Dr. Appt & BABY PICTURES!

Friday was our first doctor appt at the OB's office. We were with a midwife named Betty, and she was fantastic--probably in her fifties, really cute accent (British?), and very comfortable to talk to even though Steve and I look like we're about 14. ;-)

This appt was much, much better than the ones I had with my regular family practitioner. For example, Betty seemed like she actually knew what a baby was. She did the usual prenatal physical testing--blood pressure, lungs, etc.--and then we got to see our teeny teeny baby for the first time!

It has already grown to 2cm long, and we were at about 9wks 1day when we saw this. She readjusted our due date based on the baby's size, so now that is set to

September 14, 2008!

I kind of wish she wouldn't have pushed it back, but its only by a couple of days. I think it would be really cool if it were born between the 9-11 though, because then it would be on or between our anniversary/Steve's birthday.

So if you look at the counter at the side, you can see that the baby's head is about the same size as the rest of its body. That's because its brain takes a longer time to develop, so it has to start growing fast now, and the rest catches up later. So, without further ado... our little one!

Wow!!! Yeah it's okay, we didn't know what we were looking at either. We had to ask which part was the head. :-) But first she showed us which part was the baby. I have added graphic details to the photo so you can see where the baby is. Hoorah for modern technology. (I used the Wacom, though I could have just used the mouse... This poor baby doesn't know what kind of geekery its being born into...) But...

...Baby!!!

Little Baby Walton just looks a lot like a peanut right now. We could actually see a lot more on the actual screen itself than you can in this picture. We could see the little beginnings of arms and legs, and the baby even moved while we were looking at it! Below, a little more decoding...

...the head!

While showing us the baby, Betty also pointed out the "yolk." Um, what the heck is a yolk? Betty?

"What does the yolk do?"

Well it turns out that the "yolk" is just the source of nutrients in the uterus, basically what feeds the baby before the placenta finishes forming. (We're getting closer to the end of that, which means I'll start getting energy back. Can I get an "OO-RAH*, placenta!")

Sidenote: Lots of pregnancy-related words, like placenta, just sound gross. I choose to look at the humorous side of that because, lets face it, doctors are going to be talking about the baby's placenta for the next few months.

But I digress. Here is the yolk. Don't ask me how the baby is nourished by it; apparently I don't understand the inner workings of my body. Which I personally feel is all for the best.


The most amazing part of the ultrasound though, was holding Steve's hand while we actually saw our baby's heart beating. It is so tiny still, but it already has a heartbeat. A tiny little life. I can hardly believe it--it was breathtaking. We were so, so happy. It made it all feel a lot more real and more wonderful.

After the ultrasound Betty gave us a big parents-to-be packet of pamphlets and magazines and such, and went over a lot of it with us. My favorite part was how she described every symptom I have perfectly. Steve said it was like she's been spying on us for the past month. Nice to know all this is normal, because it sure doesn't feel like it!

Then we trooped downstairs for all sorts of blood and urine sampling. The guy actually took 5 full vials of blood out of me--that's a lot for someone my size! I mean, I don't even weigh enough to be allowed to give blood. But honestly, I didn't even care. We were still floating about seeing our baby and its teeny tiny heartbeat.

<3



*Footnote, see "OO-RAH placenta": After seeing The Guardian Steve and I now occasionally "Oo-rah!" for things. If you haven't seen it, its good. Use this post as your motivation to watch it and thus understand the deep inner workings of the young Walton family.