Monday August 22, 2011 - 9 Weeks

We had our first appointment with our new ObGyn, Dr. Julie Castilla today. Rich and I both really liked her and are happy with our decision to have her as our Ob. She was very nice, caring and compassionate. She seemed genuinely interested in helping me have the best, most healthy and happy pregnancy as possible. Our visit went really well and we had an ultrasound too so she could see how the baby is doing. The baby measured perfectly for the age and the heartbeat was great too. We actually got to hear the heart beat for the first time today. It was so wonderful to hear! The baby was also moving around the feet and hand buds. It was so cute! We were so excited to see all the movement today!

I will now have to check in with Dr. Castilla every month from here forward until I get toward the end then I will go every couple of weeks, and then weekly. Next month I will also go to a specialist to get a Nuchal Translucency ultrasound and blood work to check for birth defects. The NT test checks for thickness in the baby's neck and for the nasal bone to determine if the baby could possibly have down syndrome. The blood work checks for other abnormalities. It is pretty scary to have these tests done but because of my age, it is pretty standard. The doctor also told us about an Amniocentesis and CVS test. Both of these tests check for more abnormalities if the initial tests come back questionable. There is a risk of miscarriage with both of these tests so we have decided that we will not have either one of them done. We will see how the initial tests come back and pray that everything will be just perfect. We don't have a family history of any birth defects in either of our families so we are not terribly worried about it. It is in God's hands at this point and we won't terminate the pregnancy if there is something wrong so we feel it's not worth the risk to test any further.

Since going off of the progesterone, I have been feeling a little better every day. I still have some digestive issues and I'm still pretty exhausted every day but overall I feel much better. I can't wait to make it through the first trimester and start feeling more energized and better all-around!