Lounge Act

Another doctor's appointment!

Today was my "first trimester screening" but Trouble (aka The Nugget, earning a new nickname over the past week since it's been nothing but and I'm rapidly meeting my sky-high deductible thanks to the little bugger) treated it just like the visit the other day-- continued to lounge around.

The ultrasound machine was described as "the Mercedes Benz" of ultrasounds. In a town where there's a Mercedes on every corner, I think it's more like a Bentley. It even has 6 cup holders for long road trips!

The screening is to test for abnormalities and defects. The measurements taken on the video (see the screen freeze intermittently) are combined with results from a blood test and a fancy algorithm determines the chances of problems, mutations, and other scary stuff nobody wants to think about. The genetic counselor told me I had boring family history... hmm. I don't think she meant it that way-- I hail from Sons of Garibaldi and Daughters of the American Revolution!

Of course, the blood is the second part of the equation. Minor problem: I'm so bruised from being poked last week that I don't have any veins left to draw from. That turned out to be okay, since the blood drawn at my doctor's office on Friday was intended for today's visit down the street. phew! I was thinking we'd have to start to get creative between the toes or something...

I won't know for a few days if everything is A-OK, but I thought you might enjoy watching the video and since it wasn't too tough to upload, I went ahead and posted it. Some things are tough to make out, but it does look more like a little person. The video itself is not very interesting and there isn't any sound, so use your imagination when you see the little heartbeat line pop up at (:19). 160 beats per minute, that's an aerobic threshold baby! They gave me a still photo to take home, which makes the little nugget-- which really is the size of a nugget right now-- appear monstrous. Not really, it's less than 2 inches. That's why it can lounge around all the time. Lots of room to float around.

Luckily, my medication seems to be working today and I've managed to stay on pace with my pre-pregnancy water consumption levels. This could change at any moment though, so I have to be grateful for each and every swig that stays down. I'm carefully adding solid foods to my grocery list but still prefer Jell-O to just about anything right now. Let's hope this is the beginning of better things to come. In the meantime, I'm taking it easy and I've started a lounge act of my own... watching Olympic curling.