First OB Visit

We had our first OB visit (in our own city!) today.  It went fine, but wasn't anything ground-breaking exciting.  I like the personality of our OB, but today he seemed especially distracted and not fully focused on us.  He did congratulate us, but hadn't looked at our file, so didn't even know we were having twins.  I also caught him looking at his watch, but we did not take nearly the 30 minutes we were allotted.  I guess I was a bit disappointed, but it's not like I have much choice in this small town.

Basically, he just wanted to gather information from us.  How we got pregnant, when my last cycle started, when the IUI was.  He gave us our estimated due date (EDD) - Nov. 22nd - but briefly touched on how twins reach full term earlier.  He did give me some helpful information about when I will likely want to stop working.  It is even earlier than I expected...  probably at the beginning of September!  That kind of messes up my work situation, but oh well!  I'll try to keep myself busy this summer and see how things go. 

He didn't check the babies' heartbeats, which was disappointing.  He said that this early he wouldn't be sure he could hear them and didn't want to scare us if he couldn't.  I know others have heard heartbeats this early, but maybe the technology they use isn't as advanced?  Oh well!  Since we've heard them once I am pretty happy.  When I'm back from my trip we will have another appointment and hopefully hear them then.  If not, he will send us for an u/s.  Otherwise, my next u/s will be my 18-19 week detailed scan.  Wow!  I'm actually pretty happy as I was doing reading on ultrasounds this week and became a bit wary of them.  I don't want to subject my babies to more than I need to.  We also decided not to do the NT testing so my next appointment is right around 13 weeks. 

I also asked about my trip to Australia, and he had some helpful tips.  The biggest concern for a flight of that length is leg clots, so he told me to take low dose aspirin, wear support stockings, and try to walk around every 2 hours or so.  He also said I could increase my exercise a bit and do some yoga or swimming now.  He said that I should take advantage of being active while I can, because the later stages of twin pregnancies get very uncomfortable.  He talked a bit about the risks of twin pregnancies, specifically pre-term labour, but assured me that I will be well monitored once I reach that stage.  Unfortunately, this OB will be on holidays during the time I will be giving birth, so I will have a replacement doctor.  I asked about sharing care with the midwives in town (because they had assured me that he would be open to this), but he really tried to talk me out of it.  Sigh.  I do have an initial consult with them tomorrow so I will see how it goes.  I like the idea of using them in addition to the OB because they provide after-birth care and even come to your home a number of times to make sure that you are settling in nicely. 

And that was about it.  I didn't really find out much that I didn't know beforehand, but it's a start.  Afterwards DH said that we should go out to celebrate.  I asked him what we were celebrating, and he replied that at least this was a much better experience than last time we were in that office (which was when I was miscarrying my last pregnancy).  I definitely agreed so we went out for brunch (where I ate WAY too much food) and spent the morning together.  I can't really believe this is all happening.  I just keep going a day at a time, and I'm still pregnant!