12 weeks 4 days today and yesterday, we finally got to go to the doctor! Unlike the last one, this one was super simple and quick. No ultrasound - we won't get our next chance to see the baby until 20 weeks - but we did get to use the handheld doppler on my belly to find the heartbeat! I was a nervous wreck laying there waiting as the doctor moved the probe around to find the baby. I think it only took maybe 30 seconds to find the heartbeat, but it felt like an hour to me - I was so afraid we wouldn't hear it! But baby's heart was still beating away and I'll never get sick of that sound. They like the heart rate to be between 140-180. Ours has consistently been on the higher end. It was 163 at 7 weeks, 171 at 8 weeks, and yesterday it was 172! Old wives tales claim that a higher heartbeat = a girl, but we will see :)
Other than that, they took my weight (128... ugh it's so hard for me to see that number go up) and my blood pressure. Your blood pressure is naturally supposed to be higher during pregnancy because your blood is going to the baby and your uterus. Before pregnancy, I routinely had low blood pressure, and now, while it is significantly higher, the doctor said it's still on the lower end - which is great! Less chance of complications as the baby grows! Oh and I was pretty excited to have a doctor's appointment where I didn't have to take off my pants - it's been awhile since that's happened!
I'm SUPER happy to be feeling better lately. My nausea is almost completely gone - I've made it a few full days without feeling it at all, but it still pops up occasionally at night. I find myself trying to eat sometimes when I'm not even hungry just because I'm so afraid of letting my stomach be empty and feeling sick. I need to try and get better at that. As the nausea has left, I've developed some fun new symptoms - yay. Dizziness, which is a result of the higher blood pressure - I rarely can make it through showering without having to sit down at some point. Headaches - again cause of the blood pressure and probably because I need to drink more water. And round ligament pain - apparently you have ligaments that support your uterus during pregnancy and as the uterus moves and stretches, the ligaments stretch and hit nerves. I mostly feel it at night and it wakes me up - mostly when I move in my sleep. It is reallyyyy hard to get comfortable at night and the sad part is, I know it's going to get way worse than it is now. But, I gladly take all of these over nausea any day!
We got to schedule 2 appointments when we left the OB! Our next appointment is at 16 weeks where we will do the same thing we did this time - quick appointment to check the baby's heartbeat and my vitals. ANDDDD the exciting one is at 20 weeks where we will do an anatomy scan and find out the GENDER! YAY! So the countdown is on till July 25! I don't think we are going to do a big gender reveal party, but we may just get our parents/siblings together and do something small to catch our reactions on video! Can't wait!!!!