Sorrow to Joy

Yesterday was a frustrating day for both Josh and I. His was with work, mine was emotionally.

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning at 8:30. For the last two appointments, we were told we'd get to have our ultrasound done on this appointment, and we'd get to know the sex and all that good stuff. We got there and had a pleasant exchange with the receptionist, which was a new thing for us. Typically it's just checking us like a herd of cattle.

We get called back to our room in a timely manner (another thing which was unusual), and learned I gained 5 more pounds. Then, it was time to hear the heartbeat again...and things started going downhill from there.

It took our nurse about 10 minutes to find our baby's heartbeat, all the while saying, "I hear lots of stuff, but I ain't hearing no baby." After a great amount of time of wondering whether I had miscarried without knowing, she finally found the heartbeat. "I just wasn't looking low enough," she joked. Not funny, ma'am. Not funny.

I had a new doctor on this visit, and he was very nice. He measured my baby belly and said that I was growing normally and then asked if I had gotten my flu shot yet. Of course, this led to me signing a consent form and getting my flu shot (the normal flu shot - the H1N1 vaccination will be available to me in mid-October), which made me achy. I'm not good with pain. I get whiney.

And then we were done. We were ushered out of the room and on to the check out area without mention of an ultrasound. Josh and I didn't know what to say. I was disappointed. I had to let my family know that we didn't have an ultrasound done and try to be okay for them.

I received a call from the Jackson Clinic about 11 am yesterday morning asking me to call them back. After lots of "on hold" time and explaining the reason for my call to seven different people, I was told "we're scheduling an ultrasound with your next appointment. You need to be here at 8 instead of 8:30." Four more weeks until we know about our baby. Four more weeks of it being "Peanut" and "Junior".

Last night, Josh's cousin's wife was hosting a Thirty-One party and I was invited to go. Since it was family, I felt inclined to go. At this party, I met several women and they were all very nice. Amy (the hostess) told me that I should get to know one guest in particular, Jessica. Jessica and I looked at each other and then at Amy questioningly. "She works at the Jackson Clinic OB/GYN, Kelsey."

I then found out that she is my current doctor's main nurse and the reason I didn't see her is because her assistant is the nurse who did our heartbeat and such. I also found out that it was her who I talked to on the phone earlier that day, and she was the one who was actually able to help me. She asked how my appointment went, and I expressed my disappointment about the ultrasound.

She was surprised that, at 19 weeks, I was having to wait 4 more weeks to have the ultrasound done. Everyone agreed finding out the gender is one of the special things about a pregnancy and it was really hard to wait. Jessica then went on to say, "Hon, let me pull your chart tomorrow morning and see if we can't move that up for you. I'm sure Dr. Pierce won't mind."

Jessica called me this morning by 8:15 and said, "Hey Kelsey, could you come in Monday for your ultrasound?"

Praise the Lord.