5-Month Check-up

20 weeks: weight 153 pounds; blood pressure 117/70.

Dr. Holden said everything looks good. Last week's sonogram at 19 weeks was normal so no follow-up tests or ultrasounds are scheduled at this point. True to form, the baby moved around so much it was difficult for the nurse to find the heartbeat with the monitor, but we found it eventually. **I love this little bean.**

Next month I'll go back for 6-month check-up (early March) and will get the standard sugar test. All pregnant women get tested in the US at 6 months for signs of gestational diabetes. The test will take an hour, and will involve drinking sugar water, waiting sixty minutes, and then giving blood for testing purposes (insulin levels).

What's Happening In There? (Tuesday, 2 January 2007)

Tomorrow is the first of ongoing monthly check-ups with Dr. Holden to track progress. Am keen to hear the Bean’s heartbeat. Can’t feel any movement yet, so wonder if everything is ok. When I bend over quickly with a full stomach, does he/she get squashed?

We are approaching the 4-month mark and the bump is starting to show. I can wear my normal trousers and jeans as long as I pull the waistband below the equator.

Kim (friend in Australia) is pregnant too, and her due date is two weeks after mine. We received pictures of their recent 3-D sonogram, but I decided not to look at them… Not eager to see pictures of other babies or watch documentaries of other women giving birth because it provides more data by which to worry if our own experience isn't similar.

There was an hour-long documentary on TV the other day tracking the experience of a woman going into labor with her second child. She checked in at the desk and was put onto a hospital bed with an IV that included pitocin to accelerate contractions, which looked like it made her uncomfortable. A doctor came in to assess how many centimeters she was dilated by putting a glove on and putting her whole hand up the women's v***** (ouch). Then they discussed an epidural and I saw the woman sitting up in bed hugging her husband while an Anesthetist advanced behind her with a very big needle (ouch again).

Got queasy and turned the TV off. In my case, less information is better, so there is less to fret about.