Whatsupwiththejoneses’s Weblog

I had one of my quickie prenatal appointments set up for Friday morning long before we planned to use that day to road trip to Doug’s Dad’s house in Wisconsin.  It’s nearly impossible to get appointments scheduled with my OB-GYN, so there was no way I was attempting to reschedule, and D.Jones and I decided we’d get the car loaded, and he and Cooper would visit the Bruegger’s Bagel shop on the next block while I went to see my doc.

Friday morning came and I headed over to see Dr. O.  Because my OB-GYN group is affiliated with the University of Minnesota, they are a teaching clinic.   Some of you may recall my genetic counseling appointment a few weeks ago, where there was an intern and a resident in tow?  Anyway, after the initial stuff with the nurse, she says “Dr. O has a med student following her today.  Is it okay if he comes in?”   I say “Sure!” and realize it’s beginning to be old hat.  I really couldn’t care less who wants in on the action at this point.

A few minutes later, I hear something brushing on the outside of the door to my room, and I expect the usual knock and enter, but instead I hear a male voice saying “what if she has lots of questions?” and then good old Dr. O saying “How many weeks have you been following me around!?   Answer them or write them down!”  I’m snickering to myself in the room.  There is another long pause, then a knock.  In walks a  clearly nervous med student who introduces himself as “Matt the med student.”  He asks if I have any questions while we wait for Dr. O., so I, in a fit of meanness, start firing questions at him.  Things like “what are the odds of a doctor nicking my bladder during a scheduled C-section?  How long will they let labor go on in a VBAC situation?”  and finally…”if you could decide for me, which would you pick, C-section or VBAC?”  His voice was a little shaky and his hands were worse.  He made few attempts to actually answer questions, and took a ton of notes.  His favorite answer was “Oh, uh…um…Dr. O. would be better able to answer that for you.” 

Finally, he says that he has a few questions he has to ask me for the doctor.  He obviously forgets them in the next few seconds and blurts out “Um..so, uh, how’s your appetite?”  I smile. “My appetite?” I ask.  He says “oh, uh, that’s not what I was going to ask.  I was going to ask..uh…have you had any cramping?”  I had to try so hard not to start laughing.  It was very cute.

He then excused himself and I could hear him briefing Dr. O on my questions outside of my door.  Then they both re-entered.  Dr. O answered my questions, then said she’d listen to the heart rate, which she couldn’t find.  I pannicked a bit, but tried to remain calm, since she didn’t seem worried at all.  Then she says the words I was hoping to hear…”let’s just do an ultrasound.”  I was so hoping to find out the gender on Friday, but knew there was no ultrasound scheduled until Nov 13th.  I nodded my enthusiastic agreement, and she wheeled in the ultrasound machine, but not before she glanced over at Matt and said “how did you find the heart beat?”  He stammered “Uh, I didn’t do that.”  She rolled her eyes and said “Wow…I was about to be impressed with you that you found it and I couldn’t…but nevermind.”  She smirked in my direction.  I love Dr. O.

She quickly found Baby J. and the heartbeat on the ultrasound machine, and exclaimed at how off she’d been in her attempt, as she was checking low, and Baby J is tucked in ridiculously high.  Ah ha!  He or she has been hiding already.

She then said “Alright baby, c’mon…mom wants to know what she’s got in there so show us the goods!”  Baby J was uncooperative until Dr. O said “well, no luck today” and went to switch off the machine, at which time she says “Oh wait!! It flipped, it flipped!  That’s right, baby!  Show us what we want…” and then laughed as she told me that the baby is moving so fast, she couldn’t get a shot that wasn’t blurred!  So, we did, in fact, have a cooperative baby, but no answers.  Oh well.  Hopefully November 13th we’ll have some news to share.

By the way…how’s your appetite been?