Made phone calls today, as we just got our BFP last night. Waiting till early October to find out if we'll get a space with the midwives here. I have an appointment booked for next week with my GP just for confirmation - I suspect I'm just shy of 4 weeks now.
Things have really changed since my last pregnancy. My GP now doesn't start prenatal till 12 weeks. I don't know when I'd start seeing the midwives if I am able to get in. It feels so far away.
Made phone calls today, as we just got our BFP last night. Waiting till early October to find out if we'll get a space with the midwives here. I have an appointment booked for next week with my GP just for confirmation - I suspect I'm just shy of 4 weeks now.
Things have really changed since my last pregnancy. My GP now doesn't start prenatal till 12 weeks. I don't know when I'd start seeing the midwives if I am able to get in. It feels so far away.
Congrats on your BFP!
I agree it feels so far away. I'm 6w6d, and it already feels like I've been waiting FOREVER for my 8-week appointment that's a week from this Friday.
So, I had my first appointment with my midwife this morning! It was more an interview/meet and greet appointment. Unfortunetly, I spent more time with the midwife's student than the midwife as her 9am appointment came at 9:30 and they made an effort to squeeze her in as she'd driven 45 mins with her newborn and 2 small children to get there.
Still, overall I was happy with the appointment. The midwife is a sole practitioner in a larger birth centre, so there is always back-up if she's on holidays or at another birth or whatever. I can decide on a home or hospital birth in my 3rd trimester, and she said that sometimes people plan on a hospital birth but when the time comes they don't want to go to the hospital so they just have the baby at home. I'm kind of a planner, so that's unlikely!! I loved that the clinic/birth centre is in a house. It makes for a nice, homey feel when you take off your shoes at the door and sit on a couch and sip tea while you wait to see the midwife! I also love that it's 6 blocks from my house and that I will see the same person every appointment and have her at my birth (unless something happens where someone else goes into labour before me on the same day!). I like that the have stuff like "if you are chosing to keep track of your weight..." and "if you chose to do a GBS screen..." not making those types of things a given.
Now my next appointment will be my first trimester screen Oct. 19 and another midwife appointment the following Wednesday.
Can't wait for more updates from others.
I have my first appointment on Oct 1, when I'll be early-7th week. For those of you who are partnered, do you take your beau with you or is that weird at such an early appointment? Or weird overall? I know some midwives make appointments into family affairs, but I don't want them to be like, um, he can stay in the waiting room or something, haha! I've never done this before! I'm going to a birth center, but I won't be giving birth there (moving mid-pregnancy) so it's not like we'll be interviewing for actual birth plans or anything.
I have my first appointment on Oct 1, when I'll be early-7th week. For those of you who are partnered, do you take your beau with you or is that weird at such an early appointment? Or weird overall? I know some midwives make appointments into family affairs, but I don't want them to be like, um, he can stay in the waiting room or something, haha! I've never done this before! I'm going to a birth center, but I won't be giving birth there (moving mid-pregnancy) so it's not like we'll be interviewing for actual birth plans or anything.
With my last pregnancy, my partner came to almost all of my appointments. I know he felt like the midwives did a great job including him in the whole process. He did feel a little out of place when I was still seeing my GP beforehand.
Ugh. I haven't made one yet because I am not excited. After two pregnancies with midwives I am seeing an OB this time. Bleh. I need to just get over because it's the best choice for our family right now (after two vaginal attempts ending in c/s I just can't get myself to a place to try again. ). I am ok with the choice but not excited. I found a second option as a provider that I might feel better about but he doesn't appear to be covered by our health care plan. I think I will call the office on Monday to double check. There are certain tests that I will not do and I just really don't want to fight with the doctor at every appt. The doc I was going to see was respectful last time I saw him (not pregnant at that time) but I don't know how he's be in pregnancy. I should probably deal with it somewhat soon.
i've been procrastinating my first appointment for the same reasons.... although DD's labor/ delivery couldn't have been any more peaceful and perfect (for being a natural hospital birth), I'm not ready to get back into the blood tests, constant urine tests, ultrasounds and want to avoid the glucola test and my only solution is to stay away. This pregnancy has made me extra cautious (aka paranoid!), so I finally scheduled my first appointment next week to make sure it's not ectopic, hear the heartbeat and make sure there is only one guy/gal in there, then i'll procrastinate all the tests and appointments some more... at this rate i'll be only visiting the dr every 2 months :)
I had a midwife picked out to try (we have moved out of state from where my other 3 kids were born) and called her last Thursday... We have a meet appointment set for this monday! I really hope I LOVE her, since there wasnt anyone else I have found that I really thought I would like! We are going to do our first homebirth this time, and I am not sure what to expect for the midwife prenatal care...
) He didn't come to every appointment and that was what I prefered, though I always told him he was welcome, at least half of the appointments are pretty boring and I was glad to not have him there and bored too.
DH will come to most of the appointments with me. We use a home birth CNM, and it really did help that he got to know her as well as I did. He really wants to have her as our midwife again, even though we have moved out of her area. We're only about 30 minutes beyond where she would normally cover, so he wants to ask if she'll make an exception for us since we've worked with her before. She is currently on a sabatical until the end of this month, so I'm waiting to give her a call until next week, plus I know her little girl is sick right now since getting back from vacation at the weekend and don't want to disturb her with work stuff while she is looking after her sick toddler.
