First OB Appointment

So this morning I had my first actual appointment.  Everything went fine.  I had a dating ultrasound, which confirmed my Nov. 28 due date.  The little teddy graham was wiggling all around, looking so cute! 

Then I saw a midwife for my actual appointment, and she was not someone I remember seeing during Micah's pregnancy.  She told me my last pap smear was done last May at my 6 week post-partum check, so she thought she'd go ahead and do one now.  Okay, that's fine--except she could not find my cervix!  Yeah, that was a little embarrassing, LOL.  She tried 3 different speculums before just reaching in and feeling around to locate the darn thing.  Then she could finally do the pap smear.  So!  Nice to know my parts are not all where they should be anymore!  She kept saying my uterus was "prolapsed", but that means it has fallen down into the birth canal, and that's not what has happened with me, so she's not using the right term.  Retroverted, maybe?  Anyway, it's from having lots of babies.  It's tipped toward the front, not back though.  Learn something new every day!  I'm having no discomfort whatsoever, or any symptoms at all, actually, so I guess she can call it whatever she wants.  She did say it would correct itself.

So then she started looking through all the records I meticulously filled out at my OB orientation.  There's a space for previous surgeries, so I always mention how my right first rib was removed in May 1995 because it was blocking my subclavian vein in my right arm, causing blood clots.  So she asked me about that, and then said she was writing down that I had a "propensity for blood clots".  Well . . . I did, but it was a physical cause, and since the rib has been gone, I haven't had any more problems.  Then she asked if I had taken Lovanox for any of my pregnancies.  I have not, but for my first 2 pregnancies, I was seen at the Air Force Academy hospital, which is pretty small, and they had me inject myself twice a day with heparin in my belly.  This was a total hassle, and by the end of those pregnancies, my poor tummy looked like Bob was regularly beating it with a baseball bat, with all the huge bruises, LOL. 

So imagine my delight when we moved to Ohio about the time I got pregnant with Caleb, and the high-risk OBs there at that big regional hospital told me it was absolutely unneccessary for me to take any bloodthinners during pregnancy!  Woo-hoo!  Maybe this is one reason we have so many kids--pregnancy just seems so easy when you don't have to inject yourself in the belly twice a day!

Anyhow, my next 6 pregnancies proceeded uneventfully, especially as far as blood clots go.  Even the paranoid civilian doctor I had for Grace, the one who wanted to induce me at least 2 weeks early because she was so certain I would hemorrhage simply because I was having my 6th baby, was not at all concerned about potential blood clots!

But this midwife was.  So now I have to go back to see a doctor next Thursday to make sure everything is okay.  Ummm . . . what would have changed since my last pregnancy, which ended just over 1 year ago?!  I kept saying stuff like, "Well, my last 2 pregnancies were here at Bethesda, and the doctors were never concerned", but she was firm about me seeing a doctor.  What's one more trip, I guess, although it seems like a total waste of time. 

I've already made a note of this lady's name though, and I won't be seeing her again!  Although she was perfectly nice, she definitely seems like the paranoid kind who likes to worry about non-issues, and I definitely don't need that in my life!   Hopefully the doctor I see will just let this go . . .