early on in the pregnancy, it was so clearly formed and active to boot! For those of you who are reading this and have never experienced what I'm talking about, go to Youtube and Google "ultrasound, ___ weeks" and you can see all sorts of videos of ultrasounds each week along in the pregnancy. It's truly remarkable how fast babies develop into recognizable forms. For some reason, I'd always thought that babies remained jelly blobs until somewhere mid-way through gestation - not true!
It's very comforting reassuring to see your baby there on the screen in plain view - especially when you're a mad worry-wart like I've become during this pregnancy!
Nausea? No. Vomiting? No. Bleeding? No. Fatigue? No.
I smiled at him and said, "I'm not really pregnant."
He gave me a strange awkward look, let out an uncomfortable giggle-ish sound, stood up and walked out of the room telling me the doctor would be in to see me in a minute.
The doctor came in and answered a few of my questions. She then took out the heart doppler machine to listen to the fetal heartbeat. She placed it on my lower belly (actually, I'm fairly sure that initially she was trying to listen to my pubic bone), but she wasn't able to pick up any sounds. She moved it around a bit, but still nothing. For some reason, I wasn't the least bit alarmed, but I did notice that she looked a little concerned.
Let me interject here that I've got a fairly substantial lower belly flap which I'm sure serves as a pretty good layer of insulation against the transmission of sound. Despite my surgery-related weight loss, this flap doesn't seem to have shrunk much - though I'm holding out hope that as I lose weight after the baby, it will significantly diminish.
Unable to hear the fetal heartbeat, the sent the intern to bring in the ultrasound machine. They gooped me up and fired up the machine. Wow - there on the screen was a clearly formed little baby kicking and thrashing all about. I was completely shocked that this early on in the pregnancy, it was so clearly formed and active to boot! For those of you who are reading this and have never experienced what I'm talking about, go to Youtube and Google "ultrasound, ___ weeks" and you can see all sorts of videos of ultrasounds each week along in the pregnancy. It's truly remarkable how fast babies develop into recognizable forms. For some reason, I'd always thought that babies remained jelly blobs until somewhere mid-way through gestation - not true!
It's very comforting reassuring to see your baby there on the screen in plain view - especially when you're a mad worry-wart like I've become during this pregnancy!
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