OB Appointment 35 Weeks, 2 Days

This was my first appointment after the COVID-19 scare. At my last appointment at 33 weeks (which I did not write about), both the nurse and midwife seemed sick of the idea of the virus. Just two weeks later, it was crazy how differently it was treated. In the two weeks between the appointments, I received several phone calls from my midwife's office to tell me about changes.
Call #1: I was told that I could only have one person accompany me and they had to be older than 18. The darling nurse who called to tell me said she would be sad not to see my daughter anymore.
Call #2: I was told that I could not have anyone accompany me to future appointments.
Call #3: I was told that the entire office was changing locations and I still had to come by myself.

Tuesday arrived and I was happy that the new office location was 10 minutes closer to my home. Shortly before I left, an AC repairman dropped by to check out our unit. The scent of cigarettes filled our home as he and his wife entered. I mentally made a note to remind my husband to open all the windows once they left.
This was my first drive up to the office completely by myself. I enjoyed the quiet solo 50 minutes in the car. The new location was very different than the old familiar, standalone office. I arrived at a three story medical pavilion with a rather empty parking lot. As I approached the building, there were large signs everywhere by the door. It was easy for me to find out I was not supposed to use the regular doors, but instead use the automatic rotating door. I got inside and was immediately stopped by two nurses. Behind them sat who I assume was security. (If I made a break for the elevators without talking to the nurses, would he have tackled me to the ground?) One of the nurses took my temperature while the other went through a list of around 20 question asking about my health and travel recently. (Good thing we canceled our trip to NYC last week.)
After I met with both nurses' approval, I was instructed to take the right elevator. The right elevator only went to the second floor (OB area) and the left elevator went to the third floor (people not at that pavilion for a well check).
I arrived on the second floor and found an empty waiting room with some familiar faces behind the check-in desk. We joked about the level of security to enter the building and I grabbed a paper about current hospital restrictions.

The previous day, I had read about these restrictions. My husband's response to everything was, "They'd better feed you well." The restrictions thankfully do not change much of what we had planned. I am bummed that once my husband leaves to go stay with our toddler, he cannot come back until I am discharged.
I was called back to meet with my midwife by the regular nurse. We chatted a bit and then she left for the midwife to come in for my regular appointment and for my group B strep test. My midwife seemed slightly frazzled with the new environment. Baby's heartbeat sounds great and I am measuring right on track. The midwife did say, while feeling my belly, that she might order an ultrasound next time. I was a little thrown by that comment that I forgot to ask why. The midwife did ask how large my daughter was when she was born and was happy when I told her 7lb 7oz. I did tell my midwife that at the beginning of the pregnancy, I was constantly measuring around 2 weeks ahead. The midwife responded that I was measuring just fine now.
Right before I left, the midwife mentioned that I looked like I was slightly opened when she did the test, but we both looked at each other and I said, "but that doesn't mean much." She nodded in agreement.
I am now officially on weekly appointments!

OB Appointment 29 Weeks, 5 Days

We had a pretty normal appointment with my midwife on Valentine's Day. We were running one minute late and as I rushed into the waiting room, I almost stopped in my tracks. There were no other patients in the room. This is a shock because the waiting room is not only for the two OBs and one midwife, but it also serves as a waiting room for a pediatrics clinic and family practices clinic. It was not surprising that I only sat down for one minute before we were called back.
We went back and chatted with the midwife. The appointment went well, but we had a slight disagreement about one point. We are planning a short trip to visit my father when I am 34 weeks pregnant. I called the clinic before we booked our flight to have them verify that they would be comfortable with a trip at 34 weeks. The nurse I talked to assured me that at 34 weeks, it would not be a big deal and I should just make sure I walk around once or twice while on the plane.
The midwife said she does not usually suggest traveling farther away than 3-4 hours once you reach 30 weeks. Maybe at some point, I will provide feedback that the nurses should talk to the providers about this subject.

The best part of the day came later with the biggest pregnancy moment I have had in my life. We stopped at a grocery store on the way home to do our shopping for the week. We sat in the car for a couple minutes to finish a conversation before getting out. As I opened my door and moved my body in the direction of the door to exit the vehicle, I found I could not move. I struggled for a few seconds, wondering if the hood to my coat was caught on  the chair somehow. Once I realized that my coat was not caught on anything, I panicked for a couple more seconds, worried that I was getting so pregnant that I could not move with ease anymore. After a total of around five seconds, I remembered that I had not unbuckled my seat belt yet. I laughed as I walked the span from the car to the store.

