Another thing that happened at the clinic today:

I was waiting outside the phlebotomy room (haha, my spellcheck doesn’t recognize “phlebotomy” and thinks I mean “lobotomy”) for my AFP blood draw. That’s a test that measures a certain fetal protein that’s present in my blood, and abnormal levels of it can mean an increased likelihood of certain birth defects. Anyway, the person in there before me was taking forever, and they had to bring in a specialized stabbing person to get it.

Then she came out, but I couldn’t go in yet because they were still dealing with her issues. Apparently she hadn’t peed enough into the cup, either. That woman must have been really low on fluids.

Also, she had some really serious personal odor problems. When they came out, she was standing right in front of me. I had to put my lap request form in front of my face because it was bothering me so much (pregnancy ups your smelling skills). I felt bad for her that they were discussing her personal medical issues, of which there were many, out in front of everybody. I also felt bad for her that she smelled. Maybe the water doesn’t work in her home, so she couldn’t shower or drink anything. Or maybe she was just gross. I don’t know. I was trying not to be judgmental, but it was tough.

When it was my turn, I went in and started to close the door behind me, but the phlebotomist said “Leave the door open. Please.” Yes, the smell was lingering.

People in the medical profession sure deal with a lot of disgusting stuff, and the nurses and nursing assistants don’t even get paid super-well for it. They spend a lot more time around the grossness than doctors do, too.

They work hard for the money, yo.

We had another midwife appointment today. It was good—we got to hear Bisquito’s heartbeat again, which wasn’t quite as emotionally stirring as it was last time, but it was reassuring to hear that everything seems okay in there. Supposedly I’m going to start feeling him/her move some time in the next couple of weeks, but I haven’t yet (it’s common in first pregnancies not to feel it until later), so the heartbeat was good news.

It took a little longer to find the heartbeat this time; the midwife said it’s because at this stage, they’re small but mobile, so sometimes they wiggle away from the doppler. In fact, at one point she heard a noise that she said was probably the baby moving. The heartrate was 153 bpm, which is in the normal range. It’s a little down from last time, but that’s expected because the baby is bigger now.

We scheduled an ultrasound for about 3 weeks from now, which is exciting. I think Bisquito will be big enough by then to look basically anthropomorphic. We didn’t have an early ultrasound (when he/she would have looked like one of the aliens from Mars Attacks!) because I’m low risk and we were pretty sure of the important dates. I’d been charting, see (taking my temperature every morning to look for the tell-tale temperature rise that indicates fertility).

Charting was fun. I made some interesting graphs in Excel. (Un)Fortunately, it didn’t take us very long to get pregnant, so I only got to chart for two months. The other day, I said to Denny, “I’m kind of sad in a way that I only got two months’ worth of data.”

He said, “I love you for saying that.”