First appointment

We had our first appointment today. I know that I'm 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant, but, the OB thought I should be something like 11+ weeks pregnant. Luckily for me, that meant that the OB scheduled a dating ultrasound. Even luckier, we were able to get in to see the ultrasound tech today, too.

She found the baby right away (I still can't believe there's actually a baby in there), and she saw a heartbeat. I'd been a little worried about a miscarriage (as all pregnant women are), so I was very glad to see it. The heartbeat was 170 beats per minute. There's an old wives' tale that heartbeats over 140 beats per minute are indicative of girls, but we'll see if that's true. We'll get another ultrasound at about 20 weeks, and we'll find out the gender then - probably right before Christmas.

Everything else looks good. It was my husband's first time being at an OB / GYN-type appointment (obviously), and he was pretty horrified and uncomfortable by parts of the exam. He got over it, though, and he was so so so excited to see the baby on the ultrasound. He and I talked afterwards about the fact that we'd just started coming to terms with the fact that we're having a baby, and now it seems so unreal again.

I also found out today that the practice has midwives, which makes me really excited. I've wanted to deliver with a midwife for quite awhile, and this is exactly the type of delivery environment I want. The delivery will be at the best hospital in the area (the only area hospital with a NICU), and it will be done by a midwife as long as things progress normally. If things go awry, there is ALWAYS a doctor at the hospital to step in and assist as needed. We also got some information today about the hospital where I'll be delivering, and it sounds like exactly what I want. I'm very pleased.

Other than that, things are going well. I feel fine, mostly. Occasional mild nausea, but nothing really noteworthy. Some insomnia, some headaches, some moodiness - basically a little bit of a wide variety of symptoms. I know that I'm lucky to be feeling so good. While there's still time for things to turn south, I've been really lucky so far.

My next appointment is scheduled for the end of October. It's really starting to feel real now.