January appointments

coco2787

Tell us about your upcoming appointments or give us appointment updates here 😊

If you have an ultrasound photo please put it in the pinned u/s thread! 

coco2787

I’ll start I guess! I have my first prenatal intake appointment today, it’s normally done at 8 weeks but I couldn’t get in last week so I’m 9+1 today. They also called me this morning to ask if I could go to a different clinic further away because my doctor got called to fill in there, so that’s kind of annoying. I’m a little nervous because I’m anxious about all appointments but I did find baby on my Doppler last night so that helps ease my mind a lot. 

brittanynmorris

@coco2787 That is annoying! I had something similar for my appointment yesterday. They called to push it up 30 minutes, but then I just ended up waiting 30 minutes to have my appointment at the exact same time I scheduled it for. I can also relate to being anxious for ALL appointments. I hope everything goes well today for you a little babe! 

and_peggy

Have an appointment this morning. I’m feeling very anxious with all the random bleeding I’ve had (even though I’ve been in since the bleeds and it was fine). I’m 11+2 today so I'll be curious to see how much baby has changed since the last scan.

coco2787

I hope babe is still doing well in there @and_peggy!

ugh that’s super annoying @brittanynmorris 🤦🏻‍♀️

tmartin014

I’ve been thinking about you @and_peggy, I can’t wait to hear how your appointment goes

starkette

I have an appointment next Tuesday the 25th. I'll be 12 weeks. Yay! Buuuut they want to do a pap smear and I don't wanna! Stresses me out SO much. At least after the appointment I can schedule the gender scan for 16 weeks!

@and_peggy saw your update in the u/s thread!!! Yay for wiggly baby.

anniemarie887

it is wild having a due date toward the end of the month (24th) - my first appointment is this thurs, 1/20. 

brittanynmorris

@anniemarie887 I can relate! They switched mine to 8/30 and my first appointment was yesteday! I know some people have had multiple appointments already! I'll be thinking of you for your first appointment. 

maggiemadeit

@anniemarie887 I can relate too, I'm 8/23 and my first appointment isn't until next week, 1/25. They don't see pregnancies until 10+ weeks at my new OB. Good luck on Thursday! 

@starkette I need to have a pap done at my intake and I'm not looking forward to it. I thought they wouldn't do one while I was pregnant, but I was wrong

anniemarie887

Those of you talking about PAPs, do your OBs follow the ACOG guidelines that they only need done every 3 years? I’m assuming if you’ve had abnormal results you may need it more often, but if routine no need for annual any longer. 

brittanynmorris

@anniemarie887 I had to do one at my intake (although I just did one this summer) to test for gonorrhea, chlamydia, plus other STDs. Could be my office, but they said that was common practice! 

laddy12

@starkette I was nervous about my pap at my 8 week appointment because I bled after my pap when pregnant with my daughter but I didn’t spot / bleed at all after this one. 

itsme215

I had to do a pap at my first appointment (6w4d) because I hadn’t had one in 3 years. 

The funniest part was that my husband was there with me and he’d never been present for that particular “event” before. We were talking about all the things she did afterwards and when I told him about how a Pap smear actually works his eyes got SO big, he had no idea. Maybe we shoulda kept it that way 😂 I’ll remind him about it when he complains about his first prostate exam in a few years. 

wine_mama_03

@itsme215 my husband had a similar reaction during mine. He thought it was so odd that my doctor just continued to talk to me in casual conversation as if she wasn't being invasive or anything. I told him that's how it goes every time. They talk to you to distract you. I'm pretty sure I once had a doctor talk to me about centripetal motion once during an exam years ago when they found out I was a physics major. 😂

anniemarie887

@brittanynmorris def common practice here for STI testing, now i'm just having a dumb moment where i'm like oh yea i mean duh, how else would they get those results. altho some are done via blood.

