Week 14

Well, it’s the beginning of week 14, so I am officially finished with the first trimester! Only 27 more weeks to go. Just 5 weeks until we find out if it’s a boy or a girl. And just 7 weeks or so until I’ll be able to start feeling the baby move. According to one website I visit often, the baby is about 3.5 inches long and weighs about 1.5 ounces. His/her hands and feet are about ½ an inch long, and he/she's able to make all kinds of faces too.

I have a doctor appointment this week – Thursday at 9am. This will be the first time I’ve actually met the doctor who is supposed to be the one who delivers the baby. So I’m going to get a bunch of questions together to ask her.

Ross will be in Atlanta May 18-21st. His company is having a bunch of meetings and the annual picnic on Saturday, all of which he’ll have to attend, so I’m not sure that he’ll have much chance to see much of anyone. It sounds like they’re going to keep everyone pretty busy. Unfortunately, my appointment with the perinatologist is on May 20th. It’ll be my 16th week and they will be doing what they call a level 2 ultrasound (this is to look for any genetic defects such as Down syndrome or spina bifida) and they’ll also do an amniocentesis. This is where they use the ultrasound to find a place where the baby isn’t, then they stick a long, very thin hollow needle through my stomach and pull out some amniotic fluid. Then they cultivate the amniotic fluid for a while and then test it to look for genetic and chromosomal abnormalities, such as Down syndrome. It tests for several hundred genetic disorders and is said to be more than 99% accurate, though it doesn’t detect every birth defect out there. I almost don’t want to know, know what I mean? I don’t want any bad news – just all good news, please. Anyway, it’ll also tell with certainty whether it’s a boy or girl, so at least there’s that good news.

So it sucks because Ross will be out of town and I won’t have him to hold my hand when they stick a giant freaking needle in my belly – but more importantly, he won’t be there to see the ultrasound. I hate that!! The doctor I’m seeing will give me pictures of the ultrasound, but they don’t videotape it. Usually Ross’ company’s meetings/picnic is in July, so this is really crappy. At least I think so.

I had thought about hiring a doula, but there’s only 2 down here that I’ve found and the one who didn’t look insane (judging by their websites) costs $600. I mainly wanted one because they’re like an advocate for you when you’re giving birth – studies have shown that when you have a doula, you’re less likely to have an unnecessary c-section & that's something I worry about. And since we’re down here by ourselves, I thought it might be nice to have someone to ask questions of, especially on dealing with the doctors because they don’t always have time or know you well enough to give you all your options, at least in my experience so far. Plus I’ve never done this before and a doula would’ve seen it all before, I’m sure. Oh well, people do this all the time without them – $600 just seems like a bit much to me – but that’s Palm Beach for you. Anyway, I gotta get a sofa before I can even begin to think about a doula (we ended up leaving ours in Duluth, if you hadn't heard).

I have been having crazy dreams – though I very often have weird dreams anyway, these are even weirder than usual. Of course I know that’s normal. Some of them are pretty funny. The other night I dreamed that Wylie’s head came off and his body was running around without a head and I was holding his head. He kept looking at me like, please help me get back onto my body, and I was trying, but I kept thinking, what? Can a vet reattach it or do I just stick it back on?

Anyway, that’s it for now – gotta go make dinner and watch a DVD. I’ll write more about the doctor visit afterwards.