Well, I finally went to the doctor. It was as I had feared — a long time spent, little gained. In addition, my regular OB retired, so his partner took over the practice and moved offices, so I was treated like a new patient, even though he’s the doctor that delivered Audrey. “New patient” means lots of paperwork, and LOTS of preliminary health questions and the like. Plus, he was running late from a delivery, so all told, I didn’t get out of there until more than two hours after my appointment time. Good thing Martin was with the kids and I wasn’t paying $10/hr for babysitting.
Also, it was good that Martin was at home with the kids, instead of in the waiting room since the appointment was so long. Initially, he had planned on meeting us there at the doctor’s office, and him staying in the waiting room for most of the time, but leaving the boys for a bit (and holding Audrey) so that he could come into the exam room and he could hear the baby’s heartbeat. But, 6yo Wesley was so ill on Thursday, Martin came home a little extra-early so I could go alone, and he could stay at home.
Actually, being only 12 weeks, I didn’t think we’d hear the heartbeat. But, we did, fast and strong. :) That’s always exciting.
And, I had estimated the due-date as October 22, and they told me October 24.
I’m glad my doc is a DO; they tend to be less medicine-prone than MDs, and I tend to be medicine-avoidant, whenever possible. But, he still said “the Academy” recommends an amniocentesis since I’ll be 35 when the baby’s born, to which I said a resounding, “NO” both because I don’t want any needles in there, and because it really doesn’t make any difference if I have a baby with a chromosome anomaly. So, he said that his second recommendation would be a high-level ultrasound at 18 weeks. That, I agreed to. It’s noninvasive, and I’m not among those skeptical over the safety of ultrasounds. Plus, it would be cool to see my baby in “hi-def.”
Semi-dissapointing was that he expressed concern over the size of my babies. He mentioned that we could schedule an induction, which I am very opposed to, and he said this after I told him that my basic plan with pregnancy and delivery is to be as hands-off and natural as possible. I figure if I can birth a 10 lb baby with no doctor in the room, and no nurse even catching the baby*, I can take pretty much any baby to full-term.
In other, semi-odd news, next to a patient of his who is in her 9th pregnancy, I’m runner-up in the birth-number category. That was really surprising. I mean, it’s uncommon for families to have five kids, but it doesn’t seem like it would be that unusual.
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That happened w/ Wesley — I told the nurse that the baby was coming, and in she mosies, 20 minutes later, to exclamations of, “OMG, he’s crowning! Has anyone called the doctor?” She didn’t even have her gloves on when I pushed him out.
