appt report

[mamajoan]

Well, naturally most of my fears were unfounded (or at least exaggerated) and the appointment went just fine. Cosmo is moving around like crazy, has all the correct bits in the right places. The ultrasound technician pointed out the spine, kidneys, various parts of the brain, and even the four individual chambers of the heart, which was super cool. She took a bunch of measurements that apparently are significant (like the length of the femur and weird stuff like that) and it was all normal and fine.

Then, like last time, we had to wait around a bit for the doctor. But not as long as last time, luckily. I was just starting to really stew when he showed up. ;) They did a little more of the scan while he showed the tech some other features of the machine (apparently she was new to this hospital and this particular ultrasound machine, though clearly not new to doing ultrasounds in general) and then they did the vaginal ultrasound to check out my cervix. The doctor didn't tell me the numbers, but he said it looked fine and normal.

They gave me a bunch of pictures, which I shall attempt to scan, though I don't know if they'll come out. Afterward, I asked the tech if she had seen the gender, and she said "I have a pretty good idea" but also said that she had tried not to linger too long in that "area" since I told her I didn't want to know.

Then I met with the midwife, fairly briefly. She felt my belly and listened to the heartbeat on Doppler, although she acknowledged that these were just formalities since I had just had the ultrasound. I am indeed down one pound since last time, but she wasn't worried about that at all. She pointed out that one measly pound could be lots of things: different clothing, a different scale, what I ate or didn't eat today, water retention, whatever. So although I was annoyed to not have gained weight, it was nice that she wasn't concerned about it. I said something like "what should I do about the weight thing" and she shrugged and said, "keep eating." :)

As far as the cervix/premature thing, since it was normal today, apparently we are proceeding on the assumption that the pregnancy will continue normally, albeit they're going to monitor me more closely than usual. I'll have repeat ultrasounds to measure the cervix again every 4 weeks. And there's another test called a fetal fibronectin (FFN) which they do at 24 weeks and again at 28 weeks. But aside from that, everything appears to be fine. It's mildly frustrating for me, because it means we still don't have a clue why Isaac was early; but I am reminding myself that the bottom line is Isaac is healthy and Cosmo appears to be healthy as well. And lots of women have preemies for no known reason, and many of those women later go on to have normal full-term babies.

So, to sum up, everything's fine and life goes on.

And Isaac had a great time this morning with anotherjen. The fact that she lives literally right next to the train tracks, of course, helps a lot. ;) But she also has lots of toys and it sounds like they had a blast. Unfortunately, he didn't eat any of the piles of food I brought along ... and when we got to daycare he didn't eat either. We got there just as they were getting ready for naptime and reading a before-nap story, and although they had saved some lunch for him, he wasn't interested in it because he wanted to go hear the story. :( I know he had to be tired -- Jen said he was yawning, and he was rubbing his eyes in the car -- so maybe he was just too tired to eat. But I sure hope he ate something after his nap, because he had to be hungry too.

(I wish *I* got a nap. I slept terribly last night. A combination, I think, of fretting over the appointment, residual adrenaline from the gas leak thing, and the cat being obnoxious. Wish me luck getting more sleep tonight, because tomorrow I'm on Isaac duty the whole day, so I'm gonna need my energy!)

OK, off to inflict show my new ultrasound pictures to some other unsuspecting victim coworker. ;)

Comments

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

yay!

and also keep in mind that even if they find all kinds of things that
suggest you could have another preemie (ie shortened cervix, positive
fetal fibronectin test, etc etc) you could still wind up having a perfectly
healthy full term baby too. (they thought Kata was going to try to come
out at 25 weeks, and we made it to 6 days before my due date, desipte
some preterm labor contractions, a very short cervix, and positive fetal
fibronectin test...)

[xochiquetzl]

Woohoo! Go, you!

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

glad to hear al lthings are going well and I guess not to worry about the weight thing - you did have all those problems earlier, maybe you lost weight then? Cosmo sounds like the right size and weight.

All good!

[sandykidd.livejournal.com]

We cheer that everything is so good so far!