avocado8

The Belly Continues to Expand

I went for another office visit with the obstetricians today. My impression of the front desk staff did not improve with our first afternoon visit, partly because the waiting room was mobbed and there was complete chaos up front, and partly because one of the desk chairs was being filled by a temp. He seriously got a deer-in-the-headlights look when I told him I needed to leave a urine sample. At first he said, "pardon?" as if he hadn't heard me right, or perhaps in lieu of saying, "why are you telling me?" I repeated myself, and explained that it's standard procedure with every visit. He then jumped out of his chair and started looking through the supply cabinet behind the desk, which contained reams of paper, pens, pencils, paperclips, and other standard office stuff. When I realized he was looking for specimen cups, I said, "I just need the sticker with my name and birthdate on it—there are cups in the bathroom." That's when the other, regular receptionist stepped in to help him; she pointed to the folder in his hand and told him to peel off one of the stickers inside for me.

Of course, by this time someone had gone into the waiting room bathroom, and I was denied the opportunity to empty my extremely full bladder. Before I could set down my bag (and 10 minutes before my scheduled appointment), I was called for my weigh-in—which kind of pissed me off, since I knew I'd end up weighing about a pound more than I should on account of the aforementioned full bladder. I was then led back to the super-tiny exam room, where the medical assistant prepared to take my blood pressure. At this point I must admit I was starting to lose it; I'd walked to my appointment at an overly-brisk pace in warmer-than-expected weather to find that they'd turned off the air conditioning in the office for the winter, and I hadn't had time to sit down, cool off, or empty my bladder. I had no doubt that my blood pressure would be higher just from the annoyance. I begged to be allowed to pee before being cuffed and squeezed.

My blood pressure was indeed elevated (though only slightly—110/68 instead of the usual 100/60), but I got a chance to cool my body and my temper a bit in the 30-minute wait before Dr. Wu came in. I liked her as much as last time, and Al liked her too (this was his first time meeting her). Although I've gained a significant amount of weight (basically the top of the recommended range), she didn't bug me about it—probably because my glucose levels, blood count, and blood pressure are all excellent, as are the baby's growth and heart rates.

I had a bunch of other things I was going to say about the questions we asked and the answers we got, but in reading over what I wrote in my (private) pregnancy journal, I realize that posting that info on the Internet probably isn't the wisest thing to do. I don't want to start a debate on whether certain things are dangerous or bad, or to invite horror stories about pre-term labor or other complications. Everything so far is fine with me, and my pregnancy has been described on numerous occasions as "going really well."

I will say that Dr. Wu clarified whether we have any choice in who delivers the baby. She said it's basically whoever's on call when I go into labor; the only time you really get any say is when you're overdue and have to schedule an induction. This doesn't really bother us... except that we still haven't met most of the doctors in the practice. Usually when we try to make an appointment, we get the nurse practitioner—whom we really like, but who doesn't do deliveries. Our next appointment is with the midwife; we've already seen her once, but we didn't really get a strong feeling about her because the visit lasted only about five minutes. I'm hoping that there are enough visits left for us to meet the remaining doctors, so we don't get a crazy stranger yelling "PUSH!" in December.