18 Week Doctor's Appointment

Good Morning my lovely blog readers!

Not surprisingly, it's time for another pregnancy update post.  Yesterday (9/4/13) was another doctor's appointment for me.  They did the usual weigh in, urine sample, blood pressure junk that they do at every appointment.  What I didn't expect was to get to hear our baby's heart beat again!  I was really happy about it.

As you know, I wasn't too thrilled with our first experience with it, since it was over so quickly.  But this time it was a little different.  The nurse found the heartbeat right away, and then lost it, so we she tried to find it again.  She was successful, and we got a good long listen to it.  I do love hearing it.  There's nothing more reassuring.  That tiny heart works hard!

Chris and I wanted an Alpha-FetoProtein test done, and this was the appointment that we did it at.  Basically, it's a blood draw to test for developmental abnormalities.  A lot of people like to view it as a screening for down syndrome, but Chris and I were more interested in checking for neural tube defects and spina bifida.  We will get the results in the next week or so.  I would like to be at ease.

My main reason for having the test done is because Chris' mom was adopted, so we don't have a feel for what sort of genetic issues may run in his family, if any.  I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially because it's my child we're dealing with.  Luckily, I don't have a whole lot of worries on my side of the family, but you never know when Chris and I's genes get together what they will create!

What I am most excited about is that we scheduled our next ultra sound!  I am beyond excited that in 4 weeks we will get to see our baby again, make sure he/she is developing correctly and find out what gender it is!  I mostly just want a healthy baby, of course, that's the main goal.  But I am really excited to find out if we are having a boy or a girl!  Then I feel like I can get my bottom in gear about buying things.  Which is super fun to think about.

We spent a majority of yesterday in doctor's offices.  Chris had a weird, red lump on his leg that would bleed profusely at random, and to be on the safe side, we went to a dermatologist yesterday to get it checked out.  Turns out it is just a random accumulation of vessels that comes up out of the skin and bleeds a lot.  They removed it and cauterized it yesterday.  They will be sending it in to be screened to make sure it's nothing more serious, but we are much more at ease about the whole situation.  His boss told him a terrible story about a friend of hers that died because she didn't get something looked at in time (which, honestly, who tells someone a story like that when they have a concern???) but we feel we are in the clear.

Overall, we are feeling good about our situation currently.  I am almost at the halfway point of pregnancy which is super exciting and a little scary.  Chris doesn't have any abnormal things on his legs that worry him and we are sitting pretty well right now.

I just started a new book series, that I am in love with and I am just waiting for my lunch hour to roll around so that I can indulge a little more!  I hope you are all having a wonderful day....it's almost the weekend again!

Bergen Says: 18 weeks sounds so long!!