Two scares at my 12 week appointment

THE DUMB ONE: I've gained another 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Since the last time I weighed myself, pre-IVF, I've gained 12 pounds. Now, 3-4 of that drops off in the at-home-after-elimination-before-breakfast-and-naked to clothed-at-doctor's-office-after-breakfast-with-extra-fluids-for-urine-sample-production transition. Probably I've added 2 pounds of leg muscle from the hour a day I spend walking here (the bus drops me off a long way from my office). And let's ignore a pound for the extra early breast development I've gotten (two Bravados are on the way, and my sore chest, is, well, aching for them). Even with all the allowances, that's still at the upper limit of recommended first trimester gain. And I've got another 2 weeks of the trimester to go (and another Jamba shake on my desk).

Dr. Pippi-Poisson, bless her, is not concerned.

THE ACTUALLY SCARY ONE: No heartbeat on the Doppler! Not on the crappy blue Doppler. Then not on the good white Doppler that Dr. Pippi-Poisson demanded the nurse bring her, the one that picked it up loud and clear two weeks ago.

So she wheeled in the dildocam and took a look. I tried hard to breathe. One kicking little fetus, tiny brain and beating heart and all. Crown-rump measurement was 11w4d. Yet another 2 days behind the 3-days-behind 7w1d measurement, but "within the margin of error."

Next week I go for a nuchal translucency scan (step one of "integrated screening"). More pictures, thank goodness. I need more pictures, damn it.

Comments

[bitchphd]

I am not a doctor, obviously. And I'm glad Dr. P-P isn't worried about your weight gain, and I don't know if you have any reason to worry about it other than pregnancy "guidelines" in stupid pregnancy books.

But, FWIW: my sister gained 65 lbs when she was pregnant. I gained about 40. I know women who gained about 20. All had healthy babies. I also ate sushi (almost every day in the last trimester--could not get enough protein), chocolate, soft cheeses, as much bacon as I could stuff in my face, and about a carton of milk a day, no kidding. And coffee, and the occasional drink, and a cigarette or so. PK's apgars were at the top of the range. Big, healthy baby.

All of which is to say, if you have a particular condition, that's one thing. But if you're basically healthy and it's basically a healthy pregnancy, I, personally, think that a lot of the recommendations are kinda dumb. Good as benchmarks, but everyone's different. And a lot of the rules are based on worst-case-scenarios that are very, very rare. I understand not wanting to take risks, especially as hard as you've worked to get pregnant. Still, I think worrying about weight and diet--always with the caveat that it depends on your particular pregnancy--is way, way overrated.

And I hope that saying all this doesn't piss you off. God knows pregnant women get more advice than they can swallow. :)

[Dead Bug]

So glad you got to see the little kicking sprout. Whew! Scared me with the doppler part.

--Bugs

[Emma also Jane]

Oh, I'm so glad it was okay. Your doctor sounds good, and sensible. Don't worry about weight too much -- if you intend to breastfeed, you'll probably lose it pretty fast anyway. I was always at my thinnest when feeding a baby, however much I put on during the pregnancy.

Good luck with the nuchal and other screening. I'll be thinking of you.

And BitchPhD? You are a doctor, of course. Medical practitioners only get a courtesy title. We PhDs are the *real* doctors ;-)

Emma

[Cecily]

Whew! What a relief! I'm with everyone else. Don't worry about the weight gain, unless you have a sharp spike and suddenly seem to be retaining a lot of fluid (don't mind me, I'm a tad senstitive to preeclampsia).

[Isabel]

VERY glad all is well! And although I've never been pregnant (*&#@?!), I applaud all of BitchPhD's "recommendations." It's nice to hear them "said" out loud sometimes.

[Emma Jane]

Dr. B, you could tell I was fishing to get yelled at just that way, couldn't you? Thank you! (I'm not sure where I stand on listeria, 'cause I haven't found good enough numbers for serious risk quantification, or any description of whether typical cases tend to have the same causes as large outbreaks... but chocolate is so happening, along with a little real tea when I need it.)

It's not like they tell pregnant women to stop driving cars!

And, for the other Emma Jane: there's an old New Yorker cartoon, showing a nose-in-the-air maitre d' on the phone with someone -- presumably someone angling for a reservation, or a better table. He asks, "Are you a medical doctor, or just a Ph.D.?"

[Emma also Jane]

Heh. It is remarkable, now that I don't work in academia any more, how the doctorate impresses some people. I'm currently looking for work -- editing, tech writing and such -- after a break with my last baby, and the PhD in an unrelated area really thrills the middle level managers in insurance companies etc ('meet our new communications consultant *Dr Emma G---*'). It didn't impress anyone when I was still trying to be an academic, where it might have been relevant!

Sorry, I'm raving. Best of luck with the sabbatical work, by the way.

Emma

[delagar]

What Bitch said!

Don't, absolutely don't, worry about how much weight you gain. You're pregnant, you're building a whole human being, you're supposed to be gaining weight. Really. Anyone who tells you anything else is just wicked and can fuck off.

I didn't have any cigarettes, b/c I get migraines, but yes with the coffee and I ate hamburgers (Arctic Circle hamburgers, I was living in Idaho then, I LOVED their hamburgers) and milkshakes every day and a bag of cherries from the farmer's market nearly every day, I don't think I even washed them, ate them on the way home, spit the pits out the window, and I drank Fresca too, even though the diet sweetner was supposed to do horrible things to brain development, the kid had an apgar of 10 and now at six she is reading on the fifth grade level, I seriously wouldn't get bent about weight gain or what you eat. You eat what you want. That's what I say.

[watch west wing]

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