@itsme215 @ethancaitlyn10172020 i will never forget my husband's face when when my OBGYN stripped my membranes when i was past my due date... LOL. he was SHOCKED. he did handle a labor perfectly fine, i just don't think he expected a her to do that just like in the room so casually. 

darkrose88

@anniemarie887 I actually got a pap done during an appointment this past October (before we started TTC). I was technically supposed to get one at my last appointment (for drug screening purposes), but I'd been having off and on spotting for two weeks, and the NP confirmed at the appointment my cervix was very sensitive (hence the bleeding) so decided to use my urine sample instead so I wouldn't have more bleeding.

Also - story time - when my membranes were stripped, it ended up partially rupturing my water prematurely. I didn't realize it but there was so much blood/fluid and it never stopped. I ended up going to the hospital and it was determined by the staff who tested me to see if it was water from my uterus. The OB who did it was shocked after I told her as it rarely happens. Needless to say, I will not be getting my membranes stripped this time around.

Also your husband was a trooper for being able to sit through that if it was nearly as messy as my experience was. 

Edit: to update as I accidently posted early.

darkrose88

I'm one of those people who have had several appointments already. I'm going in for my third appointment on 1/26. I'm still a little confused why they wanted me back so soon, as I just had one last week (1/10). But the NP I've been seeing wanted me back in 2.5 weeks. The paperwork said up until 28 weeks they only needed to see me every 4 weeks.  

itsme215

My next appointment is on 1/31. It will be my first appointment with the MFM at 12w1d. Then I have my 3rd appointment with my OB on 2/4. 

anniemarie887

@darkrose88 YIKES! my membrane strip did not put me into labor 😭 it thankfully wasn’t messy, but I also didn’t think it hurt! I wound up going 5 more days, a full week past my due date. I fully believe acupuncture put me into active labor.  

bridgiebee82

My husband was shocked avout me having a pap smear while he was in the room. He even shut the curtain at one point! Lmao

Ummmm... I'm going to go over to the question thread because I've never heard of getting your membranes stripped. 😱

ETA: I have an appointment on 1/26 and it'll be my 3rd. My husband and I both have to get bloodwork done, and then I'll have another exam. 

and_peggy

@bridgiebee82 you might want to stay off Google if you’re worried about stripping membranes; there’s so many nasty sounding terms during pregnancy. It gets really fun 😆

FWIW, it’s basically they try to manually loosen your amniotic sac from the uterus. Usually just a finger in the cervix, which happens a lot during the third trimester. 😆😆 Not every OB will do it and there are lots of factors whether they will or won’t. The goal is to naturally induce labor.

bridgiebee82

@and_peggy thank you. It sounds painful. 🥺 

and_peggy

@bridgiebee82 I’ve heard that it can be uncomfortable but I’ve never had it done. A lot of times they’ll do it if you’re not dilated at 39 weeks or more. I’m always like 4cm by 36 weeks so not a good candidate.

tmartin014

My NIPT appt was supposed to be tomorrow morning, but they called me this afternoon to reschedule 😩 So I will go for it next Tuesday, and then my 12 week OB appt on 2/2

darkrose88

@and_peggy @bridgiebee82 I was 40 weeks exactly, only 1cm dilatated, 50% effaced (so my body was not ready to give birth quite yet) when my OB stripped my membranes. I was expecting it to be painful, but actually it was not for me. However, @anniemarie887 's experience was more like what I was expecting. It should not prematurely partially erupt your water, like it did for me; just naturally get you moving along. My experience was definitely unique.  

anniemarie887

Def could prob move this to the big giant thread, but alas here we are. At some point the topic of cervical checks will come up, it’s a controversial one! I am for them, not everyone is! Starting at 36w I was 1cm and starting to efface. By 39w I was 2cm, 80% effaced, and baby was as far down in my pelvis as she could get without being in active labor. I hung out like that for 2 more weeks. 🙄🙃 Per my OBGYN you have to be at least 1-2cm dilated bc quite frankly they’ve got to shove a finger up your cervix and if it ain’t open they ain’t getting through. I didn’t mind the membrane strip, it’s not a procedure that needs monitored or anything so I would do it again even though it didn’t work for me. 

coco2787

My appointment went fine today. My blood pressure was pretty normal but my pulse was 129 and the nurse was like, “soo is your heart rate typically kinda high?” “Well, no that’s about double the usual I guess I’m a little nervous.” The doc used the V-scan to check on babe (it’s an ultrasound machine the size of a smart phone) and had a hard time getting a good image so was moving the probe around without speaking for what felt like ages even though it was probably like a minute and I was starting to panic wondering why she wasn’t saying anything but finally showed me the heartbeat. Couldn’t really see an image of baby but at least I know all is still ok in there.  

wisewitch222

@anniemarie887 I did not have to get a Pap at my intake because I had one in 2020. He offered and I passed. They checked for all the STIs with the blood work. 

