I had my latest doctor's appointment on Dec 21st. Everything checked out a-ok. I'm up to 115 lbs now (up 10 punds since I found out I was preggo), measuring 18 cm, and the baby's heart rate was in the 140s. As of Friday, everything was comin' up Milhouse! (That's a Simpsons reference for those who are now confused)

Saturday morning, Frank and I were preparing to drive back home to Miami for Christmas. There was a slight problem. I woke up with a Martian Death cold. All my head holes were clogged and I couldn't breathe too deeply or else I would go into coughing convulsions. Needless to say, it was not a fun drive.

I spent most of my vacation in bed, making all manner or strange hornking and snorting noises. I swear, anyone who walked by my room would've thought I was keeping a barnyard's worth of animals in there.

Normally, when you have a cold, you can take all sorts of wonderful drugs to knock you out, dope you up or whatever. Not so with the bun in the oven. I consulted with leading minds in the medical field (namely, Rosemarie and Amanda) who agreed I was pretty much screwed. The only thing I can take, according to my doctor is Robotussin CF. Which, by the way, doesn't do anything except taste like crap.

Currently, I have the clogged up head holes, the watery eyes, the giant sneezes, the TB cough, and this voice that sounds something like a cross between a baby ox and a frog.

Now that the kvetching is over, on to the coolest part of the trip. Frank and I went to go see Amanda who was kind enough to bring her doppler from work. We found the baby's heartbeat and everything sounded great. In fact, we could hear it flopping around and kicking like a Rockette. That's gonna hurt once the little bugger gets bigger. It was really cool to have one of my best friends do that for me. It meant a lot to me. Now we just have to wait until 30 weeks so Amanda can give me my 3-d ultrasound- AWESOME!

Hello again, baby fans. Here's the latest and greatest info. Frank and I went to see the doctor today for our November appointment. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of exciting info to relay. It was mostly a talking appointment. I asked about my latest list of complaints (i.e. continuing morning sickness, new migraines, dizziness, etc. etc.) She said that everything I'm experiencing is pretty normal, although she wants me to see a neurologist about my migraines. Eeesh.

I also learned that all my bloodwork came back negative! Woohoo! No syphilis for me! They tested for everything under the sun: HIV, cystic fibrosis mutation, gonorrhea, clamydia, syphilis, hepatits C...all KINDS of fun stuff. Luckily, I'm clean as a bean.

The fun part was when I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. When she first put the doppler on my tummy tum, I didn't hear anything. Of course, paranoid as I am, my brain went into freakout mode. Within about 3 nanoseconds, my mind was screaming, "WHERE'S THE HEARTBEAT?!?!? WHY CAN'T I HEAR ANYTHING?!?!?" But then, just as quickly, I heard to comforting "woosh woosh woosh" of the baby's heart, and all was right with the world. My only complaint with that part of the appointment was that I felt like the doctor didn't let me listen to the heart long enough. I swear, she had it on there for like 3-4 seconds and then said, "Ok, heart rate's at 150, looks good." I wanted to listen to it longer. Although, to be fair, I could probably listen to it all day, if she'd let me.

Just in case any OBs, PAs or ARNPs are reading this: let the patients listen to the heart for a while. I know that you do this day in and day out and you listen to so many fetal heartbeats that you hear them in your sleep, but this is a rare treat for your patients. Let us enjoy it for a while- sheesh! Ok then, let me just hop off my soapbox here.....there we go.

Well that's all for now everyone! Tune in next time for a recap of my next appointment!  Whee!!!

Oh, I almost forgot! I'm not scheduled for my next ultrasound until Jan. 15. I was hoping to know the sex of the baby before Christmas, but it's not gonna happen. Oh well. At least it'll let everyone speculate (read argue) about the sex around the dinner table. Ah, Christmas memories!

p.s. Of you're wondering why I haven't posted pictures of my growing belly up here yet, it's because the pictures are very boring. I'm not really showing that much (I've only gained 5 pounds so far) and there's not much to see in the pictures. In fact, when I'm wearing regular clothes, you can't tell I'm preggers at all. The only time you can really see that I'm with child is when I'm nude- and I'm not about to post pictures of THAT, thank you very much! I promise, as soon as I blow up a little more, I'll post belly pictures!

Today was my second appointment. I did all the fun stuff, pee in a cup, have 7 vials of blood taken (yes! SEVEN!), and I got poked and prodded with all manner of implements. That wasn't the fun part. This was: I had my first ultrasound!!

Let me start off by saying it was internal ultrasound. Yes. That way. Ew. Well, let us not dwell on that. On to the good stuff. When I first saw the baby, I was surprised. It came up so bright and clear and I could see it perfectly right away. Little arms and legs, big ol' noggin' (just like his daddy!). We could see a perfect profile of the baby's left side. Oh, too cute. Then, the technician moved the probe so we could see the front. That's when the baby decided to put on a little show for us. He/she began DANCING! Yes, dancing. It was adorable. It was kind of like how the gopher danced at the end of Caddyshack. It sort of wiggled back and forth. That was the best part. It's one thing to see a stationary image of the profile, I mean it looks just like all the pictures in all my books. It's quite another to see it wiggling and dancing like that. That's when it hit me: that's a real person. Yes, a SMALL person, only a little over 3 cm from crown to rump, but a real live person nonetheless.

Frank's reaction was a little more subdued than mine. I was giggling and carrying on, and he was staring at the monitor. The only thing I heard him say was "Wow." Just "wow" over and over. Then he fainted.

No, not really. Wouldn't that be hilarious if he did??

I will definitely post a couple pictures for you guys to see. And I will definitely post the dancing picture. It's really cute. She caught the baby in mid-wiggle.

Today was my very first appointment at the doctor's office. Now, now, don't get your hopes all up- it was just an "intake appointment." I met with the nurse who took my vitals and talked to me about my current syptoms which are- nausea, nausea, vomiting, more nausea and-oh yeah- vomiting. Long story short, it happens to lots of women, blah blah blah, it should go away in a month or so. Yeah, not helping me feel any better!

A word about this so-called "morning-sickness"- it's bad. It's real bad. Don't wish it on your worst enemy. For those of you who have been there (Mom, I'm so sorry I did this to you when I was a tiny jellybean), I commend you. For those of you who are men or just haven't had the pleasure of this experience yet (I'm looking at you Greco), imagine you have the worst hangover of your life. No, worse than that. Yeah, like that time in Vegas. THAT hangover. Ok, now make it last all day, every day, for two months (and counting). Ok, you with me so far? Now, go to work. Oh, and you can't tell anyone that you're sick. You just gotta suck it up and suffer in silence. That's what's been going on, in a nutshell.

I hear it will most likely end soon. I hope so, but then you hear these horror stories of women who were sick all through their pregnancy, labor and delivery, and didn't stop puking until their kid graduated from med school-AHHHH!!!!

Until then, I'm mainlining ginger ale, saltines, white rice and bananas.

My next appointment is in one week. I expect to be poked and prodded with a variety of humiliating probes and devices. Stay tuned for that update, kids!