Latest Doctor visit

We had a doctor's appointment today.

We were due for another ultrasound and after our last one a couple of weeks ago when the baby was already 6 lbs 6 oz we were expecting (or hoping) for her to have grown so much that the doctor would tell us it was time to get her out.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

The baby is now 7 lb 1 oz, which is perfectly normal and the doctor told us to make an appointment for next Monday as usual.

The ultrasound was more rushed than normal as the office was quite busy. The baby was not playing along so the technician took the measurements and that was about it. We couldn't really see anything so we didn't even get a picture this time.

At least we know everything is ok though.

Maybe next week..

No news..

We just got back from our doctors appointment and there's not much to report.

Dr Hold did his checks but the baby is not ready yet.

He did say that the baby is quite big as we knew she was 6 pounds 6 ounces when we had the ultrasound on the 2nd July.

We're scheduled for another ultrasound next week so maybe we'll know more then.

Just like your Father

We had the latest scan yesterday.

We're about 5 weeks until the due date now and we'll have weekly doctors appointments from now on.

Our appointment was early morning so the office was pretty quiet. The ultrasound technician was able to spend more time with us which is a good thing because thew baby was not being co-operative at all.

The technician (nurse?) did all of the measurements and then started prodding and poking trying to wake the baby up so we could see her properly.

We gog to see the baby's heart beating on the screen and the blood flowing around her body.

She eventually woke up and gave us a couple of minutes to watch her blinking and pursing her lips, then she yawned and rolled bazck over and that was that. It was at this point my wife stated that the baby takes after her father.

I'm not sure what she meant by that obviously but what we do know is that neither of us can wait to finally meet her!

And the result is...

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and they did a full ultrasound and measured all of the body parts.

This was also the day we could find out the sex.

We've said all along that we were going to wait so it was a surprise. However, the thought of being able to know and buy clothes and decorate the nursery was too much and we found out.

It's a girl!

Blimey. Now what?

My family is all boys so it will be a culture shock for us, although I don't know anything about babies so it was going to be a rude awakening whatever it was.

We're both really pleased though and it definitely seems more real now. I think seeing the baby clearer on ultrasound and knowing it's a girl has made it sink in properly now.

We even had a walk round Babies 'r us last night but managed to not get too carried away with buying stuff.

Now we know, I think it's going to be more exciting planning for her arrival.

We're just over half way through now and the baby is definitely more photogenic than last time.

Like Father like Son/Daughter

I've just noticed that the baby looks a lot like me.

Scroll down a bit and look to the left.

Lucky thing.

Born a red..

After reviewing our latest ultrasound picture, I have decided that the baby actually looks more like a devil than an alien. A red devil (if it wasn't a black and white picture). Manchester United through and through.

See for yourself:

The baby is towards the left about half way up.

You can see it's eye sockets, chin, arms and rib cage.

This might be a better view:

United!

Coming up...possibly

I am trying to get my wife to scan the latest scan of the baby but because it looks like an alien she's bit reluctant to show it to people but I will keep trying.

A few more grey hairs..but a happy ending

Today, I found out what it is like to be a parent worried about the well being of their child.

We had a doctor's appointment today and although everything turned out ok in the end, it was very worrying at one point.

Today was supposed to be an easy appointment to meet for the first time the doctor who would be delivering the baby, Dr Michael Hold.

Once my wife's name was called we were taken through to the back where they did the usual checks before taking us into one of the rooms. The idea is for a nurse (or whatever they're called) to do all of the routine stuff and then check the baby's heartbeat before the doctor sees you.

Only today, the nurse couldn't find the baby's heart beat. She tried for a long time, possibly about 10 minutes, although it seemed a lot longer at the time before attempting to reassure us that sometimes the person doing the scan can't locate the baby but another nurse usually can.

She did say she heard the heartbeat but only for a short time and she wanted to hear it for longer to make sure everything was ok.

So she leaves the room and another nurse comes in, introduces herself and gets straight down to the business of locating the baby's heartbeat. This nurse was a little more forceful and pressed the doplar thingy a bit harder into my wife's stomach. She moved it around and heard lots of various sounds but nothing like a heartbeat.

She eventually did find something with a heart rate of 133 and said though it was low for a baby, it was probably too high for a normal person so that was probably it.

We were starting to get a little bit worried by this point and that wasn't helped when the nurse took my wife's pulse and her face changed dramatically. She mumbled something to herself and ran out of the room.

