1st Visit to the Doctor's Office Yesterday

Yesterday was the first ultrasound. I brought Cora along, and Matt met us at the Doctor's office after leaving work early. Had to sign a bunch of paperwork, and they called us back before I had finished.

The ultrasound technician had me lay back, and she first tried to see the baby from the front. I had to open my pants, and she put gel just above my pubic area, and she found the baby and showed us the uterus, and each ovary. We were able to see the baby's heart beating, and got to listen to it, too. 171, was the heart rate, which she said was good.

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to see the baby as well as she would have liked. Apparantly this is very common for almost all mommies only 8 weeks along, so she decided to do an internal ultrasound. I had to do this last time w/ Cora, too. So she had me to go give a urine sample, then head back and undress from the waist down and cover up w/ a sheet. She came back and this time we could see the yolk sac which is supposed to help nourish the baby until the placenta is fully developed.

She measured baby from crown to rump, and that measurement was supposed to tell gestational age. It put me right on track with the first day of my last period, so I don't know how accurate the measurement is for knowing gestational age, but it doesn't really matter to me. It decided that my due date was October 30th. But, I know baby will come when they are ready, it could be earlier, or later than that.

The tech then gave us a goody bag full of samples and info and a few ultrasound pictures, and then I had to do some bloodwork. The nurse who did it was impressed with my veins, and said it would be SO EASY to get blood. She started on my left arm, but it would only flash into the tube and stop, and she kept trying different tubes and it didn't work at all. She tried moving the needle around to try to find the vein, but it ended up really stinging and so she gave up on the left arm. Tried the right and this time it worked just fine.

I then asked her about the trail riding with the horse I'd been doing, and what the risk actually was this early on in pregnancy. I told her about some of the benefits I'd been seeing from riding, but that I really didn't want to risk the baby, and that I'd likely stop between 12 and 16 weeks. She never really was able to quantify the risk very well, but she said that at this point, that baby is very well protected by my body since baby is so small and the uterus is very low in the pelvis. She suggested just being extra careful, but that it was up to me to decide.

I had hoped for something more decisive than that. I think I will continue riding until my body tells me I need to stop. If I get too tired, or start having balance issues, then that will be a good time to keep my feet on the ground, but until then I will keep saddling up and getting that good exercise!