The Baby Has A Strong Heartbeat!!!

I had a spontaneous visit to see the doctor today that turned out very well. I was nervous because I had some spotting and so Dr. C said, "come on in and we'll take a look."

I guess at my "advanced maternal age" (I chuckle whenever I hear this phrase because it is such an obvious substitute for "because you are older.") they aren't afraid to use the sonogram machine, which is what they did again today.

If you look at the picture above the circle to the left is the head and the circle to the right is the torso. You can't see it on this scan, but on the original they showed me where the arms and legs are starting to grow!

So they confirmed that everything looks great with the baby and I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, which was an amazing experience! The little heart is beating 159 times a minute and they described it as "strong". To me it sounded like the little one was running around in there.

At this point Storm would say that this is because he/she is taking after me that way. He's already giving the baby credit for the increased size of the uterus. "Well, the baby must have said 'hey, there's not enough room for me in here' and went and got some tools and started hammering away at the walls of the uterus to make some more space," was his theory.

Anyway, speaking of that, the person who did do the sonogram today did say that the uterus does look a little bit long and narrow and not quite the "perfectly round" description from a week ago. I guess this could be the camera angle, or things shifting and changing in there. Dr. C did say that he is going to proceed through my pregnancy taking any and all necessary precautions.

I was supposed to go in for a checkup on 10/1, but they did everything they did today that they would have done then, so I will see Dr. C again on 10/23. Before that I will be going in for a nuchal translucency test on 10/18.

Oh, and my weight gain so far is 2 pounds. Very normal/acceptable for the 9 week mark.

First Sonogram Picture

Dr. C wanted to see me the day after I got back from my 10-day trip to Toronto. This turned out to be a GREAT doctor's appointment.

I got my second look at the baby and my first photo to take home. That big circle is not the baby's head, but rather the amniotic sac. Everything below that is the baby. Still looks much more like a cluster of dust, but there has certainly been developmental progress since my first look.

During the sonogram they confirmed that there is only 1 baby and that I indeed have 2 kidneys ... all very good news!

But the best news of all was the doctor's reaction to my uterus, which he says looks normal based on today's sonogram. They measured it and it is within a normal size range. They said the shape is round (not like a banana liked it looked on the sonogram at the fertility specialist's office) and that the baby is right in the middle of it. Hopefully getting very comfortable and planning to stay there full term!

I asked Dr. C if he thinks Dr. H. mis-diagnosed me and he said not necessarily. He said that when a woman gets pregnant her uterus expands. He theorized that perhaps mine expanded a lot. The fact that I'm tall may also be and advantage here as maybe my partial uterus was still a decent size.

So it seems that my body may be making the necessary adjustments to accommodate the pregnancy. Amazing.

Whatever the case, I'm thrilled that Dr. C. was so thrilled with what he saw at 8 weeks.

My next doctor's appointment is on Oct. 1.

Top Ten List of Pregnancy/Baby Movies

Hello from the Toronto Film Festival!

Well, it seems my streak of consecutive years at the festival (7) will come to an end in 2008, as this time next year I will have a 4-month old baby!

Amazing!

Anyway, I did get to see Ben Affleck live and in the flesh this year, so at least I was able to accomplish that goal before motherhood. I can't really say that I "met" him, or even had a "moment" with him, because I completely froze up and said/did nothing. I was close enough that I could have reached out an touched him, but after the Brad Pitt incident at the Venice Film Festival it is probably a good thing that I didn't.

So far my favorite movie here at the festival is Juno, which is a hilarious story about a pregnant 16-year old, directed by Jason Reitman (who directed "Thank You For Smoking.")

This has inspired me to create a Top Ten List of pregnancy/baby movies. If I get put on bed rest I'll watch all these movies in a 3-day span as research for the big day.

1. Nine Months
2. Waitress
3. Juno
4. Knocked Up
5. Look Who's Talking
6. Jersey Girl
7. Three Men and a Baby
8. She's Having A Baby
9. Raising Arizona
10. Fools Rush In

My Due Date is April 29

Today was my first pregnancy appointment with my OB-GNY, Dr. C. I was told that I'm officially 5 weeks, 6 days pregnant. My due date is April 29, which would make the baby a taurus, just like my goddaughter Sarah!

Dr. C. has had patients before with uterus anomalies, but not one specifically with unicornuate uterus. He will be getting another doctor on board (how many doctors does one need to have before they can claim to have a "team of doctors" working on their behalf?) and he gave me the utmost confidence that he knows what needs to be done. We will be aggressive in our conservative approach to everything.

We did a sonogram and I got to see the baby for the first time!!! And, amazingly enough he showed me a little flutter that is already the heartbeat. According to the pregnancy calendar that Jill gave me tonight the baby is only about 1/10 of an inch long. Wow!!!

Dr. C will be watching me much closer than the average pregnancy. I'm going back again on 9/17 and 10/1. He said in the beginning he'll see me approximately every 4 weeks. Then in the middle of the pregnancy I'll be going every 2 weeks, and weekly toward the end. That's a lot of doctors appointments!

Dr. C also told me I can't go to beach boot camp anymore or go running. Because of the unicornuate uterus, my exercise needs to consist of walking and swimming only.

No travel past week #28. No predictions yet on bed rest. No kitty litter cleanup. No hair coloring until week #12.

Jen and Anita go book shopping!!!

On Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007 Anita and I went shopping for pregnancy books in Fort Myers. So I am now the proud owner of "What To Expect When You're Expecting" along with "I'm Pregnant! Now What Do I Eat?"

I also bought a blank journal that I'm going to use to write "Dear, Baby" letters like the character Jenna did in the movie "Waitress."