Three strikes you're out!

Just got back from another good doctor visit (with a little drama).

First, I guess what they did was just put me for a regular OB appointment. So they weighed me, took my blood pressure, and used the doppler. The good news is that she found the heartbeat right away, the bad news is that means she didn't do an ultrasound... :(

But the heartbeat was strong - mid-160's. And there were a couple of thuds and odd sounds, and she said that was the baby moving. Pretty cool! So even though I didn't get a new picture, I was certainly smiling a lot anyway!

And a bonus was that I'm 2 pounds down from my starting weight, according to their scale. Now, I know that's because of being sick last week, even my scale shows a small drop, but according to my scale (I weigh myself first thing every morning), I'm down only 0.5 pounds from my starting weight. Usually the doctor's scale is 1 pound heavier than my home scale, but today, it was 1.5 pounds lighter in the afternoon, than my morning home scale weigh-in. Odd, but I'll take it!

I'm a little obsessed with the weight because I've always been in great shape, athletic, size 4 to 6, and very happy with my body. The drugs/IVF put 17 pounds on me, moved me to a size 8+, and according to my BMI right before I got pregnant, I'm officially "overweight". And I found that during the off-IVF months, I was having no success taking off any excess pounds, even though I was running 3 miles a day, lifting weights, and trying to eat moderately well. I'm hoping it was just the stress of infertility that was sabotaging my eating habits, but it could just be age! So I really want to be careful that I only gain 15-25 pounds (recommended for people who start out overweight), and hopefully be able to shed the extra weight in a reasonable timeframe once I'm able to exercise at full speed again.

Anyway, then the drama began. They took me in for the sequential screen blood test, which by the way, I'm not sure if I should have done... The counselor said that with my great results (1/1200 for downs), I might think about not doing it, and only doing a different test for spina bifida screening. The sequential screen results will add to the 1st tri screen results and give me new odds that will be about 2-5% more accurate then the 1st tri alone. More accurate, that's a no-brainer, right? Well, she said that it could cause the odds to go back up, and if it did, then what would I do? She was almost trying to talk me out of it. I was tempted to leave well enough alone, but I went for it anyway. I'm hoping I didn't just make things more complicated!

So we got that squared away, and then we have to wait about 20 minutes for the person to draw blood. So much for getting back to work in a reasonable amount of time! Well, the woman pokes THREE holes in my arms, and still can't get the blood to flow. And I can tell she's getting nervous, she's playing around with the needle after it's in (not fun!), I've never seen anything like it. Now, with all the testing, IUIs and IVFs, Labcorp visits, etc., not once has anyone had to try more than one time to get into the vein. Even when my arms were full of bruises, it was never a problem.

Finally the genetic counselor steps in, ends the insanity, and sends me down to the lab to have them draw the blood. One shot, they got it. But now I have 4 holes in my arms! I wonder if that was a sign that I shouldn't have gotten the blood test?? Oh well, we'll see next week!