Caroleen’s Treasures

It seems like light years that I have been away from my puter. I have been reading my favorite blogs from my sister’s pc when we were there but I was not able to comment. I feel very tired all the time when we were there (sighs) same as when we are here. But thank goodness my throwing up galore ended. I finally graduated from the dreaded first trimester.

When we arrived there, we had so much fun in between doctor’s appointment. I will blog about the beach and other fun activities later when I have the pictures. The doctor’s check up has been a trauma. My OB was very nice and soft spoken and always smiling which made me feel so comfortable….and it was my second time to see her so I never thought there could be some horrible experience. Not with the doctor but with the baby. After some talk regarding the progress etc etc she let me lie down and checked the baby’s heartbeat. Based on her calculation, I am on my 13 weeks already and the heartbeat should be heard using the Doppler. So she made a gentle circling motion on my lower belly (as she said the baby is too low and am supposed to be in total bed rest) but as she keeps on moving the Doppler, I began to get nervous because she seemed disappointed. After a few more minutes she shook her head and said she could not hear heartbeat. I sat on the edge of the bed while she went back on her seat and began counseling us regarding the will of the Lord. She has been so honest about the possibility that the baby might have not made it. And she had said more comforting and assuring words that I forgot as I was thinking about Ella. Donald was silent too and thinking the same. Of how will we tell Ella that the baby is gone.

The doctor told us that she is recommending that we wait for another 2 weeks then we will do an ultrasound and if there is still none, then we will do a “dilatation and curretage” (raspa). She also told us that the baby might be just too small so another two weeks will give the baby time to grow bigger so we could hear the heartbeat. But then we could do an ultraound right away if we wanted to make sure how the baby is doing so we decided we will do it right away. We do not want to wait another two weeks. I could not bear such stress and uncertainty.

She wrote a doctor’s request for the procedure and we hurriedly headed to the cashier and paid. The request was for TVS (transvaginal) procedure if the pelvic procedure won’t let the doctor see the heartbeat. We learned that the doctor on duty is a male but we told her that my OB told me to do the pelvic ultrasound first so there would be no problem if the doctor is a male. We paid and headed to the other wing of the building where the laboratory rooms are. I was thankful Ella chose to stay at home with Tita Crislyn. If she was here, we could not hide the bad news to her or at least we won’t have time to think how to tell her without causing her to lose faith. I honestly feel so sad for her if we lost the baby that she named “Salvador” from her favorite Mexican telenovela El Cuerpo. When I gave the receipt in the window, I was again informed that the doctor is a male and I said it is fine. We sat and waited and I asked Donald many times if it will be alright with him if the doctor will need to do TVS. I let him decide and he said we need to do it now may it be male or female.

When my name was called, we went inside and I was lead to the inner room. Two laboratory assistants are there and they are both ladies and are nice. They let me lay down and they started to do a pre-ultrasound procedure to check if pelvic procedure will be sufficient and it is! The moment they started doing the motion on my belly, we saw the baby moving. And it was not just moving but actively moving as if he knew we are seeing him. I call it a HE because I have seen something protruding And I was telling the assistants but they say it might be a skin But hey I am sure f what I saw. The baby was bouncing and moving. He even raised his left arm and legs and faced us when Donald asked him to show his face. We were totally in heaven when we saw him move! So his heart is beating too!

After some laugh that we shared with the assistants at the acrobatic moves of the baby, I was asked to move to the other room for the final ultrasound with the doctor. As he was moving the stick on my belly, Donald was at the back monitor recording the whole process like he did in the first procedure earlier. I asked the doctor how was the baby, the hearbeat, the size etc..He told me the baby is fine and the heartbeat as well. The placenta is covering the baby and this makes it hard to hear the heartbeat through the doppler. Then he said, “Parang may lawit ata ito ah…” and I was smiling since he too have noticed that it seems like a boy! But he said he could not tell it yet since the book says 13 weeks is too early to identify the gender of the baby. I kidded him that he should write his own book because at this early we could see it clearly. He said, “The book will debate me so I could only say it might be a boy. At least I am 50% sure it is a boy.”

Good thing that Donald have it videoed for Ella to see which was very thrilled when she saw it. We weren’t able to see my OB after the ultrasound since it was already past her clinic hours. After two days we went back to see my OB (since the following day after the ultrasound was holiday). The secretary was smiling and told her that we are back. Dr. Dimafeliz was happy to see us yet I could see she was worried about the baby. She asked for the result and I told her I misplaced it. I knew I put it in an envelope but when we are about to leave my sister’s PIL’s place, we could not find it anywhere. I decided we will go anyway and just bring the camera for the doctor to see and that is what we showed her. She was giggling at how the baby moves. I wish I knew how to upload a video here.

We left the clinic smiling. I do not want to go to another OB in case we need to find someone nearer. Donald could not go inside the delivery room which she confirmed and he said it is alright as long as we can ask a nurse to take pictures and that I feel very comfortable with my OB. We will see her again after a month and hopefully we could confirm the sex of our baby. Be checking on the pens I found in the net best for give aways and gifts.