First OB appointment, the dentist and other niceties

Baby K measured in at 8 weeks, 4 days yesterday at our first OB appointment. Dr. Davies was very excited to see us and had a lot of nice things to say and talk about. Her first comment was how pleased she is with the amount of weight I managed to lose between our visit last March (when I was gearing up to start seeing the reproductive endocrinologist) and yesterday.....I lost about 46 lbs total....not bad at all....

Other things we talked about were how much weight I should expect to gain during pregnancy. She said she surely doesn't want me to bring back all the weight I've lost, so she'd like to keep it around 10 or 15 lbs. Honestly, from all the reading I was doing I was almost afraid she was going to tell me to try and gain nothing or 5lbs max, but she said 15 was well within her acceptable range and even if I got up to 20 she wouldn't be mad at me, so that was a good feeling. She said of course the baby plus fluids etc will weigh more than 15lbs and I'll just end up even lighter afterward....losing weight from pregnancy?? Sweet, I'm in.

She said all the bloodwork that came back from last week's nurse's appointment was fantastic and I don't need to change a thing. She also said after next week (10 weeks along) she wants me to stop taking the metformin, which she put me on for a couple of reasons....one being that insulin resistance is a major component of PCOS which is the condition I have that made this whole thing harder in the first place and the other being most women with this condition perform better on fertility therapy medications while taking it than without it, so it would serve a good purpose. She said of course we'll again evaluate the glucola test once I'm off the metformin for a few weeks, but she doesn't anticipate any issues between having lost some weight and the fact my sugars were never out of control prior to all this.

I couldn't get another picture as she was having difficulties with the ultrasound machine (I swear at one point she almost chucked it clear out the window....or wanted to anyway) and was maybe a little flustered since I had waited a while for her to get to the office from the hospital where she ran over on a surgery. I tried to explain to her being out of work for the afternoon was fine with me, even if it meant I was sitting on the table with the gown open in front and a sheet draped over me reading pregnancy magazines for half an hour. I think she appreciates my easy-going demeanor and sense of humor about the whole thing. And seriously, I wasn't at work so everything was good.

Baby K has a strong heartbeat and is at least double the size of last week...I think my exact words where "holy crap! it's like twice as big as last week!" to which she chuckled and said "yes dear, that's kind of the point....they grow exponentially right now." Of course I started having visions of this gargantuan child the guys at the plant used to accuse my dad of deviously formulating by "allowing" his daughter to marry "Big Chris"....hahhahaha....the gargantuan race to take over the world....awesome.

I did have 2 specific questions for her before leaving. The first was this feeling I get before every appointment....almost like some anxiety or a subconcious way of bracing myself if there's bad news to be had. She said it's perfectly normal for any pregnancy, not just the first one, and that I shouldn't feel bad about it. She said I read too much stuff online and I'm too smart for my own good but that keeping calm and healthy is all I can do. The other question I had for her was if she thinks I'm at greater risk of C-section because of my weight. She said that while many overweight women do succumb to a C-section, a good deal of the time it's because they're not mentally or physically prepared for the work and endurance this is going to involve. She said that thus far I have done everything I've been told perfectly and that my job now is to gear up for a proper healthy delivery without surgery since it's better for everyone in the long run. Ok. Good answers. She's kind of mom-ish and authoritative and encouraging without being patronizing or condescending...maybe that's why I like her so much!!

Afterwards I had a dentist appointment (which is seriously about 200 yards away from the OB office, also highly convenient) but it wasn't until 5pm. I stopped by to see if they had an opening or maybe someone had cancelled and boy were the girls happy to see me! I was the next appointment yet it was only 3:40. Stephanie was thrilled. The dentist himself was out of the office (on a cruise with his wife no less) since the week was so light, and now they might get to go home early! They too were excited to hear the news since they knew I had been trying at this for some time. They made sure to leave Doc a note for when he gets back so he can share in the joy. I'm sure he'll love another patient derived from the Gates family.

My next stop was taking it out to Brighton for some good eats and company....met up with some old school peeps (Annette and Katie Cooney along with a recovering Noreen) for a little dinner and chatting, which was nice. Then it was back home to watch some tele with the hubby and off to bed. What an exciting day!!