Three Hour Glucose Test

So, you failed your one hour glucose test? Yeah, me too. If I am blessed to be pregnant again, I will not change my glucose test unexpectedly and do it around noon.
My husband and I debated how I would the three hour glucose test several times. Because my clinic is an hour away, doing the test would take a minimum of five hours. He was really dubious about me taking our daughter. When I did the one hour glucose test, I felt very shaky and unwell. He was worried that I would have to entertain or deal with a toddler tantrum while I was in poor health myself. I struggled with the idea of finding someone to watch my daughter for five hours while I was gone. We discussed several options and I finally decided to head up with my daughter early this morning (28 weeks, 1 day). I got her really excited to hang out with me today and I prepped my purse as though I was going on a three hour plane ride with her. I had around a dozen activities for her to do and she was pretty stoked to go to the lab with her mom.
I woke up at 5:30 and gently roused my daughter at 6:15. She immediately jumped up and gave me a big hug and kiss which swiftly calmed my nerves. She was a gem in the car on the way there. She ate her breakfast and made small talk with me. I encouraged her to sleep, but she told me she was not sleepy.
We made it to the lab just before 7:30. Every time I was called back to have my blood drawn, my little girl stared intensely at everything that was going on. She looked intrigued at the glucose drink, but when the phlebotomist told her it was gross, she immediately lost interest. The drink, with double the sugar from last time, was so sweet it made my throat itch.
We hung out in the waiting room the entire time. I was told that I could leave this time if I wanted, but I knew we would not.
We watched the waiting room fill and empty several times. My toddler rotated through the activities and never once was unhappy or upset over anything. Several older patients tried to start a conversation with her, but she was quick to ignore them and inch closer to me.
After I drank the glucose, I felt normal the entire time we were there. I did not feel any negative effects of my blood sugar and did not feel hungry. I have been trying not to read too much into if it was a good thing or a bad thing that I had no negative side effects while we were in the lab.
When I was done, we had a quick lunch and I felt very shaky and light headed so we sat in the car for five minutes until I felt safe driving. As we drove home, I was extremely tired and was even more happy that my toddler was in an agreeable mood.
I am planning on calling my clinic tomorrow afternoon to see what the results of the test are. I am assuming and hoping that the test comes back negative for gestational diabetes. The first test was not completed in favorable circumstances so I hope it was just a fluke. We will see tomorrow!

Update: The following day, I was too anxious to wait until the afternoon to call. Instead, I made the call shortly after their office opened in the morning. The sweet nurse took quite a while to look up my information. After she tried entering in my birthday a couple times and had me spell my last name over and over, she finally typed in my social. "I've talked to you dozens of times! I know you are a patient. I am not sure why I cannot look up your info." She gave me the disclosure that a doctor had not looked at the results, but she said she saw no yellow or red numbers. She said it looked like I passed with flying colors. When the results were uploaded to my patient portal, I was quick to examine the results for myself. None of my numbers were even close to the upper standard range. I am kicking myself for scheduling the one hour test when I was not ready for it, but am very thankful that I was able to check and make sure that the baby and I are both healthy.

OB Appointment 27 Weeks 2 Days

The morning of January 28, I quickly called my OB office to see if they could change the date of my appointment from February 1 to that morning. After the receptionist helped me out, I woke my very sleepy husband to tell him we were going to head out to an appointment in just a couple hours. As we headed north, I wondered if changing our appointment was a slight mistake because I was also scheduled to do the glucose test. I was not ready for it at all! I thankfully only had eggs for breakfast, but the appointment with my midwife was scheduled for 11:30 which meant I would have to go until almost 1:00 until I ate.
The appointment with my midwife could not have been better! We asked her about the hospital and my birth plan. She explained how natural-birth friendly the hospital is. It sounds amazing. The hospital rarely asks if a woman would like an epidural. They are known to send home women whose labor has stalled rather than giving them pitocin. They have three labor tubs. They have a nursery. The midwife helped deliver all her grandbabies in that hospital. (I feel like if you want your grandchildren born in a specific hospital, it must be awesome.)
The midwife agreed with every point in our birth plan as well. We have one point on the birth plan that I will eat or drink during labor if I feel like it. She said the hospital is fine with broth, juices, and ice chips. She mentioned that most women in labor do not want to eat and many of them throw up if they do consume food. (Definitely happened to me. I took a bite of a delicious chocolate croissant at the beginning of a contraction. After throwing up, I thought about that chocolate croissant the entire time I was in the hospital after giving birth and was sad to learn my husband had eaten it while I was gone.)
We were incredibly happy with everything we heard. With the exception of how far away the hospital is, this seems like the ideal situation to be in for us.
Immediately after the appointment, I had the glucose test. I had not prepared in the least for this test. I was just hoping I would chug the drink, have the blood draw, and think nothing more for the rest of the week. Sadly, two days later (happy birthday to me), I received a call from a nurse saying I had failed the test and needed to come back in to do the three hour glucose test.

OB Appointment 24 Weeks 4 Days

We were anxiously awaiting this appointment because it was the first time we met the midwife. We felt just fine about the OB we had been seeing, but part of the reason are crazy enough to drive an hour to deliver our little girl is to have a midwife experience.
The appointment was early enough that we had to wake up our toddler early. She was very sad to be woken up and we barely got in the car on time.
The morning was frigid and the drive to the office was smooth sailing. We have been thankful that, so far, no matter what time of day I have had an appointment, we do not see much traffic. It gives me hope that when it comes time for me to deliver, we will not have any anxiety over congestion. Next year, the main highway we are taking to the hospital will be closed for some period of months as they renovate it into a freeway, so we are grateful that they (probably) will not start until after my daughter's birth.
We arrived at the office and were pulled back within five minutes. As soon as the midwife walked in, I knew that she was what we wanted. I loved her bedside manner, her sweet personality, and her confidence. All my worries left. We talked for several minutes and she made us feel like we had all the time in the world with her. She assured us that as long as my pregnancy progressed normally that she would be able to deliver the baby.
We gave her brief details about my first child's birth and the midwife urged us to book it to the hospital at the first signs of labor. "Your next baby is going to come faster! If you were only in the hospital for 3 1/2 hours for your first, I do not want you delivering that baby on the side of the road." I know statistics range for subsequent deliveries, but I certainly hope my next deliver is faster (but not too fast).
As we left the office, we both commented that we loved the midwife and we were so excited to have her as an option. She is a joy and just the kind of person I want in my labor and delivery room.

I am currently (almost) 26 weeks and get more and more excited about the viability of the baby. We are all so excited for her arrival. My daughter tells me several times a day that she loves the baby so much and comes over to give her hugs and kisses. Let's hope the love continues in just over three months.

My next appointment also has my gestational diabetes testing and then we move to every other week appointments. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying.