Pregnancy Part 5

Yesterday morning was my "First Official" OB appointment. The other one was like an interview or initial consultation. I had some blood drawn for hemoglobin and HIV testing. I left a urine sample. My doctor did a pap smear and a cervical measurement. We looked at the fetus on the ultrasound and I got to hear the heartbeat, something like 145-150 bpm.

I am feeling pretty tired with my normal teaching schedule. I am also starting to get a bit hungrier than I was before. Today is the first day I thought to myself "I don't get paid enough for this." I feel like I have never had that thought before. Instead, I used to ask myself what more I could be doing to do a better job. This semester I get so tired after teaching, it takes so much out of me, I feel like I deserve twice the pay for the same work.

The heartburn is getting so real. Like, goodbye nausea... Hello, heartburn. There's no way to win. It's bad after lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner. I am drinking water like crazy, which is not a bad thing I guess, just trying to wash the heartburn away.

Here is a graph of my weight since starting the Zita West Diet (March, April, May, June) and becoming pregnant (July, August). I feel good that I did not gain a significant amount of weight in the first trimester.

I got a new addition to my regimen of vitamins: 81 mg aspirin to prevent preeclampsia. Apparently, I am presenting with a "constellation of risk factors."

• First pregnancy
• Obesity (BMI > 30)
• Over 35 years of age
• In-vitro fertilization

It doesn't sound good when the doctor informs me of this, but there is nothing I can do but take the aspirin and hope I don't get it. There were 8 risk factors on the website I looked at, and I only have half of those. It's not exactly comforting to know that the causes of preeclampsia are unknown. Even more disturbing is that it may have a gradual or rapid onset.

Following the babycentre recommended diet for 10 days, I hit about 50% of the recommended meals. Sometimes the dinners are too complicated and I have had trouble eating my morning "snack," just due to timing issues. I bring the food to school but I don't actually eat it. On weekends, we do other things just out and about, so sitting at home and eating specific things at specific times is not on the agenda.

Yesterday, my phone said it was 103 degrees. We are in a Heat Advisory. "Across the valleys and mountains, temperatures will warm to between 95 and 105 degrees"

I am just looking forward to the nights when I can open the windows. Maybe Saturday night? There was one night where I slept on the floor in my bedroom. One night I went downstairs, where it is several many degrees cooler.

My hopes of getting the NT and NIPT results at my OB's appointment were not realized. I am not sure when I will get those results. My doctor told me to download a hospital app and then pair it up with MyChart but I couldn't get it to work. I guess it is good for me to feel what my students feel like to be on the "flip-side" of the coin. I sometimes tell them to do something that is supposed to be easy and then they can't seem to do it. I feel like my doctor told me to do it like it would be simple, but I just can't figure it out.

On a positive note, I believe I can take the spring semester off without any penalty. Now that I have been promoted to Y3, I can take a leave of absence with no worries about losing my entitlements. I had to have 6 years of continuous service to reach this point. Phew!