Sep 10, 2010

Follow up

After yesterday's mini-panic, we went for a follow up at the hospital today for an ultrasound, as suggested by the emergency room doc. We got there in plenty of time (half an hour early, in fact), and I hadn't peed for about 2 hours. Of course, they told me to come with a full bladder, so added to our early-ness and waiting time, it was a good 3.5 hours since the last bathroom visit by the time I got in to see a technician. 


She showed us all sides of the baby, and all looked well. The heartbeat is normal, and the baby has two legs and two arms, ribs, a stomach, you name it. She checked its age by sizing the head and other body parts, and we're still exactly on track for a February 14th due date -- currently at 17 weeks and 4 days old. And ... she asked use if we wanted to know the baby's gender.


"Oh, sure!" I replied enthusiastically. In yesterday's preoccupation, I'd nearly forgotten that by now this would be possible.


She pointed to some little squiggle on the ultrasound picture -- looks like a boy. She did it again and confirmed her opinion. But warned: "We'll know for sure when you come back at 20 weeks." 


So probably a boy. Really cool. I had a feeling this morning that they would tell us that.


Of course, we thought we were done now and ready to head out of the hospital. Not so fast, keen one. Nope. We were sent back to the emergency room to follow up with a doctor there. The information was to be faxed down.


So back we went. Yet another series of tickets, and registration, etc. It seems that wherever you go in the hospital, it requires a ticket-wait-register-wait-wait some more-see someone-wait-see someone else-wait, etc routine. Not that I truly minded. By this time my mind was at ease from hearing the heartbeat and seeing the ultrasound.


The wait was not impossibly long and it turned out that this doc (unlike yesterday) was a bit more thorough. He did an internal exam and also asked my blood type -- a critical factor that I'd forgotten about. I'm Rhesus negative meaning that if you have any bleeding you should get a shot of RhoGAM to prevent any difficulties for subsequent pregnancies.


You guessed it: more waiting while they ordered the drugs. Then, administered it, and asked me to wait another 15 minutes before leaving to make sure I didn't have some kind of adverse reaction.


Well, at least they were thorough and like yesterday, everyone was tremendously kind. I'm glad that my 50% tax rate goes to some decent things.


I've been giving some restrictions: no bouncing exercise, no lifting, no gym therefore. For now, it will be walks with the dog and skipping the personal trainers. I'm to follow up with my own doctor as soon as I can, which I will do. 


All of this is fine by me. Mostly, we're both just extremely happy with the news today.

3 comments:

  1. Lieve Judith en Steve
    Nou dat is een geruststelling en ik ben heel blij dat het goed is en wat leuk een jongetje!
    Volg de regels van de dokter maar goed op, tenslotte is een zwangerschap niet niks!
    Ik zal blijven duimen, ik ben vandaag op de boot.
    Liefs mama xxx en groetjes van Roland

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  2. Well glad to hear all is well - rest rest rest - just get fat and have some fun relishing in the waddle of comfort for the winter! Think chips chips chips!

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