Tuesday, February 24, 2004

8 Weeks, 3 (or 4) Days

Evelin had her first "regular" OB/GYN appointment this afternoon. Everything is looking good for right now. The little fellow/gal is measuring 8 weeks, 3 or 4 days (the doctor measured twice: the first time it was 4 days, the second 3 days), which is exactly where we should be.

We could see the diminishing yolk sac, and the bubble of the placenta, as well as little arm buds. And, unlike the first ultrasound, I could see the heart flickering away. We didn't get a bpm measurement, but the doctors weren't worried by anything they saw.

The first doctor was a visiting doctor helping to cover while another doctor was out. She was pretty cool, and gave us a lot of good reassurances. And the doctor who did the ultrasound was great printing out lots of blurry little pictures.

We got a big bag of reading material, samples of various prenates and other stuff, and were probably immediately signed up for some mailing lists. We also were given the name of a high-risk OB that we can see to arrange for the CVS, amnio and other tests that will need to be done in the coming weeks. Evelin is below the age where an amnio is suggested, but because of all the multiple abnormalities discovered when we did IVF with PGD, it makes sense to have the testing done.

I have to keep reminding myself that there's plenty that could still go wrong, but it is absolutely amazing to be this far along in the pregnancy and for all the early signs to be so good. (I have a bit of a fatalist attitude much of the time, and optimism doesn't always come to me easily.) But I am seriously stoked. And scared. Very scared.

The funniest thing is that I seems to be exhibiting some signs of couvades, a.k.a. sympathy pregnancy. The constant need to nibble is probably a nervous thing, but I definitely have been having problems with insomnia. I keep waking up around 3:30 a.m. and toss and turn (much to Evelin's dismay) for a few hours. I'm also exhausted in the afternoon/evening -- probably related to the not sleeping so well.

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