We were both left wondering what was going on and were now very worried something was wrong.

Luckily, a few minutes later Dr Hold came to the room with an ultrasound machine. It was much briefer introduction than we probably expected but by now we just wanted to know the baby was ok.

Dr Hold did the ultrasound and after a few minutes located the baby who was moving around a lot. He showed us the blood flowing through the baby's body and legs and arms moving around but he still struggled to detect a heartbeat.

When he eventually did we were very relieved. Even when we could see the baby moving, it wasn't until we could actually hear a strong heartbeat we were sure the baby was ok. He took various measurements of the baby, the circumference of the head, length of the arms, legs etc.

When he put all the figures into the computer it said the size was that of a baby 16 weeks and 4 days old. My wife is actually 15 weeks 5 days so the doctor said this is a sign that the baby is healthy and growing. He then tried to find a good picture for us to take home but I think he got our baby's picture mixed up with something from Area 51. If it is our baby then it seems to have got it's looks from my wife's side of the family!

After that, we just asked the doctor a few questions we had and he asked us if we wanted the triple screen blood tests to check for Down's Syndrome etc. We agreed and we went over to the lab for them to take some blood.

My wife had previously suggested we get a dokpar thing for home so we could hear the baby's heartbeat whenever we wanted. After today, I think she now agrees it wouldn't be a good idea. Everytime we couldn't find it there would be a mass panic.

I suppose this is how it will be for the rest of our lives now, worrying about our children's well being so we better get used to it.

The results of the triple screen, which actually became a quin screen aill be in this week so our next appointment is next Monday to discuss the results.

Hopefully next time the baby will be a bit more co-operative!

A Birthday Ultrasound

We went to Memorial City Hospital on December 11th which also happens to be my wife's birthday.

My wife gets very excited about her birthday and this year was no different. I woke up as she was getting out of bed and asked where she was going. She replied she was going for a shower and to get ready so I looked at the clock. It was 12.30am. We'd been in bed about 2 hours!

She got back into bed and tried to get back to sleep. She seemed to wake up every hour until 5.30am when she decided that was late enough and she was going for a shower.

I think she was excited about her birthday, but also nervous about the doctors appointment. This would be the first time we'd actually see our baby and she was worried something would be wrong.

While she was getting ready I got her birthday gifts from the other room and laid them on the bed for her to open when she came back into the bedroom.

She loved all her gifts, and we had breakfast before heading out to the hospital.

The appointment was 9am but we got there just before 8am as my wife had to go to the clinic first to take a glucose test before waiting an hour before they took her blood. The test is to see how the body reacts to the drink and to detect diabetes.

My wife asked for the orange flavour drink after a tip from a friend but it wasn't long before I could tell even that wasn't too tasty.

She did manage to drink it all down and we went to sit in the waiting room for the doctor.

After about 4 minutes, my wife very nearly revisited the drink she'd just had so I stocked up on tissues and made sure there was a bin handy incase she couldn't hold it next time.

I tried to be encouraging as she would only have to take the test again if she threw it all back up.

After about 20 minutes her stomach seemed to be settling and it got a bit easier.

About 8.50am we were called by the nurse to have the ultrasound. The person doing the ultrasound was much younger than I was expecting but I suppose that's just a sign I'm getting older!

My wife got undressed and got in position. Very quickly, and without much warning if I'm completely honest, the ultrasound thingy was in place and all of a sudden my wife's insides were displayed on a large plasma TV on the wall. The nurse/ultrasound child/scanner person pointed out the baby and turned up the volume so we could hear the heartbeat.

It was a very strong healthy heartbeat and it was pretty amazing to hear at such an early stage (6 weeks and 2 days). The baby is only 4.6cm and looks a bit like a cashew nut.

We were given a picture of the baby and went back to the waiting room to wait for the nurse practioner we'd seen last week, Mary-Helen.

While we were waiting, an hour had passed since my wife took the glucose drink so she went back to the clinic to have some blood taken.

The Nurse practioner told us everything was ok with the baby and the tests my wife had done at our last visit were ok.

She gave some more advice on eating and exercise and told us about what would happen throughout the pregnancy and the type of appointments we'd have.

The next appointment is January 14th which will be more like an MOT for my wife to make sure everything is working as it should.

They told us they would only contact us about the glucose test if something showed up. The results would be back in about a week. It's been over three weeks now and we haven't heard anything so hopefully that means everything was ok.