Dr. Appointment Update

I saw Dr. Hallman for my 28 week appointment last night and everything looks good. Although the baby was moving a lot while he was trying to listen to the heartbeat, he said the heartbeat sounded “wonderful”. It’s not often your doctor uses the word “wonderful” at an appointment. The baby was doing all sorts of tumbling while he was trying to listen so he kept having to move the scope thing around to follow the heartbeat. It was a bit entertaining. My belly measurement was good and my weight is also good. I’m up 14 lbs from my lowest weight during the pregnancy and I asked him what he thought of that. He has no concerns about the weight either way and said it was clear that I was eating healthy and felt good.

I did ask about a bit of lower back pain that I thought could have been in my kidney area and he suggested that it was likely joint pain caused by the extra stress of the off-balanced baby weight. He said that tall people in particular tend to lean backward more when pregnant, which puts extra pressure on those joints. He offered physical therapy and suggested I wear flat, comfortable shoes rather than heels each day and also avoid prolonged standing. I told him I would let him know if I thought I needed the physical therapy, but that the discomfort had only lasted about a week and had since subsided.

We talked about what I should be watchful for now, which was basically just any signs of preterm labor although he assured me that I am not at high risk for pre-term labor and everything looks good at this point. We went over what to do if or when I do start having contractions and how to get them to slow down and when to call the doctor if they don’t slow down or subside.

We start our childbirth classes in mid-September and have our next appointment with Dr. Hallman around the same time (in three weeks). That might be our last appt with Dr. Hallman as Rita will likely be back at work in October.

Oh – I was supposed to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes, but someone missed one minor detail when I was scheduling the appointment… My appt was at 7:20 and the clinic closes at 8:00 and the test takes an hour. So they said that I would have to reschedule the test for another time and that the latest my appt could be scheduled for is 6:45 to allow time for the test. I’m not sure why they didn’t realize this when I made the appt for last night… anyway, I’m going in Friday morning to have the glucose test.

All is well! Keep praying that things continue to go so well!