The Best Birthday Ever

Today was our first visit to the doctor as parents-to-be!

5w

We totally did NOT expect to be receiving an ultrasound today. In fact, I actually freaked out about it. I went into the appointment having made up my mind that I would not get any ultrasounds done until at least 10 weeks. I had let too many stories about women miscarrying a couple of days after their ultrasounds get to me, so when the nurse was talking to my husband before we saw the doctor and wound up telling me to go to the bathroom before I went in to see the doctor, I panicked a little. I knew that that meant they were going to do an internal ultrasound, as I have had two done before with figuring out I had PCOS.

The level-minded person my husband is, he had me just go "do as told" and then just talk to the doctor about it. Duh. When I told her I was apprehensive about getting one done today (she speaks English fluently), she mentioned that when she was pregnant, she did ultrasounds on herself all of the time, and obviously, everything turned out fine. This actually did make me feel better.

So let's back up.

When we got to the hospital, we found that they had moved this department to the building next door, after we had walked up several flights of stairs. (He thought it was only one floor up, so we walked up one floor. Then we thought, "Oh, must be the next one, so we walked up to the third floor. Wasn't there, either, so we walked up to the fourth and then felt pretty dumb. Definitely took the elevator back down.)

The way they have the center set up now was really confusing today, but we've definitely got it down now. I do like that it's right as you enter on the first floor, and it seems a bit more relaxed than when it was in the building we first went to. We started out in the "history taking room," where I was weighed (57.95kg), had my blood pressure and heartbeat taken (124/72 and 79bpm). The woman there asked us the usual questions, and when it came to the question, "When did you start your last cycle," I wouldn't tell at first because I didn't want them to do the automatic calculation thing based on the mythical 28-day cycle. I tried to have Hee Suk explain that I had PCOS, blah blah blah, but in the end, all she really wanted to do was take down my the last start date.

So after that, we went over to wait to see the doctor, and that's when the nurse told me to go to the bathroom before seeing her. (My doctor's name is Dr. Siwon Lee.) When we entered her office, she was very happy to see us. I said something to the effect of, "We finally get to meet again!" (we had seen her for a preconception check-up) and she was just so delighted. I absolutely adore my doctor. It was SUCH a relief to find someone who speaks English so incredibly well. We chatted briefly, and then I was to head to the next room to get the ultrasound down. Korean men don't usually want to be there for internals, but I told Hee Suk he didn't have a choice--just look at the screen. ^.~

She found the little gestational sac right away, and it was definitely neat to see! (It's that tiny little black spot in the middle of the photos.) As you might be able to see from the top photo, baby is measuring 3.7mm. Our doctor was saying that that's a little behind, but no big worry, but I felt pretty certain at that point that she had been given "just the facts" from the history room and was going off of that. At the end, she mentioned that there was something she wanted to discuss when I was more comfortably seated, so we finished up in there and went back to her office. My heart sank a little, but I tried to not let it consume me.

She mentioned she found something called a "subchorionic hematoma," a.k.a. a "threatened abortion." You can imagine how that sat with me. I just kept listening to what she said, and she was great about talking about how it's not very big at all and that over 50% of women end up with one and that it usually is no reason for concern, to not worry myself, but to also not over-exert myself. Long story short, when I checked it out at home, she was exactly right (of course). I read that many women see it disappear by week 8 and that even some women with much bigger ones just experience bleeding throughout their pregnancy and go on to be just fine. Mine was 0.9, I noticed from her notes. I'm pretty sure that means 0.9mm, but maybe cm? Anyway, the best thing I can do is just not even give it a second thought.

They won't give us an estimated due date until somewhere between 8-10 weeks, so until then, we're sticking with 11.11. Maybe after that, we'll still stick to it just because. ^.~ It will be interesting to see how the dates compare!

Anyway, she decided to have us come in after three weeks, which actually puts us at April Fool's Day. We'll be right at about 8 weeks, and at this appointment, she'll be doing more detailed blood testing, including more tests to see more specific details about my Rh-. We should also get to see and/or hear the heartbeat!

As a sidenote with all of the crazy correlations with dates so far, the night that we are pretty certain led to us conceiving was 2.15. Today, my birthday, just so happened to be 2.15 on the lunar calendar (which is noted on most Korean calendars as it is still somewhat used in Korea today). God obviously knows my love of making connections with numbers!

At any rate, I should be getting ready to hit the sack. Here's yesterday's picture, before I go:

4w6d

I had one more test, so we decided to use it up. ^^;;

Again, thank You so much, my Lord!