wigblog ramblings of a philomathic polymath

UPDATE: Baby news

Today we had doctor appointment #2 for the baby at the 12 week marker. Was short and sweet really.

We started with the nurse pratitioner (NP) as we were the first appointment of the day and were early, so the doctor hadn't arrived yet. Jess was weighed and has gained 4 pounds in the last month, which is completely normal. Of course Jess had to state that it must be her anti-Atkins diet of nothing but carbs.... blah blah blah.

We went on in to the exam room where a basic chart review followed, and then out came the doppler. For those that don't already know, this device is used to hear (and supposedly measure) baby's heartbeat. It reminds me of those little Fisher-Price cassette recorders that had the microphone attached where you can sing along with the tape, though this device was obviously missing the cassette part. It had that speaker in it that made you sound like you were the typicall numskull taking orders in a drive-thru restaurant.... I KNOW you know what I'm talking about. Or like in Spaceballs where Michael Winslow is talking into the microphone saying "I'm having trouble with the radar, sir"... anyway... I found these things here if you want to check out what they're like, but PLEASE don't buy us one... we have much better uses for the money they're charging for those things!

So on to the doppler.... the NP stuck the little microphone to Jess' belly and started moving it around trying to locate the general vicinity of the baby while the speaker spit out all kinds of staticky noises and "motion sounds" reminiscient of the turbo lift on Star Trek. She found what must have been some veins in Jess as you could definitely make out the sounds of the regular pushing of blood cells through the circulatory system. Finally after a couple minutes, she homed in on a spot where the sound was somewhat higher pitched and about twice the frequency of Jess' pulse. That was the kid! I think the pulse ended up being in the 160-165 range, but we only got a short sampling and couldn't to a counting measurement so went with what the device said. Apparently they're quite actively swimming around in there at this stage and sometimes they give up without hearing the heart at this point. Amazing to hear that little heart beating.... and so fast!

After this Jess got herself back together and we waited for the doctor who had arrived and came in shortly after the NP left. At appointment #1 they pulled 5-6 vials of blood from Jess, and we hear back that all the labs came back looking good... nothing of consequence to report. A small volley of questions was fired by Jess resulting in non-surprising answers I had pretty much expected (reading works!). We spent the rest of the time talking about upccoming appointments... 16 weeks (more blood drawn)... 19-20 weeks (we're excited for this one!)... and 22 weeks. So we got those all setup and were on our way.

Arrived: 7:36AM

Departed: 8:18AM

Like I said... short and sweet. Kinda like Jess.