Right now I am already starting my 15th week of being pregnant and am in my second trimester. I wanted to fill you all in on how my first trimester went and the first appointment we had with our Perinatologist. I'm playing catchup right now but I think its important to share how my first trimester went.
Here is a journal entry I had wrote after our first baby appointment.
October 15, 2013:
Today was our first appointment with the Perinatologist. Our doctor is Dr. Karen Raimer out of All Children's Perinatology. We see a high risk OB/GYN because of all my chronic illnesses and since I have the feeding tube and gastric stimulator implanted. Jonathan (who is my wonderful boyfriend and is going to be an amazing daddy), my mom (aka Mimi), and I all went to the appointment. We went over my medical history, medications, past surgeries, etc. with the nurse Rhonda who was great. Then we did our first ultrasound and we got to see baby for the first time. I was 8 weeks and 6 days pregnant during the appointment. It was amazing and incredible to see baby. We were all so excited to see baby. We saw your heart beating and that made me tear up. Then we got to hear the baby's heart beat at 175 bpm and hearing that for the first time was wonderful. My mom and Jonathan were smiling ear to ear during the ultrasound. We got a print out of some pictures from the ultrasound. Jonathan pointed out that in one of the pictures our baby looks like a heart shape. After the ultrasound we met with Dr Raimer who was great. She took the time to answer any questions and said that baby is growing perfectly and is right on track. We found out our due date is May 21, 2014!! I was concerned about having the gastric stimulator implanted and the feeding tube and if it would affect the baby at all, but she said that it should not be a problem and that it was a good thing I was getting tube feedings to get more nutrition to help the baby grow. Dr Raimer gave me paperwork for bloodwork and urine tests to make sure all of my levels are where they are supposed to be. Our next appointment is November 6, 2013 at 3pm and I will be 12 weeks pregnant by then. We can't wait until our next appointment to see how much our baby has grown!
Here is another journal entry I wrote after our second appointment.
November 6, 2013:
Today was our second appointment with our Perinatologist at All Children's Perinatology. Jonathan was sick so he could not come with me to the appointment, but I did have my brother Matthew (aka Uncle Matt) and Jonathan's mom Wendy (aka Nana) to come with me. I was so thankful that Wendy drove us down to the appointment and that she and Matthew got to be apart of this experience. We got to the appointment and I did my blood pressure, temperature, a urine test, and went over my medications and to see if there were any changes in my health. They also checked my weight and I had lost 2 pounds, most likely from all the morning sickness I have had the past few weeks.. by the way I think that they should change the name to all day sickness because it never stops, but at least I'm over the worst part now. I went back out in the waiting room and then they called us to come in and do the ultrasound. Wendy, Matthew and I went into the ultrasound room (this is my favorite part of the doctors appointments) I love getting to see baby and was so excited not only to see how much baby had grown but also to see Wendy and Matthew's faces when they saw the baby on the ultrasound for the first time. I think one of my favorite parts was this time we got to see the baby kick and wave! At one point baby even 'jumped'! I loved seeing baby's little fingers and toes! The heartbeat was at 164 bpm during the visit and baby is growing right on track with its estimated due date. This visit we had Dr. Prieto another Perinatologist in the practice. He was nice and said that the baby looked perfect and the neck looked great. After meeting with the doctor we set up our next appointment which is going to be the anatomy ultrasound of the baby and I'll be 18 weeks pregnant then! That is the one I am really excited about seeing all of the organs and making sure that everything is the way it is supposed to be. One of my biggest fears is that the baby will have stomach issues like I have, but it has been very reassuring hearing from the doctors that our baby is healthy. I had bloodwork done to check the baby for Down Syndrome and also they can do a gender blood test! How awesome is that?! We will know if we are having a boy or a girl in two weeks!
Morning Sickness
I was wondering how I would do with the morning sickness during pregnancy. The first trimester was definitely the most challenging so far when it comes to morning sickness, but I made it through. There were days were I spent most of the day vomiting and would have to keep a bucket by my bed. I think the most confusing part of it was I didn't know if it was morning sickness or if it was my Gastroparesis acting up. With my Gastroparesis I do get sick so I wasn't sure which one was the cause of my vomiting. By the way, my morning sickness was an all day thing.. it didn't just occur in the morning and in fact it seemed like my worst part of the day was at night. I did lose two pounds from all of the vomiting but when I talked to the doctor about it they said that since my morning sickness was improving and not all day like before I should be alright and it wouldn't affect the baby, which was very reassuring to me. I was not tolerating much food by mouth and that is when I really appreciated having my feeding tube still. It gave me a way to still give nutrition to the baby and make sure it was getting what it needed to grow.
Thanks for reading :)
~Megan
"A grand adventure is about to begin" - Winnie the Pooh
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