In a brilliant display of Pregnant Brain, I actually forgot about my monthly OB appt. (I thought it was this Friday instead of last) as Jim and I relaxed at home on one of the last days of holiday vacation-- me feeling yucky and he fulfilling his obsession with "Godfather" on X Box and sat in his new gaming chair. We also managed to short out the power in our bedroom and master bath that day, which took until Sunday to get repaired. Not the best beginning of a New Year I've ever had.

I felt so silly later when I ended up getting violently ill and could have gone to the doctor that very day, but thankfully my doctor's office was good enough to arrange an appt. with me yesterday with the NP, who I happen to love and who I haven't seen since my first prenatal appt. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not leaving enough time to get to my appointment. Typically, Jim insists on coming to my appointments, which I love, but this time because of the rearrangement and the late time of day he couldn't make it. So, I hadn't left the extra time that I normally do for him to meet me in the parking structure and walk to the office. So I found myself with about 2 minutes to hustle from our parking near Loring Park to the office on the Nicollet Mall near Barnes and Noble and the US Bank Tower.

I was already running late, chugging a water bottle in preparation for the regular urine sample when I made a wrong turn and ended up going past the downtown YMCA instead of though Target's skyway-- a mistake that necessitated me running through Macy's menswear department and around in a loop instead of directly to my destination. I'm sure that there have been many funny sights in the skyways, but I don't want to think about the addition that I made-- a maternity coat flying, slightly sweaty, waddling pregnant woman trying to scurry as fast as possible through the Ralph Lauren racks. I saw at least one store clerk simply get out of my way instead of offering his usual, commission-driven offer of assistance.

Finally I made it and was blessed to find that they were running even later than I was on that particular day. I never thought I'd be thankful for their usual slowness. I was able to sit for a few minutes before they called me back to begin the usual round of testing:

Blood Pressure-- good- I think it was 114/60 which amuses me since I was running to the appt. but usually have the ability to bring my BP back down fairly well.

Weight--Pretty much exactly the same as last time, which is frustrating with all of the holiday eating I enjoyed and made myself do. I am fairly sure I would have gained some if not for the nasty flu or whatever that was that I recently had. I am a little concerned that I haven't gained any overall, but they talked to me about it and said that since our baby was in the 51% of size at the 20 week ultrasound and everything else seems good they are not worried. I just want to make sure that he is getting enough nutrients and growing properly, and now I am getting worried about a sudden spurt of growth later on that will give me stretch marks and be harder to get rid of once the baby arrives.

I always thought that I would balloon up right away when pregnant, and so this is still shocking and bit strange to me. (We're hoping that our recent trip to Sam's and the mountains of food we now have should put a little more meat on my bones and on baby's bones.) As far as my growth is concerned, I recently found a piece of paper from '06 that for some reason I had written down my dimensions on, and at that time I had a waist of 32 inches or so and now am carrying around more than 45. All with a net gain of 2 lbs.

Sample- Protein in urine, possible infection. Yippe. Have to wait for a call today. Yay. Very common in pregnancy, but not any more desirable than if I wasn't pregnant.

Fundal Height- (height of uterus) 23 cm. Roughly I should be the same # of cm as I am weeks along, so I'm good, and now from Deann's explanation I can find the top of it myself a lot easier. It is a good distance above my belly button, which is now just a slight indent, but hasn't "Popped" yet. It is another good sign that I am still on track for baby size even though I'm not gaining.

Fetal Heart Rate- 130 bpm. Deann tracked the actual rate, while Dr. Ambur typically just listens to see if it seems normal and can tell from experience if something is wrong, so I'm not sure, but this seemed slightly slower than at other times, but could have been the machine, or could have been the fact that our little man was running away as fast as possible from the Doppler as he could. I think he was remembering the annoyance of the ultrasound wand that wouldn't let him sleep because he kicked the Doppler a couple of times and moved from the centered just under my belly button to lower on the right to as low as possible in the middle, which seems to be one of his new favorite spots and quite an accomplishment since he's almost a foot long now. Lately he has been kicking me in the bladder and cervix, which makes Mommy feel like he is trying to gain entry into the world WAY too soon. Hopefully the annoyance of these sensations will be abated if I really do have a bladder infection and I can get back to sleeping in peace. I think Jim is getting a bit worried about his son being a very busy boy once he is out into the world, and we may have to enter him into sports and other physical activities to channel this energy somewhere. I am trying to look at it like he is simply curious about the world around him and wants to touch it all, even though he can't from inside of his Mommy-house. (Although what Jim thinks is a real possibility.)

Wheezing- Dr. Ambur was going to give me a prescription for an inhaler at my last appt. because of some asthma-like wheezing I've been having when I run, or get in the cold too much or simply get near something I'm allergic to, but had to run out for an emergency delivery last time, so she forgot. I finally got it this time and am excited to have it filled so that I can see if it really will make a difference.

Flu Shot- Got it. Normally I don't because I know of the power of acquired immunity and can normally fight off flu with the help of decongestants and cough drops. However, now I'm leery of taking anything for a cold so I decided just this once to get it. I'm still divided on if it will do any good, or if my immunity hold-over from years of working with little kids will be what really gets me through this winter.

That was about it that was covered at the appointment, at our next one we will probably set up the appointment for the stress-test for gestational diabetes, which I guess is a joy, but could give some good information.