To the OB -- finally!

I am relieved to report that everything went well at long-awaited appointment number one yesterday. It's official -- if all goes well, come early June, we're going to have another baby! We got to hear the heartbeat (148 bpm), and that confirmed for me much more than any pee stick ever could that there really is somebody growing in there.

I am measuring in the 10-11 week range, which is what one of the online edd calculators had come up with based on the date of my lmp. I didn't quite trust that, though, considering that in the 18 years since my period started, I've never -- not once! -- had a normal, unmedicated 28 day cycle. Not until September, anyway. Go figure.

Of course, for me no doctor appointment can be entirely without incident. My initial blood pressure reading, before hearing the baby's heartbeat, was 150/82. Not exactly stellar. The nurse asked if I had a history of hypertension, and I felt a little sick as I recounted exactly where that history had taken me eighteen months ago. Anyway, then the nurse practitioner came in. There are five NPs in my OB's practice, and I'd never met this one before, but I liked her instantly. She was one of those people who just has such a gentle, peaceful presence about her that I couldn't help but relax. Anyway, she did the whole exam, told me how far along I was, gave me some info, gave me a blood pressure recording chart to fill out at home and bring back at my next appointment (ugh -- here we go again), and answered all the questions we had. Then she let us hear the heartbeat again. After all that, she said, "Hey, since you're still here, why don't we test that blood pressure again just to see what happens." She did, and it had dropped all the way down to 120/78. Perfect! So I'm still going to monitor it at home until my next appointment, just to be on the safe side, but it looks like the elevated reading was just due to my panic that there would be no heartbeat and this whole wonderful thing would be shot to hell. I am so, so thankful that didn't happen. He/she is in there, 10 or 11 weeks old, and doing just fine so far.

I go back on December 11. (This whole month-between-appointments shit is for the birds, but I don't want to complain *too* much since last time it was the blood pressure problems that got me weekly apointments starting at 22 weeks. Give me healthy person monthly appointments over sick lady weekly appointments any day!) Anyway, until then, I'll just keep hoping and praying for this miracle to continue.