@bridgiebee82 Membrane stripping is also controversial because there's no evidence that it actually works - just anecdotal stories of people who went into labor but there's no way to tell that the membrane stripping actually caused it. And it's PAINFUL. My doctor doesn't do it, and he thought no one else at the practice did it. Imagine my surprise when at my 40-week appointment, with my induction already scheduled for the following week, a different doctor went in and stripped my membranes WITHOUT ASKING ME. I cramped the entire rest of the day and still needed to be induced. I will not be having my membranes stripped this time (and wouldn't have last time either). It wasn't even a possibility at U of M where I had my first baby. Still mad 😡😡😡

bridgiebee82

@wisewitch222 I'd have been LIVID! I'm so sorry that happened to you. Some doctors just do what they think us best, without even asking the patients. It's nuts! 

starkette

@anniemarie887 my last pap was 2018 so yea...I'm due. BUT they just did a full blood panel on me including STD screening (unnecessary IMO, I've only been with my husband for the past 12 years but ok) so maybe I can convince them to skip it until AFTER I give birth. 

all this talk about membrane stripping and I'm suddenly grateful I had both babies early...

wisewitch222

@bridgiebee82 I was livid! I'd never been so violated in my whole life. I told my regular doctor what happened and he said he would talk to her. She still works at the practice, but I will refuse to see her. At the hospital they always have two doctors on site for deliveries so if she is one of them I will tell the nurse what she did and make it be the other one. 

anniemarie887

@starkette yea the STD screening also felt unnecessary, married for 9 years been with MH for 16 years. But alas, I always giggled seeing the results and yelling “BABE, GREAT NEWS! I don’t have the clap!”
@wisewitch222 totally not ok and absolutely something that should have informed consent!

darkrose88

@wisewitch222 I'm so sorry they did that to you without your consent. They had my consent and it didn't turn out great for me so if they didn't do it with my permission I'd be freaking out. 

wisewitch222

@anniemarie887 @darkrose88 the worst part is I definitely would have declined the procedure if she had asked (or even announced). I knew it was painful and there was no evidence it worked and I had an induction scheduled. This was a whole level of unethical health care I was completely unprepared for. 

coco2787

@wisewitch222 you aren’t the first person I’ve heard say they had it done without their consent. Not only is that unethical and violating, it kinda fits the bill for straight up assault if you ask me. So not okay.  

maggiemadeit

@wisewitch222 I’m so sorry that happened to you. That is such a violation, and this kind of medical ‘treatment’ without consent in absolutely unacceptable. 

wisewitch222

Well now everyone on this BMB knows: if you don't want your membranes stripped, whenever they start cervical checks, now we all just have to say plainly, "Please don't strip my membranes while you're in there." 😡😡😡

onlygooddays08

So, I had an ultrasound this morning and they measured me at exactly 12 weeks. I thought the 12 week ultrasound was supposed to look at nuchal translucency, and didn't realize how that was done until after I left and got on Google. The tech didn't appear to take any measurements behind the baby's neck. Is that normal for a 12 week ultrasound? She did get a profile pic that I'm trying not to overanalyze since I'm not a medical professional. Anyway, they released the results through the patient portal right away and nothing about NT was mentioned. I'm seeing the OB on Friday. Just want to avoid additional tests and hope they didn't skip something.

and_peggy

@onlygooddays08 I’ve never had specific measurements until the anatomy scan around 20 weeks. I wouldn’t worry about it. And may stay off Google. 😜

onlygooddays08

@and_peggy Google is THE WORST for anxious, impatient people like me  😂