Are you ready?

For some football? I AM!!! This morning Nadia & I both had doctor appointments (at the same clinic). I had my 21 week OB appt with a group that delivers at the same hospital where I had Nadia. Nadia had an ear re-check appointment to be sure the ear infection she had one month ago had cleared up. Since her 15 month visit was scheduled for later this month, I asked if we could take care of that today as well so I could cancel the other appointment. My appts were at 10:00 and 10:30. Since this was my first prenatal visit at this clinic, I had to have an appt with the nurse before the OB. Nadia's appt was at 11:20. I finished my appt with the OB at 11:00, and the nurse almost took Nadia back then, but she said her 11:00 had just shown up. Bummer. Back to the waiting room we went. From the time we entered the clinic until we left a grand total of 2 hours and 10 minutes had passed. Of course much of that time was spent waiting in the waiting room or in the exam room. Nadia was a trooper considering her morning nap was delayed. She fell asleep as soon as I had her in the car, and although she woke up when I transferred her to her crib when we got home, she didn't cry very long. I hope she gets a long enough nap.

Nadia got 2 shots today. She's now 30 inches long (30th percentile which is a drop from the 40th percentile she was at 12 months when she was 29 inches long), and with her clothes and shoes weighed 23.5 lbs (58th percentile which is the exact same %ile she was at 12 months). Her head circumference was the same as at 12 months and this puts her at the 77th percentile (compared to 91st at 12 months). These percentiles are based the age of 15 months which she'll be in exactly 2 weeks. Her next appt with the doctor will be in December (18 month), but she'll go in twice in between now and then for flu shots. Last year she only got the first half of her flu shot. Hopefully this time she'll get both doses. The doctor gave her a clean bill of health. Yay!

My university gives free flu shots to employees, but they said you must have a note giving permission to have one if you are pregnant. The OB gave me my permission slip today. I'll have my flu shot in November. I've gained 14 lbs since my egg retrieval - 2 lbs since my last ultrasound (17 days ago); I thought I'd gain less weight this pregnancy since I've been a lot more active, but I guess that isn't going to happen. Thankfully this time we were able to hear baby boy's heartbeat as soon as he put the doppler on my belly. That made this appt a lot less stressful than the last one! I have my next ultrasound in 20 days and my next OB appt in 28 days. I'm hoping by then baby boy has a name. So far Paul doesn't seem to have made any progress. The only two names he's suggested to me are Gordon and Newton, and I've vetoed both of those as a first name for our son.

The OB I met with today is also a bit cautious in terms of VBAC. He said just last week at the hospital where I'd deliver a woman attempting VBAC had her uterus rupture while she was pushing. Thankfully the baby and woman lived. I forget the exact number, but I think he said in 20 years of being an OB he's had 4 patients have their uterus rupture. The last time it happened to him the mom lived but the baby died. He agreed that the risk is 1%, but he said if you happen to be that 1/100 you don't really care what the stats are. He said it's my choice, but he wanted to make sure I am aware of the risk. He said if I was planning to have more children after this one, he'd be more inclined to support my decision to do VBAC. He says when a woman tells him this is likely her last pregnancy, he suggests a scheduled c-section (and also have tubes tied). I should have clarified that I would love more children, but since we're not going to do IVF again I really don't expect to have any more babies after this one. I certainly don't want my tubes tied! He expressed concern that I had trouble delivering a 6lb baby. He felt that the position she was in shouldn't have mattered. So I am at a loss whether to go with Dr. Ahoya's opinion (she's the one who delivered Nadia) or these other OB's who think if you can't push out a 6lb baby you'd better have a scheduled c-section the next time around. She told me Nadia's size had nothing to do with it. I'll try to have one of my next appts with her and see if her opinion is the same as it was at my postpartum visit in 2008. I will say his attitude was better than the ones at the other clinic. He didn't treat me like I was nuts to be considering VBAC.