If she can't take us, she has previously mentioned that she has a few friends that are CNMs in our area, so we'll get the contact info for them from her. But I'm really hoping she will atke us, as we're the ones who will do most of the traveling.
Well I did it. I made my doctor appointment. Now I want to call back and cancel. I am so mourning that I don't get to have midwifery care this time. Boo. October 22nd is when I go in. OK, I'm being a whiny baby. I need to fully accept this.
Japan is so freaking different on so many fronts...it's just another thing to pile on the list.
We had our first scan done and lo and behold, I was right. My size is perfect for my O date. I don't know why they estimated my DD as 2 weeks earlier then it should have been, but oh well. I did hear a heartbeat at 116 BPM and saw the baby but it was too early for an echocardio (where they check the heart function).
So they gave us the runaround about choosing a hospital and a doctor. I am already a patient at this hospital in the RA department. When they asked us where we were going to have the baby, I (being too honest) told them the US. To which they promptly said that they could not see me any longer. When I explained that my RA doctor was right there in the same hospital, there was a bunch of whispering and conversations and phone calls, but eventually they said they could take me. Whew. I almost regretted telling them the truth! In Japan, apparently, you start going to your birth hospital once you pick one. That's not so easy for me as there are only a few birth hospitals that have english speakers. I have no idea if I would be able to find an OB in a sole practice that spoke english AND had a back-up partner that also spoke english!
So, they do a lot of scans here in Japan, and apparently Korea too (have a close friend in Korea who is due 2 weeks before me). Granted they are very quick scans, I don't know how the tech got a picture and size that fast but I was in and out of that room in less then 5 mins and that included climbing into stir-ups! But it still makes me a little anxious about the number of scans they do. They want me to go back either next Thursday or the Thursday after, and I am tempted to wait until the 2nd week. The only headache is the OB part...the sooner I get an OB, the better I will feel because if I hate the OB, I will need to find another. One thing I am really enjoying (I will probably kick myself when I meet my OB because they may not be) is that all of the doctors and techs we have dealt with so far have been female and this feels so much more natural to me! Comfort level x 10! The bad thing is that until I get a regular OB, I will have to go in and sit for my scans and wait for an appointment which took 4 hours yesterday....but this is apparently standard procedure in Japan. No wonder so many Japanese woman stop working the minute they get pregnant! Well that and the cultural norms require it.
Had my first appointment yesterday with an u/s to date the pregnancy. I'm 6 weeks 6 days today which was disappointing because I really hoped that I was 8 weeks 6 days because 3 weeks of m/s left sounds so much better than 5 weeks. Had to have the t/v one since I was too low to see anything with the belly wand. The look on DH's face when he say the size of that thing was hilarious! But sheesh, they could at least buy you dinner or make it vibrate or something.
So it's official. I'm growing a blob with a heartbeat. Hopefully it'll emerge as a baby around May 18th. First OB visit on the 9th.
Originally Posted by AmandaLynnH
But sheesh, they could at least buy you dinner or make it vibrate or something.
Had to have the t/v one since I was too low to see anything with the belly wand. The look on DH's face when he say the size of that thing was hilarious! But sheesh, they could at least buy you dinner or make it vibrate or something.
I just read that out to my partner, and we both
I had a t/v ultrasound yesterday, so I feel ya!
that's great.
Had to have the t/v one since I was too low to see anything with the belly wand. The look on DH's face when he say the size of that thing was hilarious! But sheesh, they could at least buy you dinner or make it vibrate or something.
I got one ultrasound last time I was pregnant (at 22 weeks) and will do the same this time between 18-22 weeks. I've had a couple of friends whose babies had issues that needed to be immediately treated. (For example, my one friend's baby's abdominal cavity did not close entirely, leaving his intestines partially outside of his body. He required immediate surgery but now is a totally healthy little boy. ) It's SO unlikely that there would be any kind of issue, but since I'm planning a homebirth, I want the peace of mind of knowing that certain problems have been ruled out.
I am, however, refusing early ultrasounds and any after the midway one unless there is some reason to do more. (Not reasons like "We want to see if the baby is big", etc! ) I don't have a history of ectopic pregnancy I'm not having a lot of pelvic pain. I know how long my cycle is and when I conceived so no need to date the pregnancy, so I don't see the need.
I'm planning on birthing at my midwife's house, but also seeing the Army OB/midwives because they can order the 18-22 week ultrasound. Their office workers are already shocked that I told them I won't be getting an ultrasound at my first appointment. ("But....we do them then!" "Ok, well *I* don't..." "But we have to date the pregnancy!" "Luckily I know the date of my last LMP, so that's not necessary." "But! But! We always do an ultrasound then!" lol) I may actually end up switching if they give me a hard time about refusing certain procedures. We'll see.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents. I think the benefits of one ultrasound outweigh the risks, but the risks of several routine, unnecessary ultrasounds do not. Also, after the one at18-22 weeks, ultrasounds are notoriously inaccurate as far as estimating babies size. They are often off by pounds!
I am not due till 5/31.
I have my initial intake with MW on 10/22 and then won't have my first prenatal till 13.5 weeks on 11/28. It seems like forEVER from now!
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