First Appointment: 9 weeks 2 days

We got to the birth center early. Chef gets pretty anxious about being on time. I brought all of those forms I had filled out the night before and gave them to the receptionist. When I set up my first appointment a few weeks before, they made sure to get all of my insurance info so that they could have a payment schedule ready for me by the time my first appointment came around. Their business manager who confirms insurance coverage had everything ready for me and after today's $500 deposit we would only owe the birth center $700 more to be paid before my 37th week. Not too shabby.

We met my first midwife in her office and talked about the questionnaires I had filled out regarding my family history and things like that. She wanted to know what I was taking in terms of vitamins and things like that. She then asked me the dates of my last menstrual period to see if we could get a due date for the baby. She even went over what changes I should be making in my diet in terms of protein requirements and other minerals. Chef make it a point to tell her that I had been vomiting my brains out for the past few weeks and she told me that if it doesn't get better they could prescribe something to stop the nausea. She wanted me to fill out a 2 day nutrition log of everything I eat but told me not to do so until my diet returned back to normal. She said carbs are not what I want to make my staple but if all I could keep down was pizza and cheetos to not to worry about it. We then went though the procedures I would have to do for every visit. Peeing in a cup to test for protein and glucose in my urine which is common in pregnancy and weighing myself. Whomp Whomp. I swore that I had gained at least 5lbs due to the cereal and oatmeal but I had not gained a single pound at over 2 months pregnant. Strange to me, because my stomach was poking out a bit by this point.

Blood draws - is it weird that I like to look? Apparently so. My veins were juicy that day. It took her less than 2 min to fill up all those tubes.

After she took my blood she said she wanted to see if we could pick up the baby's heartbeat on the doppler. For some reason I got a little nervous. Maybe because it was becoming real. I had referred to the baby as a parasite up to this point, probably because I felt like crap. Now it would be a baby... I was freaking out. She did warn me however that at nine weeks the baby is still well protected and it can be hard to pick up the heart beat that early. She put warm goo on my lower belly/crotch region and went to town with the doppler. No noise over here, no noise over there. She found my heartbeat very clear in my abdomen thanks to that collossal vein that runs down the right side of your body. She turned it off and said, "Couldn't find it. When the room with the ultrasound is free we'll go in there and look for the baby." Holy Jesus I froke (past tense of freak) out. I don't know why, it just happened but no one else knew I was freaking out.

There was a lady that was a solid 6 months preggers in there an I was secretly rushing her to get her ass off that table so I could get in there. The time came and we went into the room, she goo'd up my belly again and looked for the baby. Within 3 seconds there it was! It was a gummy bear on its back. Moving and swimming about. Arm buds and leg buds in motion. She positioned me so that she could see the heart and count the beats...160 beats per minute. She left it on so we could see it kick around for a second before she took a picture. Chef was in a state of shock and awe. Things got real really fast. I was lying on my back looking at the screen and all I remember saying was, "You're so happy, but you're making me so sick."

This is what our little peanut looked like:
It was measuring a little big for it's gestational age but everything else was all good. My next appointment was scheduled for when I would be 12 weeks.