1st ultrasound scan

Today's a pretty big day.

We had our appointment with Dr Paul Patten at AOC for the first USS, which lasted a little over an hour.

The USS is telling us two things:

1. It's a mover. I'm starting to feel sorry for myself already.


2. I'm actually 9 weeks & 2 days pregnant.

We managed to get four printouts of Tadpole, two of which are pretty clear thanks to Dr Yvonne Lake who honed on it like a pro.

It's currently at 2.57ish cm, which is giving us a pretty clear indication that my cycles would be 5 weeks not 4. Or something like that. Anyway, it would then be conceived on 10 February. ETA (or EDD) would be around 17 November. If it arrives just 5 days later, it will then not be a Scorpio (Bas reckons that Leos and Scorpios don't overly get on) but a little archer. In any case it will be a good shot like its mum.

We went through the blood results, which indicated that my red blood cells are a bit skinnier than the average (slightly abnormal haemoglobin E), which seems to be a South East Asian trait. Must be all that rice I'm eating. In itself, not much of a big deal, however it will become if we found out that Bas happens to have the same abnormality too, so he'll be in for a blood sample too to have a full blood count. I'd give more details of what tests he exactly needs to see, but the guy writes like a doctor.

Blood pressure is about normal, 100 over 60 (or maybe it was 60 over 100?). Doctor said that the reason why I feel so full is because of my bowel expanding so I could take in as much of the nutrients as I could. Yuck.

Next appointments are:

• Nuchal Transluscency scan with Insight Radiology on 14/05 at 10:00. This is to determine the risk of Trisomy 21.


• Follow-up appointment with Dr Martin Sowter on 24/05 at 13:45


• Follow-up appointment with Dr Lynda Batcheler on 21/06 at 10:30.

And we're $500 poorer. Not counting the $16,100 I paid for my new car.

So I've told Thomas, whose reaction was fairly comical as he blinked a couple of times before he thought about saying "Congratulations". Vaughan was pretty sweet, giving us a baby top/uniform/jumpsuit thingy, and a card.

Now I've got all these forms from HR to fill in. I remember seeing these forms four years ago even before I started my employment and working on their workflow.

And I threw up for the second time :(
Was a painful one too. And the two Augmentins I took for breakfast and lunch both went bye-bye. So did half of my erwtensoep.

And I love KitKat.

Drugs - Augmentin

10 weeks and 3 days pregnant today.

So I'm on 3 tablets of Augmentin 500 a day, to take with each meal.

Hmmm.
Before you start to take AUGMENTIN
Tell your doctor if:
you are pregnant or intend to become pregnant. Your doctor will discuss with you the possible risks and benefits of using AUGMENTIN during pregnancy.

That I recall, AOC didn't discuss the risks & benefits with me, they just told me to use it. I have my appointment with AOC on Monday so we'll go through it then.

Test results

I got a call today from AOC with regards to the test results.

Of all the things that could have gone wrong I managed to get the least serious one, which is a urinary tract infection. I'm pretty sure this has been going on for quite some time, though when I mentioned it to the GP he managed to put me off by requesting a urine sample.

So I just need to take antibiotics. Will need to check whether I have any Augmentin left at home instead of getting a prescription faxed to the chemist.

Whoops - 10 weeks today.

Blood sample

Following our visit to the Obstetrician, Linda asked me to get a blood sample.

Turns out to be a blood AND urine sample. Lucky I didn't have time to pee before I left the office.

We popped in at Diagnostic Medlab in Remuera where the lab person took three blood samples.

Things I'm gettting tested for are:

• Haematology - Ferritin
• Natal - Antenatal group - 1st visit
• Immunology - HIV
• Microbiology - MSU

Ferritin

This is to check the level of iron. It seems that iron deficiency is a possibility with pregnant women.

• <12>12-20 micrograms indicates reduced stores
• 20-160 micrograms is normal
• >160 micrograms means I've eaten too many Jesters spinach & feta cheese pies.

Antenatal group - 1st visit

No clue whatsoever. I don't know what they'll do if they find out I haven't got any antibodies for Syphilis.

• CBC
• ABO and Rh group
• Red cell antibodies
• Hepatitis Bs antigen
• Rubella antibodies
• Syphilis antibodies

HIV

This doesn't require much explanation, doesn't it...

• <>
• 1 - 1.5 units may be a false positive
• 5 - 20 units is established positive.

But, you ask me, how about 1.6 - 4.9 units?
Well... click here.

MSU

There's a whole bunch of tests being taken there.

1. Bacterial count
   <102/ml is good
   >105/ml is no good, there could be a bug (single organism) in the urinary tract
2. Culture
   Something about "A pure culture of a single organism usually indicates infection whereas a mixed growth is usually due to contaminants."
3. Microscopy
   At this stage I went cross-eyed.
4. Dipstick analysis
   More detailed info here.

Oh and I'm 9 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

Emergency visit

I am 9 weeks pregnant today.

On Sunday I experienced some bleeding so Bas pressured (yes, pressured) me to see the Obstetrics Centre for peace of mind.

We went today and after a good 30 minutes wait we met with the Obstetrician, Linda Batcheler. She got my details, and after smearing some cold gooey stuff on her ultrasound sensor then applying it to my belly, we saw the little tadpole on the monitor.

Its little heart was beating very fast, which was enough to satisfy Linda. My next and first appointment is on 16 April so that's when we'll spend 45 minutes going through the whole thing.

I asked her also about food, and yep. Sushi's out.

I now have a bit of reading to take home, I've got a bagful of pregancy information pack.

And Bas was so so excited :)