Week 12

Okay, I can see it better this time. I actually was able to see the heartbeat at my appointment on Tuesday! I realized that I wasn't looking for the right thing. I thought it would be a flickering white light, but no, it's blackish grayish bluish. They really should tell you these things.

Also, we saw the baby move! It did a little flip during the ultrasound. That was pretty awesome. It will be at least another month before I will be able to feel any movement. I'm really looking forward to that. At my appointment I found out that I have a posterior placenta. My doctor told me that because of this I'll be able to feel my baby move earlier and my husband will have an easier time feeling him or her kicking and punching as the pregnancy progresses.

Next on the agenda is the quad screen. I was confused about the type of screening test I was actually having, but this is the one. I'm having blood drawn for the test on February 22nd. My doctor said that he usually gets the results back within a couple of days.

We also had to discuss finding a new provider, since the GYN who has been following my pregnancy up until this point no longer practices obstetrics. He gave us a few recommendations. It felt kind of overwhelming to choose between going back to the midwifery clinic and going to an OB with a "midwifery style." After some thought and reading online reviews of the OB he recommended as first choice for us, I think we may have found our OB. We'll be meeting with him on February 25th. I've heard and read that he is very invested in your pregnancy and you as a person, delivers between 90%-97% of his patients' babies, is very open to and encouraging of natural childbirth, that his wife sews muumuus for you to wear at office visits rather than paper or other types of gowns, and a few mothers wrote that after he delivered their baby he brought in a guitar and played a folk song for their new family. LOL! I have to meet this guy.

So, things are going well and I'm starting to feel more positive about this pregnancy. It was great to have another good ultrasound experience and know that everything is progressing as it should be at this point. More later. :)

Week 9

I know. I can barely see it either.

Yay, a positive ultrasound! My husband and I were so nervous yesterday. The last time we had an ultrasound we found out that we had lost our baby. But yesterday's experience was great. Everything looks good so far - the heartbeat, size, placenta, and other measurements were all fantastic. It definitely gave us a little more confidence that things are going well, even though we're still not past the critical first trimester yet.

We're going back for another ultrasound at 11 weeks, 5 days, just to make sure everything is still going well. We'll have another one done a couple of weeks later as part of the First Trimester Screen. Once we have the results from that, we will decide if we're going to have an amniocentesis or not. I really hope that our screening result ratios are so great that we'll decide we won't need an amnio. I'm worried about the risk of miscarriage from the procedure, even though our doctor has an excellent track record. As far as I'm concerned, the celebration will begin after all that stuff is done and the results are in...somewhere between Week 14 and 17.

Still a while to go, still cautiously optimistic. It's hard to let yourself get completely attached or engaged when you've had a miscarriage. I think I'll feel tons better after the next ultrasound though. That's the same time that we found out we lost our first baby, so it will feel good to get past that mark.

Send good vibes our way!