2nd prenatal visit with midwife

This morning I met another midwife at Dr. Norrell's practice and we listened to the baby's heart beat with a doppler. It was about 150 beats per minute, she said. It was fun for me to hear the heart beating! I waved my hand in the air towards the doppler speaker, as if to say "hi" to the baby. "Hi, baby. We are so excited that you are here!"

The midwife looked at the results of all the bloodwork that we had tested at our last visit, and she said everything was normal. Then she said that I'm slightly just borderline anemic. She recommended that I take an iron supplement, but then said that if it causes any side effects for me, stop taking it and try to increase my intake of iron-rich foods instead. Like red meat (ha!) and green leafy vegetables. She said since I am only borderline anemic that she's not worried about it and also that it is very common in pregnancy. After the appointment I got some iron supplements at the pharmacy and I bought a hot breakfast with BACON! Mmmm, bacon tastes good. It is a dark meat, right? I also got some chewable vitamin C tablets and I took one with the iron pill. Vitamin C helps the absorption of iron. Calcium, on the other hand, competes with iron for absorption, so I have to space out my calcium intake by a few hours.

The midwife said my weight and blood pressure are normal. Today I weighed 137 lbs. Pre-pregnancy I weighed 131. So gaining 6 pounds in the first trimester is great! I heard that some women actually lose weight because of the morning sickness, so I'm grateful that I've been able to keep eating and to keep my meals down. Thanks to Bob who does the cooking!

Bob felt torn about whether or not to go with me to the appointment, because he can only take so much time off from work. So he didn't go with me this time, but it was a very brief visit, and the highlight was hearing the heart beat. I've been lucky that my job has been flexible about me taking a couple hours for a doctor's appointment. I asked about what the schedule of visits will be, and which are important ones for Bob to attend. She said my next visit will be in 4 weeks. Two weeks after that visit, we will have our 20 week ultrasound (when they will probably be able to determine the baby's gender!), and that will be about the first week of December. 4 weeks after that (when I'm 24 weeks pregnant) I'll return for a check-up and a round of bloodwork to see how everything is going. Then the visits will continue every 2 weeks until I'm 36 weeks pregnant, and then I go in weekly until the baby pops out. The important ones for Bob to come to will be the 20-week ultrasound (and gender check), and then as many visits towards the end as possible, because that is when we will be talking about how to prepare for the birth.

In general, my nausea has decreased, but the mornings are the worst, and this morning was a particularly nauseous one. I thought at one point that I might get sick, but deep yoga breaths seemed to help my stomach settle down. Bob and I joined a gym in our neighborhood, and we both worked out on treadmills last night (I walk, he runs). Tonight I plan to go for a swim at the gym. I had a nice swim there on Friday. It was fun and I felt so good afterwards.