Whoa, baby!

Today Bret and I went to our last monthly checkup. Now that I'm beginning my third trimester (trust me, no one finds this harder to believe than me) we'll be going to Mobile Infirmary every two weeks for our checkups.

Not sure if the hospital had their second string staff filling in today, but the usual nurses weren't on duty. Not even the jovial receptionist (who reminds me a bit of Weezie Jefferson) was there to greet us as we signed in.

Here's a lesson in what NOT to do after you call a patient back to get blood work---phone another lab tech while the patient waits in the adjacent room with the door open and ask for help saying and I quote, "I've got a Mrs. Webb here, and I'm not sure what to do. The girl that's usually here had to leave and I haven't done this before."

Excuse me? You what?

They did send another lab tech down to perform the test. Although I apparently "blew her streak" of successful blood withdrawls for the day as she exploded a vein in one arm before moving on to the other. Not sure if "exploding vein" is in the Harvard medical dictionary but it was exactly how she described the predicament.

Things began looking up as Bret and I only had to wait an hour for Dr. Helen... JACKPOT!

In the past we've waited up to three hours to see her. Now I know that I am not the most patient person in the world, but if there's anyone that I don't mind waiting on it's Dr. Helen. We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful doctor with impeccable bedside manner. She's even a Gator and did her residency at Shands in Gainesville. It couldn't be more perfect. Gillian will be brought into this world by a fellow Gator and with any luck she'll be doing the Gator chomp before she's cleaned up and swaddled.

I was measured today and Gillian is looking like a healthy but BIG baby. According to the calendar I am 27 weeks. Dr. Helen's measurements have me at 30 weeks! Whoa, baby!

To be honest none of us were surprised at Gillian's growth---especially since her Daddy was almost 11 lbs. at birth. Her mama was no slouch either, weighing in at almost 9 lbs. Dr. Helen did bring up a Cesarean but told us that we'd have a better idea what we're looking at our next appointment at which we'll have another ultrasound performed.

We heard the best sound in the world---Gillian's heartbeat. Her ticker ranged between 135 and 147 bpm.

Dr. Helen gave us the thumbs up and told us everything continued to look great!

---A side note----As mentioned earlier in this post, I had the glucose screening done April 13 to test for gestational diabetes. Needing a reading less than 135 to pass, my glucose results read 81. Go me!