We are everywhere

Thank you for your support, everyone.  Obviously, I survived.  Can’t say it wasn’t horrid though.  That glucola crap was vile.  Let me qualify that by saying that I don’t like orange soda either.  To me it tasted exactly like a melted orange pop-ice.  Only I had to chug the equivalent of 10 pop-ice popsicles in 5 minutes.  BLEGH.

This visit, we met the 3rd of 5 OB’s in the practice.  And after I introduced Strawberry as my wife, he got this twinkle in his eye and asked us how long we’d been married, then proceeded to tell us about his partner of 30 years, their commitment ceremony 2 years ago, and to show us pictures of his grand daughters.  He was very sweet.

Cupcake’s heartbeat was nice and strong, and my BP and pee tests were fine. I’m measuring slightly ahead (30 weeks) and according to the OB’s palpation, Cupcake is in breech.  But we ought not to worry about it, there’s plenty of time for him to flip.  We explained that we’d be switching to the midwives after my 30 week appointment and he was totally ok with that.  And then we asked about the slight ankle swelling that I’ve been having.  Boy did we get a lesson!

He rolled up my pant leg and called Strawberry over from her chair to show us that by applying firm pressure for 20-30 seconds with his thumb to a place along my shin he could create a “pit” that remained for a couple minutes.  This would allow us to judge just how bad my edema is at any given point.  We can also tell by how far up my shin we’d be able to make such a “pit” .  He wasn’t concerned with it today and says that a certain amount is totally normal.  To relieve it, he told Strawberry to have me relax on my side to relieve the pressure on my vena cava (major blood vessel).  He also recommended keeping a close eye on my sodium intake, especially towards the end of the pregnancy.  To be honest, it was neat, but also a tad creepy to see  a “pit” on my own leg.

Finally, we hit the 1 hr mark after my having finished the glucola and the nurse returned for my blood draw.  I lay down for it, and thank goodness!  I cried like a big baby, broke out in a sweat, and squeezed poor Strawberry’s hand until it hurt.  She watched as she collected 4!!!!!! vials to test my glucose, Rh antibodies, and run a full metabolic work-up.  Strawberry is so wonderful, there is no possible way that I could do this without her.  Here’s hoping that the worst of the needles and bloodwork is behind me.  I do expect that I’ll need the Rhogam shot, but we’ll see what they say.

Next visit we will discuss all the results from today’s bloodwork and then we’ll get an ultrasound!  Are you ready for your close-up, Cupcake?  Only 2 more weeks ’til we see you again.