3rd ultrasound

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but I love my doctor. He is awesome. Yesterday we went in for the much anticipated appt. Of course, because we were so excited, it was the one appt. that we actually had to wait a few minutes in the waiting room! In the exam room Dr. Chalmers was asked how everything was going, and I said, "good." He asked, "Any complaints?" I said, "No, not really." He responded, "What?! Come on, you can't be one of those patients who go through their whole pregnancy without any complaints!" That's when I explained that I do complain, just to Jeff, so by the time we are sitting in the Dr.'s office I don't have anything left to complain about. After that he proceeded to list a bunch of complaints/symptoms that he gets a lot, each one as a question. Maybe he does that to help women who are having a relatively easy pregnancy recognize that they're having an easy pregnancy so far. Or maybe he was just killing time.

I thought that because he was running a little late that he might be in more of a hurry than his usual no-rush-time-for-anything approach- but he wasn't. So like always, he asked if I had any questions, I told him that my questions were more about the actual birth and that we have plenty of time to talk about that later but he said that if I was thinking about it he had all the time in the world to talk about it now.

So my first question was about actual labor and birth positions and that I had read that although flat on the back and reclining were the most popular in the hospital, they aren't actually the most conducive to giving birth effectively. He agreed and said that today, those positions are largely a result of women getting epidurals which make their legs unable to support their weight, therefore they end up on their back. So I asked if he is willing to "catch" babies being birthed in other positions and . . . he is! I shouldn't really be surprised considering how supportive he was about me not wanting an epidural to even be an option in the first place, and that he has done waterbirths before, but it still just makes me really happy because I've been worried about getting an OB who was close minded about how they deliver babies. Who knows, maybe more OBs are like Dr. Chalmers than I realize, but I don't plan on finding out unless I live in a different state the next time I'm pregnant.

My second, well I guess third, question was about monitoring the baby. I really don't want to feel stuck on the bed during labor so I asked his/the hospitals policy on monitoring. He said that the College of Obstetrics recommends monitoring once every half an hour, so that is what they'll do. In between I will be free to do what I want (for the most part). Who knows, I may have my first contraction, cry for my mommy, and want to be on the bed asap until the baby is born, but I am very glad to know that I'll have more freedom then that at the hospital.
I also asked him about what I had read regarding the epidural anesthetic crossing through the placenta and the baby getting some as well and therefore being less aware immediately after birth. He said that from what he had seen the epidural doesn't effect the baby because it is so localized and anesthesiologists have figured out the correct doses pretty accurately. He said that pediatricians he has asked that same questions agree. But, he did say that the drugs like demoral which are given through the IV, "just to take the edge off" do effect the baby and it makes them "loopy."

Finally, I asked him about the IV needle they put in, just in case. I couldn't remember the name of it, he said that it is called a Hep lock. I wasn't a fan of the idea, mostly because I have never had a nurse be able to get a vein on the first poke. Usually, it is a poke, and a dig, then a try again, followed by a couple, I'm so sorry, and then the process repeats itself until finally they give up and until they try the other hand and start from square one. Needless to say, it sucks. But he said two things. The first is that pregnant women are notoriously easy to get an IV in because they have so much extra blood in their veins, that is until they hemorrhage and all the blood rushes to their head and vital organs and then it is sometimes impossible to get an IV in. So that is one thing he doesn't mess around with. He said that he won't require it be put in the second I step into the hospital, but once everything starts progressing they'll put one in. Which makes a lot of sense to me. It was good to hear him put his foot down, basically, about something so that I know he isn't just smiling and nodding in agreement to my preferences just to shut me up, with a totally different attitude once we're actually in the hospital. My mom also informed me that once you're in labor you really don't give a rip what they stick you with- you just want the baby out.

So after all that and a discussion about Wicked, the play versus the book, we headed down to the ultrasound room. I am starting to wonder if I should use the term "sneaked" because this is the 2nd ultrasound that he has done, without charging us for it. This ultrasound was purely for entertainment sake, seriously. He did, however, find the heartbeat before anything else. Then he found the legs and what he thinks was "a pee-pee." Before he started the ultrasound he said that if he wasn't able to tell whether it was a boy or a girl, he wouldn't say. So then he says that he thinks it's a boy, but not to throw away any receipts. By the way, at the first mention of "pee pee" Jeff burst out laughing, so loud. After our experience last time with me being unable to stop giggling, I sat their doing a lamaze type pant, trying as hard as I possibly could, not to laugh. Whenever I did laugh, it moved the baby and he had to find him again. So then I asked if it was possibly a girl, she was just chubby down there, he said that sometimes that does happen but he didn't think that was the case this time. So Jeff laughed harder. Then Dr. Chalmers started cracking jokes, throwing out all the things that Dad's want to hear about their little boys. Then any composure I had was all over, we were all cracking up and the baby was moving around like crazy. In the end, he said that he was 90% sure it was a boy. So for Jeff's sake, I'm crossing my fingers until Feb 22nd, when he will do the official 20 week ultrasound.

Oh, I forgot to mention, he began the ultrasound with a story about a women who weighed 380+ lbs wanting to know the sex of the baby at 16 weeks which is basically impossible and I am not going to elaborate on the rest of the story, but I am sure you get the idea. I don't think Jeff really cares too much about how much Dr. Chalmers agrees with my ideas about birth or anything else, I think he calls him "our doctor" because of the jokes they exchange back and forth.