16 week check up!!!!!!!

We had our 16 week check up!

After the initial weight, urine sample and blood pressure (good, btw) check up I waited for the doctor to come into the exam room. I am incredibly grateful to have a doctor who I not only like but takes the time to talk with me without making me feel pressured for time. I had some questions regarding their practice, mostly after watching The Business of Being Born (Thanks Kate) and conversations I have had with my other pregnant friends...

I asked about their theory or practice or lack there of doing VBACs, which she does and supports (which I was hoping she would say) and prefers vaginal births to C Sections (again something else I was hoping she would say). Not that that affects me now in any way, to me it says something about the theories used in the practice which as a patient makes me feel better.

 

My friend Jennifer and I were discussing giving birth over lunch (because why wouldn't we) and she mentioned how her doctor doesn't believe in clamping the umbilical cord immediately after birth to cut. Her doctor believes it best to leave it attached as long as possible and if I heard her correctly, would dry up and fall off of someone within 10 to 15 minutes maximum. His theory is that there is some kind of link to prematurely clamping and cutting the blood supply from the mother right away to Autism. If you ask me, I'm sure we can find a doctor who says breathing air has links to Autism but out of curiosity I shared this with my doctor.

 

Dr.Wallis (who I love for not looking me like I'm crazy for being curious) said she falls in the middle of the practice. She won't cut immediately but will wait until she can feel the amount of blood reduce in the cord before clamping. Unless there is an immediate need to resuscitate the baby or anything like that she feels that allowing some extra blood into the babe is the best practice however, waiting too long to clamp and cut can contribute to jaundice, hence, her middle ground stance. Not too short, not too long. Sounds reasonable to me.

 

After our discussion, we grabbed Joe from the waiting room so we could both hear the heart beat. Not shocking was the fact that the babe kept moving around every time the doctor moved the wand over my belly.. moving away. Dr.Wallis finally was able to "catch him/her" and we were able to hear that sweet rapid pulsing coming from the speaker. With confidence she said our babe has a strong heartbeat and that we were good to go!

 

The only negative thing was having to get blood drawn yet again for the Quad screening which basically gives the doctor an idea as to the chances of any genetic findings. A 1 in so and so chance of this and that. Apparently it's routine and apparently it can offer false positives so I'm not even going to stress it.

 

What WILL stress me is the fact that she wants to see us in two weeks on May 14th to do a sonogram TO FIND OUT THE GENDER (!!!!!!!!!!!!) and check the overall body of our peanut.

 

This will be the longest 2 weeks E V E R.

 

Cheers!!