Best (and Worst) Doctor's Appointment Ever

There are no pictures yet. Sorry to disappoint.

The moral of this story is that my regular doctor is kind of a moron. That said...

Matt picked me up from work around 4:35 so we could get to my 4:45 appointment. I have been excited and nervous about this appointment since we found out we were pregnant--the day we would hear the heartbeat. We arrived a couple of minutes late, but since we were the last appointment of the day, they were eager to get me to pee in a cup quickly and see the doctor.

So I did that, got weighed, etc, and then my doctor comes in and says, "There's really not a lot to do today."

I stared at him in disbelief. "What? We're supposed to hear the heartbeat today. We put off my second OB appt by two weeks to make sure that I could hear the heartbeat today. We're supposed to be able to start telling people today that we're pregnant because we know the baby is alive and doing well, etc."

I was so upset. He looks at me with no emotion and says, "Well we can give it a try, but don't be depressed if we can't hear it." The guy needs to study up on pregnancy one more time--he thought my uterus was still being guarded by my pelvic bone and he was listening real low on my abdomen, which I didn't think was quite right, but I'm not a doctor, so I let it slide.

Anyway, so we leave to make our next appointment and I'm ready to cry. I just thought it was totally lame and ridiculous that we couldn't hear the heartbeat at 13 weeks. (Matt couldn't believe that the doctor had absolutely nothing to say to me. The doctor just looked at me and said, "Sorry.") The receptionist could tell I was upset and she said, "You know, you could come back later this week or next week and we could just have a nurse try to find the heartbeat for you, then you wouldn't have to pay for another appointment." I thought that was a good idea, even though it did mean I had to wait.

So my doctor said I could just wait to come back until my 20 week appointment when I would have my real ultrasound and find out the baby's sex and do my blood glucose test, etc. Well, like I said, we were the last appointment of the day and so my doctor was gone by the time I was talking to the receptionist. Well... there was another doctor there who was overhearing my situation. He told the receptionist that I really should come back in 4 weeks so we would have good numbers to see how I was gaining weight and how my urine looked, etc. even if the doctor couldn't do anything cool.

So, all right, I'm coming back in 4 weeks, maybe I should just wait and not hear the heartbeat till then--although that would be torture. Well, that doctor looked at me and he said, "Why don't we just do a quick ultrasound right now. We might not be able to hear the heartbeat, but maybe I could show it to you."

Matt and I practically ran back to the exam room and I laid down and I was ready for the belly jelly. And this is when that day became one of the best I've ever had. I got to see the little fluttering heart and I was finally reassured that I was feeling nauseated for good reason, that in about 27 weeks, I'll be giving birth to a real live human baby. I got to see the baby's hands and head and belly and we even saw it sucking its thumb. It was unbelievable and I couldn't help but cry. The doctor turned the sound on for a second to see if we could hear the heartbeat and we could, but then my cry hiccuped a little and I cut off the little dude or dudette. But it was amazing and I feel so absolutely blessed that the doctor was there and he was looking out for me. He told us that his wife had a miscarriage with her second pregnancy and that he totally understood my need for reassurance. UNLIKE my regular doctor.

I guess this actually fulfills Keri-Anne's tag to write about an angel here on earth who helped us out. That doctor really was an angel at that particular moment. Any ideas on a gift I can send him? Movie tickets? Steak dinner? We haven't decided yet, but we definitely want to do something for him. He literally made our day, our week, probably our month!