First Appointment

Two and a half weeks after I found out the glorious news, Mark and I made our way to the DGMC with a huge packet of paperwork.  The packet must have consisted of around fifty pages, all asking for information on Mark and I, our health history, my pregnancy history, our family history.  Mark's favorite part was a questionnaire that asked some of the weirdest questions I had ever been asked before.  His personal favorite, "Do you ever feel that it is right to hit a woman?"  You don't even want to know his smart aleck response.

We anxiously sat in the waiting room unsure of what was to come.  I had been hoping that our first appointment would involve the doctor since I desperately wanted reassurances that I was still pregnant.  I had experienced a few random days of slight spotting, which supposedly is normal.  However, after having three miscarriages which all began with spotting, I was on pins and needles.  Everyone says to not stress out, but having never had a pregnancy precede past the first trimester and only having experienced loss, those words were loss on me.  I was nothing but a ball of nerves.

Unfortunately, our appointment didn't include the doctor, but a wonderful nurse who went through all of our paperwork and made sure we both understood the do's and don't's of pregnancy.  She gave me a folder full of handouts on what medicines to take, which parenting classes to go to, which seafood to avoid, etc.  She also gave a nifty little purple book full of pregnancy information.

It was all stuff I had heard before, but this was the first time Mark had heard any of it.  I think he was a bit overwhelmed.  When we left the office an hour later, I think we both felt as though this pregnancy is actually happening.