16-Week Midwife Appointment

Rob and I went to my 16-week check-up with the midwife today. I'm over 18 weeks now, but I had my 12-week appointment 2 weeks late, so at least I'm consistent...

Everything looks fine, although she did say that the blood test she took last time came back with a slightly low white blood count. She took some more blood today and said they'll see what the result comes back with this time. It might come back normal, but if it's still low, she'll ask my GP to refer me to a haematologist.

She put the Doppler Monitor on me again, and immediately we heard 3 quick heartbeats, but then the baby moved and she had to find the heartbeat again. It took AGES, at least a couple of minutes, and by the time she eventually did find it again Rob was close to having kittens, but it was all OK in the end. She said there is sometimes truth to the rumour that girls' heartbeats are quicker than boys', but it doesn't always work out that way, and she said that a heartbeat around 135-140bpm is very middle of the road and it would be impossible to tell the gender. True to form, the heartbeat was 138bpm so we're none the wiser, although my 20-week fetal anomaly (and gender) scan is only 2 weeks away. I have no hunches either way about the gender, and can quite honestly say that I have no preference (I wouldn't have said that 6 months ago; I wasn't keen on the idea of a boy at all until I spent a week with Keri, Annabelle and Corgan and found out that boys can be just as awesome as girls), but I'm looking forward to finding out!

The midwife will ring me when she gets my new blood results back, and I'll next see her at 24 weeks. Hope it will actually be 24 weeks this time, and not 26 :).