Check Up with Dr. Graham

I went for my monthly checkup and glucose tolerance test today with Dr. Graham. All of my bloodwork was fine, and my blood pressure is still good at 110/70. Emily's heartbeat was about 145 beats per minute, which is good.

Dr. Graham measured me and said I'm measuring about a week ahead--he wasn't concerned about it, and said it's normal to be up or down a centimeter or two. I asked him about weight gain, and he said I was gaining a little bit faster than he wanted me to. I've gained a total of 16 pounds throughout the first 26 weeks, and although he said that's fine, he also said he thought I'd be happier if I limited my weight gain to about 10 more pounds over the next 14 weeks (he's right, by the way). He asked about eating habits, and I found out that I'm eating way too much fruit. All this time, I thought eating an entire container of strawberries or cantaloupe was a great thing--because of the high sugar and high caloric content though, it can be overkill. So I'll switch some of my snacks to carrots and snow peas, and cut back on the OJ. I've probably put on an extra pound or two over the holidays too, since I went from eating almost no junk food to sampling some of the homemade desserts I've been around lately :).

The other thing we discussed was the medical records I received from the hospital where I had scoliosis surgery back in 1992. Amazingly, they were able to send me 123 pages of records and not a single x-ray! These would have been useful for the anesthesiologist in the hospital if I ask for an epidural--at this point though, Dr. Graham said I should think about IV pain medication or prepare myself for the idea of natural childbirth. Since I don't want IV drugs (anything I get through an IV also goes to the baby), that only leaves me one option! I'll still take the records to the hospital, and if I ask for it, there's a chance the anesthesiologist will be perfectly comfortable giving the epidural.