When I booked the appointment I was later kicking myself for making it at 8:45 in the morning. Just so happens that this week my sleep has completely flipped and I’m up by 6am every morning, so it worked out perfectly. (I’m also asleep by 6pm, unfortunately. If I don’t actively go to bed by 6, then I’m falling asleep wherever I’m sitting!) I feel nice and bright-eyed and busy tailed. Well, as much as I can be when my back is hurting so I have to hobble around.

I will skip over the fact that my car had a little run-in with someone’s tire in the parking lot. The other car doesn’t have a scratch (thank god for hitting their tire!). Mine however… well my poor car is a little dinged up. :( It was my own stupid fault too. So glossing over that…

Checked in, sat in the waiting room. I think the nurse called me in at around 8:55. She apologised for being behind, they had to organize my records. I’m wondering why they didn’t do that earlier – I dropped them off last week – but I wasn’t in a rush and it was no big deal to me.

I felt a little rushed during the initial stuff… you know, the pee-in-a-cup (“Do you mind if we get to you give a urine sample first?” “Please?!!?!!”), blood pressure, weight thing. I was given a little cup thing and sent to the bathroom. I had no idea what their usual proceedure was, and I think I did it wrong (I didn’t do a clean catch, and now that I think about it I probably should have), and I had to carry the little cup back to the nurse’s station. That was a little… weird. (The old practice had a little door you put the urine cup through, no carrying.) Blood pressure was 118/60. Weight was 140.2, so I am now back at my starting weight at least. (Which I knew, according to my own weekly weigh-ins, but it’s nice that they have it on record now, LOL.)

I then was put in a room and the nutritionist came in to see me. Now I don’t know what it was about her… she was very friendly and nice… but there was just something about her that mildly irritated me. I kind of got the feeling that maybe she’s a little new at this? I don’t know, maybe it was just little mannerisms that irked me. We talked about eating habits. Umm, yeah, I don’t know if any of you are aware of this, but my eating habits in general suck. I hate veggies and don’t touch them with a ten foot pole if I don’t have to. I have very limited taste in fruits (and apparently I don’t like the “citrus fruits” that I’m supposed to be eating). I’m bad about eating meat – I LIKE it, I just can’t exactly afford a nice filet mignon every evening. Well, that and I’m supposed to cook my meat really well, and that ruins it for me. Even like ham. I like a COLD ham sandwich. So maybe it was just the fact that I didn’t like the questioning. But actually I eat lots of grains and lots of dairy, so there’s just a few things I need to do better about.

But yeah, she wasn’t thrilled with my lack of weight gain. She didn’t outright lecture me, but she had a graph thing that showed the recommended weight gain range by months along. I’m sitting at the very bottom of the graph, heh. I’m apparently 10-15lbs underweight, did you know that? So she said I need to aim for gaining 5lbs a month until delivery. Yikes. That seems like a lot to me. And the idea of forcing myself to gain weight doesn’t sit any better with me than forcing myself to lose weight! I’m going to really try to eat more protein and snack more throughout the day so as not to make myself sick, but I’m not going to force myself to eat just for the sake of eating. Besides, I don’t want to turn into a blimp. ;) Now that my appetite is gaining I think I’ll be fine with it.

The nutritionist also gave me a bunch of handouts on dealing with nausea. But she didn’t really know the material you know? Like she told me B-12 vitamins, then when I mentioned B-6 vitamins she was like, “Oh that’s the one! Here I’ll get that handout.” And she was talking about chewing on ginger when I’m feeling nauseated and stuff. I don’t know, it just didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. She had no clue about using Unisom for nausea, she looked totally blindsided and confused by that and remarked, “Wow, that must really knock you out!” Ummm, no not really. :/ She was talking to me as if I am nauseated 24/7, but she didn’t seem to get that the Unisom keeps it really manageable, I know what to avoid, and I just have a few days here and there where it’s REALLY bad. And I’m sorry, but when it’s REALLY bad sniffing a lemon is not going to help – I’ll be too busy hanging over the toilet. Thanks.

Oh, and the, “What do you do?” “I’m the assistant manager at a cat sanctuary.” “A ca-…… what??? What is that?” *scratches head* Now I know it’s unusual, but I think “cat sanctuary” is rather self-explanatory? I get a lot of varied responses when people find out what I do, but I’ve never quite seen a blank, clueless face before. “We have cats. Stray cats… unwanted cats… sick cats. We take care of them.” I need to learn when to say “shelter”. People understand that term far better, even if it isn’t completely accurate in this case. (A shelter has a much higher in/out rate, animals are usually caged, and their focus is on adoptions. A sanctuary may have some adoptions, but the main focus is taking in the animals that the shelters can’t handle/don’t want, and caring for them for life.)

Plus as she was leaving she asked me if I’d gotten my flu shot yet. “No, and I won’t be getting it.” She blinked. “Oh. I always get it. Just seems like one less thing to worry about.” I just nodded and smiled, because I didn’t feel like explaining my motivations to the nutritionist. Nodding and smiling gets me through a lot.

Anyways. I spent a long time with the nutritionist answering questions and going over nausea management techniques and what I should be trying to eat. When she was done I waited a few minutes for the midwife to come in.

The midwife was really nice! Like the other one I interviewed, she was very relaxed. We went over my chart. They always ask if my LMP is correct, and I usually just kind of stare and say, “Umm, if that’s what it says, sure.” I get a blink. “This is an IVF pregnancy.” “Oohhhhh. So what were those dates?” LOL So I gave her my retrieval and transfer dates. They go by my EDD for everything, so it doesn’t really matter anyways. I know the EDD is [mostly] correct (off by one day). She went through all my lab results, and since everything came back normal/negative there wasn’t much to talk about. She did say that my iron had come back slightly low, but she said iron usually drops a little in pregnancy so it’s nothing to be concerned about. She said they’ll re-check it at 28 weeks, when it usually takes a harder hit, and go from there. All fine with me.

I mentioned my Celexa, which as you know was my big concern since I had forgotten to bring it up during the interview last time with this practice so I didn’t know what their policy was. But the Midwife totally reassured me, she said if it was prescribed before and it’s working, then they are totally fine with staying on it, and she repeated what other doctors have told me about the greater good. She said they’ll look into if I should switch or not for breastfeeding, and that they’re happy to provide my refill prescriptions or whatever, so YAY!!! My big worry eased!

Then it was up on the table for a quick feel of my uterus (up to my belly button, yup), and then a listen with the doppler. She found it quick, the wand was about an inch and a half below my belly button, but tilted up and to my right. So Devin’s sitting up high! Heartrate is in the 150’s this week.

Oh, and the Midwife asked if anyone had offered me the flu vaccine yet. I said, “No, but I know about it and I’ve decided not to get it.” And she said, “Okay then! Sounds good.” YAY for not having to argue!!

My next appointment is set for December 14, at 24 weeks. :) I hope it’s the same midwife, I’d like to see the same one and develop a bit of a relationship.