First OB Appointment

On Tuesday, April 17th, I had my first OB appointment. I called the practice group my sister used and was told, upon giving them a brief medical history, that I needed to see one of the high risk specialists there. They also wanted to get me in sooner than later since I was coming up on 8 weeks pregnant and I am high risk. They wanted to get me in that day, Monday, but I could not swing it, so I came in Tuesday. This practice has five doctors and it seems like a great practice, but a real baby factory. The office is busy. They do their own ultrasounds right in the office, which is nice.

Anyway, I was there for about two hours. They took a complete medical history of me and my other babies. I really liked the doctor very much, very much. She was a little surprised by the medical history because she said I looked so healthy and normal and she would not have expected me to have the problems I had (like cervical cancer and thyroid cancer) or to have troubled pregnancies (with pre-term labor, gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia, and a growth restricted baby, not to mention a baby with congenital heart disease), but she quite clearly knows her stuff (I could tell right away she was a genius, but not one of those who throws it in your face) and she was not worried about me or the baby at this point. For me, having a doctor who did not "flip-out" and treat me with kid gloves and coddle me through this pregnancy was very important because I did not want to flip-out at this stage in the game.  Besides, this is my fifth baby, and I know the drill, I don't need coddling. I just need a good doctor. Not only is she brilliant, she is funny and has a great bed-side manner. I was filled with every confidence in her and am very excited to have her for my doctor.

She went over all the prenatal testing I could have done and wanted to know my thoughts on having an amnio or a CVS. I told her that the results of the first trimester screening would determine whether I have any more testing. She did tell me off the bat, just based on my age alone, I have a 1/110 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome and a 1/50 chance of having a baby with any trisomy. If something looks wrong in four weeks when I go for the first trimester screening, they can convert the test to a CVS on the spot and we can get our answers much sooner than waiting until week 16 to do an amnio. So, I scheduled my first trimester screening for Monday, May 14. I will be coming up on 12 weeks at that point. I will go in on the 8th to do the finger stick so that the blood results will be back when I get the ultrasound and they can tell me then and there if I have a potential problem. I will also have my next doctor's appointment on the 14th as well.

I also received an ultrasound at this visit to date the pregnancy. The baby was measuring 1.4 cm, putting me at 7 weeks, 5 days, with a due date of November 29. Going by my last cycle, I would be 8 weeks exactly, with a due date of November 27 (and my cycles are never 28 days--they are more like 34-37 days), so this was surprisingly close, closer than I thought. The baby's heart beat was a strong 156 beats per minute. Everything looked good on the ultrasound. I could see the arm and leg buds very faintly on the ultrasound.

As an aside, when I was filling out the plethora of forms (it amounted to a small book, really), on no less than three forms was I asked my profession. I am used to this question and it does not bother me. I always write "Housewife" without blinking an eye. Well, the physician's assistant who was doing my intake information was taken aback by my response. She said, "you have four children. You need to give yourself an important title." So on the form she was filling in about my medical history, she wrote, "Domestic Engineer." And when she took me back to meet the doctor, she showed the doctor that I had four kids born within four years of each other and commented, "Don't you think she deserves more of title than housewife?" The doctor laughed and wholeheartedly agreed that my job required a more sophisticated sounding title. I know they were having fun, and I appreciate a sense of humor, but really, I am totally okay with being called a housewife. I don't need any fancy titles. The job and the job description remains the same. The title does not make it any more glorious or glamorous. There's nothing wrong with calling myself a housewife, I don't think it is demeaning in anyway, and with young children, I wholeheartedly believe it is the most important job a woman can have.