Third Appointment

Forget second appointment, that's old news. I've now made it to my third appointment, and I have no reason to worry that I won't make it to my fourth!

I was supposed to be seen yesterday by the wonderful Dr. J. I had the earliest appointment time, 9:15, and naively assumed I could make it back home in time for a 10:00 piano lesson. My last couple of morning appointments were indeed pretty fast, but I quickly learned never to assume I won't have to wait forever. The office was swamped when I went in, and I didn't even get to the front of the line until 9:25, when I was told Dr. J had been in surgery and wouldn't be back for at least 20 minutes. The stars seemed aligned against this appointment happening: Erich was supposed to come with me, but he got stuck an extra night out of town for work. I happily rescheduled for today with Dr. B.

Dr. B is the only male doctor in the practice and I hadn't met him until this pregnancy. I'm supposed to rotate through all four doctors, but due to my reschedule I've now seen him twice in three appointments. No biggie! But he is an interesting fellow. Imposing presence, distinct accent (probably Polish), and a quick, direct manner.

We finally got into a room about 30 minutes after the appointment time. My blood pressure had come in at 122/64--my lowest for an office visit during this pregnancy. I was definitely feeling a lot less nervous! I couldn't conjure any meaningful feeling of doubt if I tried. So I've stopped trying. Erich also reported being much more bored than nervous.

Dr. B burst into the room, exclaiming, "Okay! 17 weeks and according to this everything's just perfect!" I liked the "perfect" part, but I wasn't exactly sure where he got the 17 weeks part. Maybe he glanced at my LMP? Oh well. I swelled with pride about my beautiful BP and on-track weight gain as I laid back and got squirted with the gel. Then came the heartbeat! Erich finally got to witness how ordinary it is to hear a baby's heartbeat. He showed us the readout when he found it and it flickered around from 150--149--147--145--148 and it faded away. "It keeps moving!" boomed Dr. B. Yay! He cleaned off the gel, grabbed my arm and lifted me to a seated position. I choose to find this type of behavior amusing. Apparently he can't be bothered with simple directions like, "You can sit up now."

"You've only had one ultrasound?" asked Dr. B. I replied in the affirmative. "Then we'll get you in for another one. And if you want to know the gender, you have to ask!" On our way out he gave me an order for the ultrasound--held at the same imaging center as my ultrasound in April of last year. It had today's date on it but didn't say when to get it done. I asked Dr. B when I should schedule it. And he said in the next week or two. I said, "I'm 15 weeks now, would that be too early?" He replied, "You're actually 16 weeks [seriously, is he making this up?] but that is early. Just call them and schedule it for about 3 weeks or so." Gee, I'm glad I asked!

My next appointment is set for Friday, August 21 at 1:30 with Dr. J. Erich agreed that he doesn't really have to be there (thank goodness for the boring second tri!), especially since he'll definitely be at the "big show," the ultrasound still to-be-scheduled.