It's called diabetes. Duh.

Went to the doc again last week for another checkup and follow-up ultrasound. Apparently, last time they didn't feel like they got an adequate look at the baby's heart due to his position so they wanted to scan again. Fine by me - I've got pretty good insurance coverage (thank heavens). Baby was still there doing his thing! His profile shot looked kind of weird to me (he had a bulbous looking nose) so I went online to look at what other 22 week ultrasounds look like. Can you say...exactly the same? It's weird how similar the scans are. In fact, I'm not sure I could tell the difference between some of them.

During the doctor part of the visit, the doc reviewed my blood sugar numbers from the past couple of weeks. My morning fasting numbers are still significantly higher than they should be despite a couple of increases in my nighttime insulin dosage and plenty of experimentation with my bedtime snack. Nothing (so far) seems to consistently work. I asked the doc if there are some people whose morning numbers are just always out of whack no matter what they do, thinking that I might fall into that category. He looked at me and said, "Yes." Feeling pleased that I wasn't the only one, he continued, "They're called diabetics."

Gee, doc. Thanks for the enlightenment.

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!

First Doctor's Appointment

In a state of mild panic, I decided that the first thing I needed to do (after telling Geekboy) was to get myself in to see a doctor. I was concerned that my nutritional state was probably a big issue (not to mention all of the other things I'd been doing since I didn't know I was pregnant). Also - I really had little idea how to approach the whole concept of lap band pregnancy.

I was in a bit of denial and kept fluctuating between not really believing I could possibly be pregnant and freaking out about what could be happening to the baby if I really was, in fact, pregnant. In my state, I really wasn't ready to share the pregnancy news - which meant I couldn't call anyone to ask where to find a good OB doc. After a bit of thought and research online, I opted to call a top-ranked local hospital to see if they had an OB to recommend. They gave me the contact info for a group of five female OBs with a shared practice. It sounded great so I called.

Me: "Hi, I'm a new patient and I'd like to make an appointment."
Scheduler: Takes my name, address, phone, insurance, etc.
Scheduler: "How about October 19th?" (We were in late April.)
Me (a bit shocked and alarmed): "Ummm...I'm afraid that's not going to work."
Scheduler: "Are you pregnant?"
Me: "Yes, and my situation is a little unusual so I'd like to get in sooner rather than later."
Scheduler (chuckling): "Yes, I suppose October would be a bit late. How about next week?"

I went in for my appointment, still in a fair bit of denial. I had convinced myself that the doc was going to look at me, laugh at the absurd notion that I thought I was pregnant, tell me I had gas, and send me home. That's not what happened.

I joked with the nurse about the fact that I didn't think I could actually be pregnant, but after I had to excuse myself twice to use the restroom before even seeing the doctor, she said, "Honey, better believe it..."

The doc saw me and asked a bunch of questions. Then I got my turn to ask a bunch of questions. Afterward, she fired up the ultrasound machine. There on the screen in plain view was a little bean-shaped blob inside a larger circle and in the middle of the bean, there was a light area that was flicking on and off really fast. The doc pointed at the screen and said, "There's your baby." Tears came to my eyes. That was the moment it became real to me. She said it was a good sign that the heartbeat was so visible and strong at six weeks. I was relieved.

The doctor didn't really seem to have any concerns about the fact that I had a lap band (although she admitted she'd never had a patient with a lap band in the past). And she didn't seem too concerned about all of the other things I had been worrying about. She told me that a baby's nutritional needs are minimal this early in the game and that I should probably see a nutritionist to make sure I was getting enough of everything. She also told me not to worry too much about the other things I'd done when I didn't know I was pregnant - just to do the right things from here on out. She also pointed out that most folks don't figure out that they're pregnant for a month or more so it's pretty common for people to drink, eat the wrong things, be exposed to bad stuff, etc. - and in the great majority of cases, things turn out just fine.

I left the doctor's office feeling relieved and also feeling like I needed to get over my denial lickety split!