8 Weeks, and the Adventure Begins

Yesterday was a landmark day. We visited our new ob-gyn, Dr. Cara Dodson, at Spring OB-GYN. My friend Alexa recommended her, saying we'd love how young, mellow and competent she is. We really did. She made me very relaxed and comfortable. She gave me a pelvic exam and asked me the normal litany of questions about my medical history, and then gave us a sonogram. Bonus: There's a heartbeat!! Back story: Two years ago, we got pregnant but at our first sonogram, there was no heartbeat, and the pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. This feels like a major hurdle, that we made it past the finding of the heartbeat. Ingrid was so cute. She asked how big the embryo was, and Dr. Dodson said it's about two centimeters: about the size of a large grape. We couldn't tell what the sex is yet, and we're not sure we want to know anyway. Dr. Dodson took a picture and printed it out for us. She said the morning sickness should be peaking right about now. She also told me that as I'm of advanced maternal age, I will need to speak to a genetic counselor, and think about whether I want to do prenatal testing to see if our baby has any chromosomal abnormalities. I never thought I'd be "of advanced maternal age," but I am 35. That's a bridge we're crossing next, I guess... Right now, we're reveling in the fact that we made it past 8 weeks. Thump, thump.