ADVENTURES AT THE OB/GYN

I had a doctor's appointment last Friday and things went, well, weird. This was my 12 week check up. My doctor does an ultrasound at 9 weeks, so we already felt safe since we had seen the heartbeat and knew that everything looked good. So, Friday we were going to listen to the heartbeat for the first time. At first, my husband wasn't going to come to the appointment (I guess by the third baby, these things get redundant) but at the last minute he decided to come with me and I ended up being very grateful that he did. Basically, the nurse could not find the heartbeat. I was having a mild panic attack after 3 or 4 minutes of not hearing anything. The nurse actually said to me, "I wouldn't worry about this. . . too much." Um, lady, that's not very reassuring. So, they decide they need to do an ultrasound. They make us go into the ultrasound room to wait for the doctor. For 20 minutes. I am pretty much hyperventilating by this point. All I could think about was what on earth were we going to tell our 4 year old? We have had to explain to her about a miscarriage before and she was devastated for weeks. I just couldn't do that to her again. Well, long story short, the doctor did the ultrasound and found the heartbeat and everything was fine. I guess because of the position of the uterus and the baby, it was too hard to find just by listening. Seeing that little heartbeat flickering away was the greatest thing I have ever seen and I breathed the biggest sigh of relief. I just wanted to keep watching it over and over to make sure it was real. And, I'm going to be a nervous wreck again for next appointment.

Well, here is the second thing you never want to hear. As soon as the image of the baby popped up on the screen, the doctor blurts out, "Wow! That kid's got a huge head!" I mean, seriously, this baby is the size of a lime and already the head is huge. Let's not forget that in 6 short months this head is only going to get bigger and I have to push it out of some very delicate places. The doctor then did a close up of the crown of the head and says, "Yep, there's that head again." Like, in all his 30+ years of delivering babies, he has never quite seen anything like this before. I now feel like my baby is going to be some kind of circus freak. I know my babies have big heads; they have both been off the growth charts. But at 12 weeks gestation, this is just not something I want to know about or look forward to.

My husband and I have been searching for a nickname for this baby and I think I just found it. I think we should call it "Biggie Smalls. " You know, for big head, small body. What do you think? Do you have any better suggestions?