Meeting with New Doctor

This week I had my second doctor's visit. It was the last visit in my first trimester, as I now begin the second trimester. I thought we were meeting with Dr. Chi again but I was told the day before my appointment that I would be rotating now so I could meet all the doctor's (7) in their office in case Dr. Chi wasn't available to do my delivery. There are five men and two women doctors at my office. Obviously I could insist I only wanted to see Dr. Chi and that would be fine as well, but given Brad's first impression of Dr. Chi, we figured it might be good to see what other doctor's are out there. So we met with Dr. Horst. Thankfully we didn't have wait long at all even though we were so late. My friend told me Friday's are the best days to go because the office is a bit slower, and I think she was right. It was Friday and I was thankful we didn't have to wait long. I was so anxious. I thought I would have another ultra sound today but it didn't turn out to be the case. Dr. Horst came in and we both instantly liked him. He looked at my chart and said all my blood tests and other tests came back normal. Though he did say I am on the lower side of being close to anemic and should try to eat more iron rich foods. Then he explained to us the first results of the down syndrome test and what the subsequent tests will look like. He was very knowledgeable, nice and funny. I could tell Brad liked him right away. He then used a heart monitor device to hear the baby's heart beat. Our baby's heart beat was strong, and every time I laughed it went up a little, and then it would go down again. Quite fascinating. I asked him if we were going to do an ultra sound today and he said no. We thought we might be able to find out the sex that day but that was a negative. A little disappointed we asked him when we can find out. He said probably at my next doctor's visit though it could probably turn out to be at my sequential screen ultra sound next month. We were laughing at the wives tales about stronger heart beats meaning it's a boy and lower heart beats saying it's a girl. He said he's heard so many different versions of the heart beat tales he doesn't know what to believe anymore.

Later, we asked him about our dog Lucky and the worries we have regarding his behavior once the baby arrives. My friend Justine just had a baby and she has a dog as well and she was telling me she doesn't let her dog sleep on the bed anymore because her baby sleeps with her most of the time. She doesn't have a bassinet so her options are the crib or her bed. She said the bacteria the dog brings inside from the outside could be harmful to the baby. So her dog has been quite jealous and has been acting out by peeing and pooping in her house apartment. This made me worried as Lucky has been sleeping on my bed since the day I got him and he is almost 10 years old. Dr. Horst has children and dogs (he's had dogs his entire life). He was honest by telling us that it won't be easy because we already have a "child", and are now introducing another child into our lives. He wasn't so worried about the bacteria of the dog getting to the baby because bacteria's don't cause viruses and dogs can't get humans sick. He was more worried about Lucky being a small older dog, and possibly unexpectedly biting a newborn. We admitted that is our worry as well so we just have to be extra careful. In terms of Lucky sleeping on our bed he didn't seem to think it was such an issue as long as the baby sleeps in a bassinet. This made us feel better because otherwise I think Brad and Lucky would have to sleep in the guest bedroom for a while ;)

After our visit we both agreed that we liked Dr. Horst very much. Brad even felt more comfortable with him than with Dr. Chi. I liked both but I certainly wouldn't mind having more meetings with Dr. Horst. I guess it's a good thing for us to meet some other doctors so we can decide who we like the most and request them as our primary doctor.

So many things to think about and prepare for. I need to start reading baby books to become more familiar with motherhood and what to expect. There's a lot to do...it sure isn't getting boring in the Colmer house :)