OB Appointment #9

Today marked my 8 month appointment to the doctor. Earlier this afternoon the nurse called me to let me know that Liz, my doc, had gone home with the stomach flu that's been making the rounds up here. Luckily, the PA in her department (whom I'd never met) was able to fit me in this afternoon. I didn't mind since it was just a routine appointment, and she seemed nice. Baby and belly were both growing as they should. He/she is still head down, but now all the limbs and pointy equipment is on the left, which makes my right kidney breathe a sigh of relief! In the last 5 or 6 appointments, the baby's heart rate has been pretty consistent. This afternoon, however, they must have been excited about something! Heart rate was up a few BPM to 169. I'd had a swig of soda on the way to the appointment, so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it or not.

I've been noticing a difference in the movements of Peanut lately. Not in the amount of movement, they are as active as ever, rarely resting more than a half hour or hour or so at a time. Instead of so many kicks and wallops though, I get more and more sliding and wriggling movements...which are totally weird. There must still be enough room in there to get a few good swipes in though....I still get a good wallop from time to time. These days, however, they make my whole belly move. Dan has finally felt a couple of these monsters. It's hard to believe someone so small can cause that much movement!

After my appointment today, I filled out the paperwork to pre-register at the hospital so I wouldn't have to worry about it when I go in April. As I was sitting in the waiting room and filling the sheets out, Peanut was having a wonderful time making my Brooks Stevens polo shimmy, dance and shake. There were a couple of older kids (5 and 7 or so) waiting for their mom to see her doc watching the tv. The younger one caught my belly movement out of the corner of his eye and nudged his sister. They both watched my shirt dance and started giggling, then the younger one asked his sister if mom's tummy would start doing that too. I winked at them and nodded as I got up to turn in the paperwork.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me here. Not with the pregnancy and Peanut so much...all is good there....but with work stuff, how I've been feeling and a few other misc. things. One of my sisters knew this, and decided to brighten my day. Yesterday in the mail, I received a box. Upon opening the box there was a detailed letter telling me how to proceed thru the box and all it's treasures. To brighten my day/week....one of my sisters had sent me a "shower in a box." It was so clever (it came complete with confetti!), it made my week! I told her that she should start an Internet site making different 'parties in a box' for people to order and customize! What a fun product line that would be...think of the possibilities! :D