My Appointment on 10/21/2010

So I saw my doctor again yesterday. I was planning to discuss the whole due date thing, but right before my appointment, I grabbed my old phone that I had taken a picture of my postive pregnancy test with, and noticed the time stamp as August 11th, not the 5th or the 6th like I thought. So, it's possible her estimation is correct, but I still stand by what I saw with baby's limbs and whatnot. I'm not going to worry about it anymore (see further down why) and didn't bring it up at my appointment. I will however still go by my initial due date estimation for my personal records; I see nothing wrong with doing that, teehee.

Anyway, I was weighed (of course) and I now weigh 113.1 pounds.. I was 111.4 at my last appointment so I've gained two pounds. The weight gain has to be from my expanding uterus, as well as my breasts.. I don't know what it is about this pregnancy, but my breasts have doubled in size since getting pregnant; if not more! This never happened when I was pregnant with Zoe or Ruthie; I didn't experience growth until my last trimester. I'm scared to know how big they're going to be by the time the baby's born! My blood pressure was 121/58. I ride low with my blood pressure; this is quite normal, although that is much different than what it was at my last appointment, 90/64. I think the difference was due to yesterday being a bit stressful, and I was engaging in a serious conversation with a friend of mine right before my appointment. That, and I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and she did my pressure over it, so it's possible that affected my reading somewhat.

Dr. J came in and we checked the baby's heartbeat with the doppler.. it took her a few seconds to find the heartbeat, but we were able to hear it.. a little woosh-woosh. She said the heart rate was perfect, and then she of course asked how I've been feeling. I'm less fatigued, but I still have a noticable level of fatigue which I think is normal, considering I've got 2 kids already.. who wouldn't be tired running around after them and doing stuff for them all day? I told her that I'm not as down and sad as I was in my first trimester so that of course is good.

However, I did mention that I've been experiencing joint pain while laying in bed at night, and it was causing difficulty with me falling asleep; which is true but it doesn't happen every single night. I told her that I've been having pain in my shoulders hips and knees, and some of the time the pain isn't on the side that I'm laying on, but it's the opposite side.. which I find to be really odd. She asked if it's a problem that started with this pregnancy, and I told her no; I've been experiencing joint pain off and on for sometime now.. the worst situations are when I wake up with stiff hips and then I try walking, I will sometimes fall over because of my hip giving out from under me.. this actually has happened a few times; usually when I'm trying to walk downstairs or even right when I get out of bed; thankfully it hasn't happened in the last few months that I can recall, although I have had some weird episodes involving my knees recently. So, now she wants me to see a Rhuematologist, to rule out the potential of having Rhuematoid Arthritis. Keep in mind, while in the sense that it's the same as 'normal' arthritis in the sense it affects your joints, RA is a systemic autoimmune disease.. it will eventually affect the whole body, and it can trigger at any time; it's not exclusively something that is onset by age. I knew it ran on my dad's side of the family and I told my doctor this; however, after talking with my dad, I found out that it's primarily through his mother's side of the family; and my dad actually has it. I had to call Dr J's office this morning to let them know the local Rhumetologists will not see a patient or even allow appointments to be set without a referral and so I told the receptionists to leave a note that I spoke with my dad and that he has it, and so Dr J can put it in my file.

Of course, it's entirely possible that it's not RA, but it could be my thyroid instead; the symptoms tend to mimic each other, so it's just a matter of eliminating one over the other; although they can occur at the same time. I know from talking with both of my parents it runs on both sides of the family; I have one aunt from my mom's side of the family with hypothyroidism and a few aunts from my dad's side of the family; and it's possible that my sister has it; she's planning on going to an Endocrinologist sometime in the next month to see why despite a healthy diet and regular healthy exercise she's not losing weight like she should. However, due to the pregnancy hormones and their affect on the thyroid hormones, I was told at my last appointment that I have to wait until my second trimester. I reminded her again of it, and because I'm having my quad screening test done next month (blood draw), she's going to go ahead and order that the thyroid testing gets done with the same batch of blood. While some joint pain is normal during pregnancy, I don't think it should be occurring this early; nor should I be falling over from joint pain when I'm not pregnant.

Other than that, everything has been doing better! I've started experiencing round ligament pain -joy- and I've been feeling more energetic, but still not quite where I was before.. not that I had a ton of energy to begin with.

And yes, I'm finally starting to show! I'll have to have Jeff take some pics this weekend.