Thirteen and a half weeks

Another doctors visit today. It went quickly, which I guess was due to the fact that it was at 9:10 in the morning. I saw Dr. Joyner for the second time, and hopefully the last. While I really like her, she will be having a baby one month before me and will not be in the pool of potential baby catchers.

The heart beat was 156. While both the girls ran about this number, Amanda's sister's also read high and then it turned out to be a boy, so I don't think the rate means anything. The nurse did it at the beginning of the visit, and had to root around for a while because she said my heartbeat was overpowering it (the baby also seemed tucked way down in my right hip, as if it didn't want it's heart rate measured).

I gained, and I quote Dr. Joyner, "a WHOPPING four pounds," which I think is pretty amazing for the entire first trimester. Not that this means anything, either. I could balloon like a whale any time now. There is definitely more to pinch on me fat wise (I am feeling very fluffy these days), I've gone from an eight to a twelve waist, and my bra size has jumped two sizes, so I am not sure how that translates to only four pounds. Angelica theorizes that I'm not bigger, I just seem that way because of swelling tissues. Who knows. But I don't feel an ounce of guilt over eating this chocolate bunny right now (amazing what you find when you clean out the holiday closet).

I scheduled another appointment for the last week of October, and finagled a November 3rd sonogram date out of the staff. Dr. Joyner had written 6-7 weeks out on the schedule form, and I asked if I could do it the first week of November for my mom's visit (babysitting is hard to come by these days and I'd love to tell her the results in person). She said anything after 18 weeks was fine. The front desk lady eventually took my word that 18 weeks was okay even though it was only 5 weeks away. She warned me that it might be hard to tell the sex at that point, and I smiled when I said,"Well, we got an accurate assessment with our other two kids at 17 weeks, so our luck must run higher than most." I didn't tell her that it is possible to see the gender as early as 15.