First Prenatal Appointment

We had out first prenatal appointment on Monday. All of my care is through UCSF Obstetrics and Perinatology. The practice is called The Faculty Obstetrics and Gynecology Group (FOGG), which is an integrated physician/midwife practice. I have chosen to use a nurse midwife because of their holistic view of pregnancy and birth as a natural process as opposed to a medical condition. I intend to do natural childbrith without any interventions (ie, epidural, c-section, etc). Joe and I really liked the nurse midwife who will be my care provider. Her name is Judith Bishop and she has over 20 years of experience, http://www.whrc.ucsf.edu/whrc/providers/bishop.html.

The first appointment went very well and we were there for a long time while she took both of our family histories as well as doing a physical exam and urine and blood collection. She did an ultrasound and we were able to see the tiny thing that is our baby and its tiny heartbeat, which was very cool. It actually made it all seem real. We didn't get any kind of picture or printout because since its so tiny there wasn't much to see.

I go back for my next appointment in 6 weeks, on February 9, and then 6 weeks after that on March 23rd. At the March appointment we should be able to find out the gender.