Rat-A-Tat-Tat

On Friday, July 10 Paul took the day off of work to accompany me to our first doctor appointment. The appointment lasted a healthy two hours. We spoke with Nurse Kathy for the first hour. She took my weight - 134 lbs (yikes... okay, maybe I wasn't in peak condition prior to getting pregnant) and height then she took us in a room to explain the paperwork, available testing, the importance of breastfeeding, proper nutrition, recommended reading, etc. to prepare us for Baby Tithof's arrival. We liked her very much!

One thing we are still considering is if we would like to have the quad test. It is a harmless prenatal screen for neural tube defects and down syndrome. The test can give both false positive and false negative results. Some people choose to have further invasive testing when they receive positive test results. We think the only benefit to the test would be the ability to prepare for a baby with either of these birth defects.

We have two possible due dates. Based on a typical 28 day cycle the due date is February 3 and based on MY typical 40 day cycle the due date is February 16. Dr. Avery chose to go with February 3 until our ultrasound at 20 weeks, which puts me at 10 weeks. After much poking and prodding, Dr. Avery decided that since I was thin and since my uterus was tilted forward that she might be able to pick up the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler. It took only one second and we were able to hear the sweet sound of our baby's heart beating at a rapid 172! It was so exciting. I didn't think I would cry, but there I was a total wreck with tears flowing down my cheeks. Paul was beaming when I looked over at him and he said he was tearing up a bit himself. It was by far the sweetest sound we have ever heard!

Dr. Avery said we could feel free to tell people our good news. We plan to tell our extended family this weekend. We are planning to tell the Reiber's at Uncle Leo's 50th birthday party and at Grandma Millie's surpise 80th birthday party. It should be a fun weekend!