Prenatal Appointment

I had my second prenatal appointment today. It wasn't super eventful - the nurse took my weight (I've only gained a pound) and blood pressure (it was excellent). Then I waited for a very long time to see the midwife. Seriously, I made it through an entire Family Fun magazine before she came in! She was with another patient - maybe they double booked and we both showed up? Anyway, I guess it was cool, because I never actually make it through an entire magazine while waiting, usually I get interrupted mid-article.

We talked briefly about symptoms, then came the fun part - listening for the baby's heart beat on the doppler. Apparently the baby was curled up right behind my aorta - it took forever for the midwife to find the heartbeat. She kept moving the doppler wand around in various positions, trying higher and then lower, the left and the right, for several minutes but all we heard was the large, slow swooshing of my own heart beat. Finally the silly little baby cooperated and moved a little away from the aorta and we heard the tiny, fast swoosh, swoosh, swoosh of its heart beat. Welcome sound! Heart rate was about 160, perfectly normal range for how far along I am.

I'm really glad that I'm not one of those women who get scared and panic at every little thing (okay, so I was scared when I was spotting earlier in the pregnancy, but that's different). Going that long with the doppler without getting the heartbeat could have been nervewracking, but I was very calm and confident through the whole thing. I knew my baby was in there and doing fine, it was just hiding.

Anyway, got to hear the heart beat and even got to feel my uterus - the midwife pointed out where it was and showed me where to press so I could feel it too. Despite the long wait (both to be seen by the midwife and to hear the heartbeat) it was a nice appointment, and everything is going well. Next one in four weeks!