5/12/11

I mentioned yesterday that I was told I didn't need to go to the doctor to confirm that I was in fact pregnant. The woman on the phone told me that teh home tests are just as accurate as their test so I just needed to schedule our 8 week appointment.

It just so happens that we got our first appointment on Josh's birthday April 7th. We had heard that we might be able to hear the heartbeat at this appointment. My cousin who is pregnant along with me and a bunch of our friends all got to hear the heartbeat at their 8 week appointment. That made it even more disappointing to us that we were told it was too early. We spent the entire appointment doing a medical history.

We knew we were at risk for having twins, but the nurse really put it in our heads at the first appointment. Because I'm over 30, twins run in my family and we were on fertility drugs. The nurse told us that at our 12 week appointment we would have an idea as to whether or not we were having twins and if the doctor suspected it we'd have our ultrasound moved up to our 16 week appointment instead of our 20 week appointment to confirm.

Our 12 week appointment fell on our dating anniversary. We were guaranteed we'd at least try to hear the heartbeat. We were also informed that I would be getting a PAP/pelvic exam, that was fun for Josh to witness! Well before the exam the doctor wanted to try to find the heartbeat. He told us that they only hear the heartbeat 60% of the time and that it may take a while to find it. He had me so prepared not to hear it that when he barely touched the wand to my belly and we heard it I started laughing because I was so surprised. Then I was laughing at the sound of me laughing so I couldn't stop! It was so silly! I was sitting there having a giggle fit. The nurse said she wished she'd had a video camera. I think I ruined the whole thing for Josh. 

The doctor did hear enough of the baby's heartbeat to determine that it was normal, but didn't attempt to find a second heartbeat. After measuring my uterus he didn't seem to think it was twins though so our ultrasound stays at 20 weeks.

We scheduled our next appointment on our way out and it was supposed to be scheduled on my birthday, but the nurse practitioners were not available that day so we had to schedule it for the following Monday. I was pretty bummed out because we were on such a good run of appointments being on special days.

What was your reaction to hearing the baby's heartbeat for the first time?