Our 16 week appointment and "White Coat Syndrome"

Our 16 week appointment was extremely uneventful, compared to our 12 week appointment—but I’m not complaining!

At every appointment so far, they’ve told me my blood pressure is “a little high”. I’ve always blamed this on the fact that going to the doctor makes me incredibly nervous (because of some bad appointments in the past) and when I see them reach for the blood pressure cuff, I immediately feel my pulse skyrocket. My dad has always been the same way—so we’ve chalked it up to “white coat syndrome”…which is REAL! If you don’t believe me—google it…..

Anyway—at our last appointment, they asked that I monitor my blood pressure at home, to get an idea of whether it really is high, or if I just get anxious at the doctors office. I’ve monitored it daily since then—and it’s generally really low—around 95/55!

As she reached for the cuff at the beginning of our appointment—as usual—I felt my heart start beating faster and faster and I knew I was doomed. She laughed at me as she announced my blood pressure was 140/90! I’ve definitely proven the “white coat syndrome” theory as a real diagnosis…..!

Besides the blood pressure annoyance, everything else is right on track. I’ve gained 6 pounds (I feel like its way more than that) and the doctor said that was great and I can expect to gain a pound a week from now until the end of the pregnancy. I’m sure that won’t be a problem since I haven’t struggled with morning sickness and I’m CONSTANTLY hungry….and the things I crave are carb-loaded foods like bagels, sandwiches, etc…

The doctor jellied up my stomach and unlike at our 12 week appointment, was able to pinpoint the heartbeat within 5 seconds. The “whoosh-whoosh-whoosh” sound gave us a sigh of relief, and as she was saying it was in the healthy 150+ range, a sharp static noise echoed through the Doppler. That happened quite a few times while we were listening, and she told us those were kicks! Even though I can’t feel it yet, Baby H is active and kicking away. I can’t wait for the day that I actually “feel” something. There have been days where I’ve thought I felt something—but I just figured my stomach was growling from hunger! Who knows, maybe they’ve been flutters of movement….?

There were no issues or concerns—thankfully—and we set up our 20 week appointment for August 12^th. That will be our big ultrasound appointment where we could find out the gender if we wanted to….but….we don’t want to! This is going to be a surprise until the very end—and no one can talk us out of that! I don’t want to hear anyone telling me “its too hard to plan if you don’t know the gender” because anyone who knows me, knows I am the biggest planner, and I’m pretty sure I’m capable of planning for a baby whether it’s a boy or a girl! Big deal—what’s so hard about it? We get a lot of green and yellow and brown clothing at our baby shower? If that’s our biggest problem, I think we’re doing pretty well….

On another front, our house has had TWO showings in 2 weeks and we are very excited about it! Keep 'em coming!

Until next time…..