So, after our second appointment, we had to wait five weeks. Five. Weeks.
For someone who wishes she could just have an ultrasound machine in her house, that seemed like a really, really long time.
Alas, we waited.
Thankfully, our life stays pretty insanely busy. Time did go by pretty fast.
Last Thursday, the day of our appointment had finally arrived. I woke up and wondered what had possessed me to ask for an afternoon appointment five weeks earlier. Now that the day was here, that seemed like a stupid idea. Oh well.
We went to work, and I found plenty to do to occupy my time. I was also exceptionally sick that day. I had been having a few good days where I hadn't thrown up at all. Something about Thursday made all food I ingested come right back up. Nerves, perhaps.
I went home at 12:30 to take Penny out and spend an hour with her before I met Aaron at the doctor's office.
I read scripture and journaled while I waited. That was better than sitting there feeling anxious for an hour. The last thing I wrote in my journal before I got up to leave was "I trust You no matter what."
The drive to our doctor's office is only ten minutes. Aaron was on his way but not there yet when I got there, so I went ahead inside.
He arrived shortly before the triage nurse called me back.
She went about her business with her testing and questions and things. My arm was being squeezed to death by the blood pressure cuff when she posed the fun question of: "Did they tell you that you would need a finger prick today?"
While this was a surprise, it was merely an annoyance. It was over quickly, and my iron level passed. Yay. No finger prick next time.
While she was bandaging my sore finger, I wanted to make sure of something, "We will get to hear the baby's heartbeat today, right?"
"Oh yes! You will hear the heartbeat at every appointment now," she said, smiling at my obvious first-timer-ness.
She then informed me that it was in-house surgery day at their office, and the wait was probably going to be longer than usual. She apologized. I accepted, keeping my heart happy despite this news and went back to sit with Aaron in the waiting room.
Of course it was a longer wait today.
I practiced patience the best I could, and we played Where's My Water? on Aaron's iPhone while we waited another thirty minutes.
When I finally heard my name, my heart did a little jump. Here we go. It was time to hear Baby Bauer's heartbeat...
We waited again in the exam room for the doctor to come in. Not too long this time, thankfully. It was a doctor we hadn't seen yet, and in she came with her quiet, ?Russian? (not sure on that, but something over on that side of the world) accent.
We listened very closely to make out what she was saying as she asked how I was feeling and if we had any questions. If I did have any questions, I forgot them all in lieu of the impending heartbeat hearing.
I laid down, and she got her little heartbeat machine thing ready. *insert accent in your head* "Now, it is still early to hear the heartbeat, so do not panic if it takes me a few minutes to find it."
"Okay." At least she is laying out the expectations. I like her, I thought.
She began searching for the heartbeat. There was a lot of crackling and clicking and whooshing. I stared at the ceiling and listened closely. Every time I thought maybe I heard a beat-beat-beat, she would move it. So that was apparently not it. After what felt like five minutes, but could have been shorter, she stopped. *insert accent* "We will go into the ultrasound room so we can see where the heartbeat is. Then we will hear it easily. Do not worry." She smiled.
"Okay. Thank you," I was doing my best not to worry.
"Let me make sure there is a room open. Wait here."
So, per the theme of the appointment, we waited. Forever. But really only another five minutes.
Aaron and I talked and reassured each other that we both thought we perhaps heard a heartbeat-sounding sound. Before too many worried thoughts could creep into my mind, I heard, "Do you trust Me no matter what?"
Wow. Yes. I do.
And I knew everything would be okay.
We were finally escorted to the room with the ultrasound machine and technician. I'm pretty sure we interrupted her busy day, because she didn't say much.
She held the little wand to my stomach and turned on the sound.
Right away, we heard the amazing, miraculous, LOUD, fast heartbeat of our little baby! It was only for a few seconds, but I can still remember it. She told us that it's little heart was beating 165 beats per minute. And she turned the monitor so we could see and pointed out the head and the body quickly. Then she turned everything off. My head screamed Wait! I wasn't done listening to that!
I thanked her for what seemed like an inconvenience to her, but I didn't really care what she thought. I was praising God because He proved yet again that I can trust Him no matter what. He is keeping our baby safe and healthy!
We went back to our original exam room so the doctor could come back one last time to wrap up our appointment. While we waited, I told Aaron that God teaches me to trust Him more every time we have one of these appointments. He smiled.
When the very nice foreign accent doctor came back, she said the baby's heartbeat was good and strong. She sent us off to make two appointments and for me to have blood drawn to test my thyroid level. Even more needles couldn't get me down that day.
We scheduled our next appointment for four weeks away. And we also got to schedule our anatomy ultrasound! It is right in between our birthdays. October is going to be better than it usually is!
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