I crossed on over to the OB world yesterday at 11W4D. Good thing I slapped on extra clinical strength deodorant before the appt, because I was a nervous wreck!! I felt like a fraud sitting in the waiting room and was waiting for someone to tell me I do not belong.
We did a basic history intake with a nurse (I don't think the poor lady had ever had such an extensive and confusing history). The nurse then tried to locate the heartbeats with a doppler. I say tried, because she couldn't find EITHER heartbeat. Cue the panic stricken infertile fear of a miscarriage...I had to hold back tears.
We were whisked over to the ultrasound room. I walked in and instinctively reached for my belt in order to take off my pants. For me, an ultrasound room inevitably means pants removal. However, this was not the case today! I had an abdominal ultrasound people!! I kept my pants on for an ultrasound!!! Both of the kiddos were moving around and looked great. Cue tears of relief! I felt kind of foolish wiping away tears, because I'm sure most normal pregnant women don't cry over a routine ultrasound, but I'm definitely not one of those normal pregnant women.
Here's the stats on the kids: Baby A is still the more calm babe. S/he is measuring at 11W5D and has a heartbeat of 167. Baby B was on the move!! S/he is measuring at 12W and had a heartbeat of 165.
We met with the OB, and much to our relief, we both liked her. I immediately felt at ease in her presence. She's a young, petite, energetic lady who may run on batteries. She was incredibly easygoing and kept mentioning technical terms with 'I know it's dorky, but...' She met with us for a long time (about an hour) and answered all of our questions. I appreciate a doctor who is not on a time constraint. Needless to say, I am relieved that we both REALLY liked her. She will be the OB who delivers our twins!
We got info about chromosomal abnormality testing in the first trimester, because we have to have this done in the next 2 weeks, if we want to pursue it. There is zero risk to the babies (it's an ultrasound and blood work) and it covers some severe abnormalities (Trisomy 18, Trisomy 13, open neural tube defects and Down Syndrome). While I highly doubt we'd do anything about any of these defects, we're both information gathering type people and it's a chance to view the babies again, so we're going to do the testing next week. Pregnant ladies, did you/will you do this testing?
Other than this, I'm a 'normal' pregnant lady with appointments every 4 weeks. I can't believe it!
Since we don't have another OB appointment for 4 weeks and we're actually starting to believe in this (everyone keeps telling us things look great), we also decided to make the pregnancy public. I'm obviously starting to show and I'd rather make the announcement rather than have people approaching me to inquire if I was pregnant. It was a huge step, but felt incredibly liberating! We both posted a status on FB and sent out messages to people. {My FB status read: We're having our second baby in September...oh yeah and our first!! We're having TWINS!!!! I also mentioned thanks for everyone who supported us on this journey bc it wasn't easy...I couldn't pretend to be one of those regular pregnant ladies!} Majority of our family and close friends already knew, so it was mainly just letting everyone else know. One of my co-workers got excited and made a big announcement to our department. It was a surreal night having everyone share their excitement with me. So there it is, it's out there! I'M PREGNANT! I can't believe it...
I'm off the next few days so I think I'm going to hunt for maternity clothes. I blew off buttons on two pairs of capris. One happened at Lowe's while we were shopping with the in-laws. I couldn't stop laughing and checking to see if my pants were still zipped!! I think it's time to start getting maternity clothes. If anyone has any suggestions of stores, please share them! Again, I feel like a fraud when it comes to this.
Good luck to everyone who is going through cycles right now or waiting to hear news on a cycle!! Thanks for following along on my journey!
9 comments:
What great news!! YAY! This post makes me smile!! :D
we declined the scan just because the rate of false positives is so high, and I am already a nervous wreck! lol! but I am sad we will miss the chance to see the baby again so soon! What a cute Facebook announcement too!!
have a lovely week!
Alexis~
Love this post SO MUCH! You continue to be such a great inspiration, Amber! You are living the dream!!
More good news yeah!! Has to be a thrill to go shopping for pregnancy clothes out of immediate necessity :) Exciting :)
Since I'm a preparation nut I already bought some clothes. A lot of the styles out there work even though they aren't "maternity". Especially if you find some high wasted leggings. You can wear long loose sweaters or dresses over them. For shirt Nordstrom Rack has a lot of clearance items, H&M and GAP have cool maternity wear. Happy shopping!!!
Congratulations on your "normal" OB visit! It's a surreal feeling, isn't it? We didn't do any of the screening because we're done testing on our embryos before we transferred them (so we knew that we were transferring "normal" ones). If that weren't the case, we'd have testing up the wazoo, because I'm a NEED TO KNOW person.
Old Navy has some really cute and completely affordable maternity stuff. I was showing a bit at 12 weeks, but by 16 weeks there was no turning back. Good luck on your search for comfy, cute clothes!
OMG they tried a doppler on you first? I think I would have had a melt down and would ave had to be carried to the u/s. So happy they are good, healthy and kicking!
I originally wasn't going to do the screening bc honestly, after all we had been through I wouldn't abort, but C said why not do it and just see and I used it as an excuse to see the babe again ;) I went in really calm actually, the calmnest I had been for any scan yet (weird).
Isn't going every 4 weeks weird? AND they don't scan you each time...what?!?!
Awesome! I just got a really great skirt at oldnavy.com - it's not available in the stores. Just plain black, but super comfy and seems really stretchy. They also have some cute and cheap t-shirts.
We did do the tests - got the results today (all good). We did it for the same reason, just to be prepared and informed, not to change anything. But, we both felt a wash of relief knowing that something is finally normal.
Congrats on your OB appt and getting to keep your pants on! I was a fan of motherhood maternity and old navy for maternity clothes, they weren't super expensive and lasted long enough to even pass on to my friends!
Hi Amber,
Congratulations on all these amazing milestones!! I'm commenting cause finally, I have something to add, rather than just ask. :) I did the screening with my first pregnancy because I had to know everything there was to know. As for the maternity clothes, I recommend checking out Target. They have a good maternity section. Enjoy this time!!!
- Marina
Thanks for all the suggestions about clothing and the testing!! I appreciate them all!
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