first ob appointment

My first OB appointment, this past Monday, was pretty quick after graduation. I had absolutely no idea what to expect.

I am still holding on to the hope of only being seen my women. There is exactly one female in the main practice in my smallish town. I saw her once before being referred to the fertility clinic and remember liking her fine. But since then, I have heard mixed reviews. Several people told me she didn't seem warm or caring and they would recommend someone else. In my mind I'm thinking, I don't know if I need warm and caring. I have Max for that :). I need competent, efficient, understanding, and willing to answer questions.

We only waited for 10 minutes or so. In the waiting room we actually sat across from what appeared to be a teenager of about 16, her boyfriend and her mom. By the absolutely miserable expression on her face and the sheer terror of the boyfriend, we could only assume that no matter how awkward and nervous we felt, there were at least 3 people in the room that had it worse. I've found myself thinking about her a lot over the past few days. Hoping she is ok and has good support no matter what is in her future.

After running through some questions with the nurse and peeing in a cup, we were fairly quickly taken in the exam room and waited for another 10 minutes or so. Man was I nervous. I still didn't even know what all we were doing that day. This is pretty much how it went. D.r K came in and told me to lay back while introducing someone who was studying something and shadowing. They proceeded to put something on my stomach and then she pulled out the doppler. I almost panicked when I saw it. I have been really nervous about being able to hear the heartbeat because I have a bit of....insulation....on my stomach. She said not to panic, it might take a minute to find it at 11 weeks, but we would eventually get it. It probably took about 45 seconds and there it was. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, I was crying by this time and I kept letting out a big sob which made her have to find it again. Oops. We listened for about 2 minutes then she put it up, I sat up and we chatted for a minute.

I definitely wouldn't describe her as warm, but she isn't cold either. She was very nice, caring and quick. I will stop progesterone on Monday and will go back one week later to check my level. Is that too long? It's making me a bit nervous. That day I will also do an early glucose test. I'm assuming that is because of my weight. Either way I don't mind. I'm super nervous about Gestational Diabetes and I want to do whatever I can to keep that away! When I asked what the schedule would be after that, she said once a month. She then quickly followed up by saying that she understand the transition can be difficult and going a whole month without reassurances before I can feel movement may be very difficult. If I want, we can do every two weeks until movement and if I'm having a bad day and just need to hear the heartbeat, I can come in any time. Whew. Relief. I'm going to see how these two weeks go before I decide how often to go in. In some ways, I'm looking forward to going to the doctor less and trying to embrace being "normal". But in other ways, I'm scared to death.

Next Friday is my first trimester screening, including the NT scan. I will be 12w6d. My RE made it sound like they might have a gender guess that day. I haven't heard anyone else talk about it that early. Is that even possible?