18 Weeks

I visited with my doctor earlier this week, and things are going really well with the little one! It was really neat to hear the heartbeat again – still a healthy 150 beats per minute. She (the doctor) was able to find the heartbeat within about half a second of putting the doppler to my skin, which was reassuring considering it took several minutes last month. There were several times during that two minutes (or so) where she had to adjust the placement of the doppler because baby was moving all over the place. We could hear the “swooshing” sound whenever baby would scoot away and there was even a “bang” when baby kicked the doppler. Awesome!

I haven’t gained any weight yet, but I’m not terribly concerned over that since I started out heavier than I should be anyway. I didn’t gain anything with Small Fry either, and he’s just fine. The only complication we ran into was that my milk supply took a while to fully come in, so we had to supplement with formula for a while. I *think* I’ll be okay with that this time – more so than I was with Small Fry. I feel like I’m bit more open-minded than I was then. Obviously I’ll want this little one to have the same “breast milk only” diet that the others all had (except for Small Fry’s first two months), but I’ll be okay if we have to do some supplementation this time too. It was mostly hard on me with Small Fry because I didn’t see it coming. Knowing that it’s a possibility this time, I’ll be able to prepare mentally for it, and that’s a huge factor in being “okay” with the way things turn out.

At my appointment, we also had further discussion of my VBAC possibilities. My local doctor talked with the clinic from the bigger hospital for me since my last appointment, and things are still looking like I’ll be able to attempt that. She gave me the phone number for the other clinic as well as a list of three doctors within that clinic that have agreed to see me. (I came home and immediately looked at the website – all three of the other doctors are women, so I’ll be pretty comfortable with any of them.) I was told that I can schedule a preliminary appointment with the new clinic at any time, but once I have my first appointment there, I’ll have to have all further appointments there as well so that the new clinic can establish some familiarity before the birth. My local doctor suggested I do one or two more appointments with her, and then move over in about 10 weeks when I enter my third trimester, so I think that’s what we’re going to do. Especially since we’ll be moving soon, that will hopefully give us enough time to find a new place, move, and get settled before I have to switch doctors. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Morning sickness is all gone now, thankfully. I’m so glad to be feeling normally again. I still need a nap a couple of days a week, but it’s not every day anymore, which is also good. During those days, I just have the big kids watch a movie, and Small Fry and I rest together. It works out really well.

I’ll have some exciting news with my next update: My next doctor’s appointment is an ultrasound to check all of baby’s developing anatomy, and that also means that unless baby’s shy, we’ll know the gender! We’re super excited to find out. This is the first time we’ve decided in advance to find out what the gender is. (With Seahawk and Munchkin, we waited until birth. With Small Fry, we decided on the spot when she said “do you want to know gender?” that we did want to know.) We’re having a gender announcement party with the grandparents and great-grandparents on July 11th (we have the ultrasound on July 6th), so I’ll post about that appointment after the party. (I don’t think any of them read my blog, but just in case, I don’t want the surprise spoiled before the party.)

Blessings,

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