2nd OB Appointment, 13 weeks, 1 day

Today's appointment with the obstetrician went really well! I just love her. She's very thorough and explains everything that she's doing or looking for which is great. She started by taking my weight and I must say, I'm very pleased... no weight gain thus far! That's perfectly fine for the first trimester, but I will start gaining weight soon. My body is definitely changing shape but it's nice to know that I haven't been packing on the pounds, especially with Thanksgiving just a few days ago. ;)

After taking my weight, we sat down and went through my medical history. After that, she told me that she was going to do a complete physical, breast exam & pelvic exam. Oh, and she wanted to do a TB screening on me as well.

Before she did the pelvic exam, she wanted to use a doppler to find the baby's heartbeat. (A doppler is a wand they rub on the abdomen to pick up and amplify the baby's heartbeat so that you can audibly hear it through the speaker.) When they use the doppler, they usually press it into the abdomen pretty firmly. Well, as Dr. Gershwin was doing this, a very loud "KAPOW" thudded in our ears, but no heartbeat. My doctor moved the wand around and again... KAPOW! After a few more repeats, she said "Your baby is literally kicking the doppler every time I press it into you!" I breathed a sigh of relief because if the baby was kicking the doppler, things must be just fine in there! To be on the safe side, Dr. Gershwin brought in the ultrasound machine and did an external ultrasound. Right away, Baby Geib popped up on the screen with a very strong heartbeat. (188 beats per minute!) Baby Geib is definitely VERY active! He/She was jumping around so much that Dr. Gershwin had a hard time taking a non-blurry picture. Here are the pictures she got: (The bottom picture is Baby Geib doing a sumersault while the first one is Baby Geib being as still as Baby Geib gets. Oh and remember that clicking enlarges the picture!)

After the ultrasound, the rest of the appointment went very quickly and I'm happy to report that I'm in great health, as is Baby Geib. Our next appointment is December 17th and we'll have the quad-screening that will test for genetic defects in the baby like Down's syndrome, Trisomy 18, etc. Let's all cross our fingers that everything is fine! :)

Well, I think that's all for today! I hope everyone is well!