28w, 3d

So, today was the big 28 week appointment and I had to do the dang gestational diabetes test. I started out my morning with a bland breakfast (so not to throw off the results of the test) of dry toast, a hard boiled egg and a half glass of milk. Not terribly exciting.

But I ended up passing the test with flying colors, so it was worth it!!! I've also had anemia issues in the past, so they checked my hemoglobin numbers too and those also look very good. Not too low at all!

During the part of the appointment where we were listening on the doppler for the heartbeat, the baby was funny - he kept moving around, like he was trying to get away from the doppler, so it took her a bit to get a heartbeat count, but it was great - 152! I guess he's a shy baby (must get that from his daddy!).

Now for the icky parts of today's appointment: The lab person was obviously new. And this made me nervous to think she was going to be doing my blood draw. She had me sit in a different place than I usually do for the blood draw, which also meant using a different arm. She got the tourniquet on and touched my blood draw area with her finger to locate the vein and then asked me "Have they had trouble finding your vein before?"

Uhhhhhhhh....noooooooo.

I did mention to her though, that I usually sit on the other side and that usually makes me left arm the default and she just moved to that side and tried again. After touching around the area some more, she finally called over another lab lady. Oh great. This is promising. NOT. That lady said "Here's the vein - right here, ya can't miss it." Good - we're finally getting somewhere. The first gal took control again and stuck me. Didn't hurt or pinch any worse than normal. But I don't ever look, so I never really know what's going on during those things. After a couple seconds, I the gal said "Uh, [insert experienced lab lady's name here], can you look at this?" And I still couldn't look, but I sure didn't like the sound of that. The lady came over and said "Yeah, there's nothing happening, is there?" Shit, shit, shit. Needle phobia coming fully into play now. She took control of the needle and stuck it further in and wiggled it around. OUCH. And finally, I HEARD blood start to fill the tube. Yes, HEARD it. Never heard it before and it's a bit gross. After it was finally over, I composed myself and got up and was stopped by my practitioner's nurse who said she was ready to give me my Rhogam shot. Oh good Lord. Another one. So we went back to the appointment room and she said she needed me to expose the top of my butt cheek for the injection and I freaked out. I TRY to be an adult about these things, but goodness - needle phobias are NOT helpful. I leaned over the exam table and held Mike's hand really hard (VERY hard, apparently - sorry, babe! Just wait til labor! Heh heh.......heh.) and I knew I was being a huge baby about it, but I cried. Needles freak me out. I'm only just starting to get used to blood draws (though today's gem of an experience did NOT help), but shots I am still panicky about. So, I teared up and got a bit emotional and it was over in a flash. No sticker or lollipop though, dammit.