At 16 weeks we arrived at the doctors office in the late afternoon and I went to the front desk to check in. The lady at the desk informed me that my doctor was actually not there that day and that they had attempted to contact me to reschedule, but obviously that hadn't worked. They said they could stick me in to see the midwife, and since I was only 16 weeks and had no concerns I was totally fine with this. We waited a while in the waiting room and another 40 minutes in an exam room. Finally the midwife came in and was friendly and kind and asked us lots of questions about us and our lives. After some small talk and making sure things were in order on my chart I got onto the exam table so we could hear the heartbeat. The midwife put the jelly all over my belly and moved the fetal doppler all around and couldn't pick up the heartbeat. I wasn't too concerned, I think the doppler was running out of battery or something, and she said it could be because of where my placenta was that she couldn't find the heartbeat easily. She went out to ask someone if the ultrasound tech was still around and came back in to give the doppler another go. After digging in a bit for a few minutes, she still couldn't get the heartbeat. The ultrasound tech had also already left for the day since it was nearing evening by this point. Still the midwife didn't want me to worry so we went down to the ultrasound machine and found the heartbeat and got a few pictures. We were there for about an hour and a half, but left feeling like all was well, which was good.
Flash forward to 20 weeks when we got a morning appointment. We walked into a peaceful and quiet waiting room. They checked us in quickly, came and got me, updated my charts and my doctor came in. He asked if I had any questions and while we were discussing some pressure I have felt in my ears recently he put a dab of jelly on my belly and put the doppler on top where the heartbeat immediately came through strong and clear. It sounded great and since I didn't have any other questions we were free to go. As we left the office Daniel and I were both laughing about how easily the doctor found the heartbeat this time, he wasn't even really paying attention since we were discussing something else, but the second the doppler hit my belly a strong heartbeat came through. I mean this could have been because the baby is bigger and stronger now, but it was just so different we couldn't help but have a good laugh about it.
Obviously we are making morning appointments from here on out. The office seemed to be so much more peaceful in the morning hours, and the wait time was thankfully so much shorter.
Next week we get our real ultrasound with an actual technician and I can't wait to see this baby and find out if it is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited!
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