24 +5

This morning I had another one of many doctor appointments for the baby to be. We are 24 weeks and 5 days along! This was an atypical appointment in which I had to bring all three kids with me. Since T was starting Medical School we did not know what his schedule was going to be and by the time we did know, the times my doctor had open did not match with the times T had open. So… I got to take the kids with me!

To start off with J is still in her sling so everything seems to take a little longer; in addition to E still having a raging spirit. I walked out of our home at 9 am and by the time the kids were buckled, diaper bag settled, and van was in gear it was 9:15. We got to the clinic, walked in, checked in and it was 9:27. Good thing my appointment was at 9:35 instead of 9:25 like I thought it was. At every appointment a urine sample is necessary to check glucose and protein levels, off to the bathroom we were. Of course the two big kids had 101 questions about everything in the bathroom in addition to wondering why I needed to pee in a cup. Then they both needed to go potty. We made it out of the bathroom.

The waiting room was alright; we only had to wait 15 minutes or so. Considering the circumstances the kids could have been a lot worse. We read their Tag Reader, looked at a few books, and then it was our turn.

The nurses at our clinic are not always the most pleasant, they seem to lack in the manners department as well as the ‘that is not appropriate to say’ department. This nurse went into how she wished she could afford to be a stay at home mom, like myself, and that I was very lucky. She may feel that way but I just thought it was a little odd that you would tell someone that when your job is to be checking how the patient’s pregnancy is going.

We waited a little more for the doctor to come in. The kids did AMAZING; I think I was just a little over paranoid. I kept saying, “Sit down”, “Don’t touch that”, “That is not for kids” etc. Those exam rooms are full of things that kids want to learn about and get their little hands on. I just did not want to break anything.

Once the doctor came in it was smooth sailing. He mentioned that N was essentially a carbon copy of me and that the kids were well behaved. We went through all the routine things: no pains, urine looks good, weight gain was alright, baby is moving around, etc. Next it was time for him to check out my tummy. The kids were pretty interested in what he was going to do at this point. He measured my tummy (and it was perfect 25cm) then he used the Doppler tool to find the baby’s heartbeat. The kids just sat there with their eyes BIG. They were excited to hear their brother’s heartbeat!

Then we were off! We made it through this doctor appointment, but I think for my sanity I will do all that I can to schedule future appointments when T can stay home with the kids so I can go solo!