Mmmm Orange Soda

Today was a busy check-up at the doctor's office. I grabbed the dreaded and supposedly gross "orange soda" from the lab before heading to my appointment. Everyone said it was disgustingly sweet. I thought it was delicious! haha I guess I love orange soda! My blood was drawn an hour after drinking the Glucola to test for gestational diabetes. The lab tech also drew blood to test for anemia. I would be surprised if I was anemic because I don't feel fatigued or weak at all (common symptons). I definitely wouldn't be at the gym if that was the case!

I also got a flu shot while I was there. Might as well do everything in one trip, right? The doctor measured my tummy and said everything was on track and we listened to her heart beat, which was as strong and cool as ever!

A Healthy Baby is the Best Birthday Present

I'm just catching up to blog posts now (it's August 15) but decided to label this post as July 17 as that was the day of our next big doctor's appointment: the 18wk ultrasound. We could see her clearly on the screen. Her heart was beating and she was moving all around. It was wild! She was looking at her hands (are these fingers?!), relaxing with one arm behind her head (the way I sometimes sleep), punching my insides and rolling around all over the place! It was very "Discovery" channel. They took pictures of her spine, kidneys, liver, brain, arms, legs, you name it. Then she rolled over and did not want to roll back over. She was quite comfortable hanging out on her tummy! I could tell Tony enjoyed the experience (on his 29th birthday no less!) until we got to the parking garage when his face had lost some of its color. He didn't tell me then but he was actually having chest pains and was experiencing signs of an anxiety attack. It was a neat experience but apparently when he absorbed it all, it was a little overwhelming!!

An Amazing Sound

The following Monday morning on June 1, we had our first visit with our high risk doctor. She was no-nonsense, which Tony liked very much. She said that the placenta sometimes tests differently and that she thought further testing would not yield negative results. The results could also remain inconclusive, at which point we would have to decide if we wanted to do amniocentesis. She seemed confident though that the baby would be just fine. With her confidence, we decided to listen to the heart beat for the first time. She warned us that early on couples sometimes can't hear the heart beat, especially with the small handheld piece of equipment she had. It didn't take her longer than 30-40 seconds though to find a very strong heart beat - 170 beats/minute! It was a very exciting moment for us.