April 14th, 2009 - Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man

We had our second prenatal visit at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington with the Arlington Women's Center on April 14th. The two main OBs in the practice are Dr. Gustavo Rossi and Dr. Mary Crowther (http://www.arlingtonwomenscenter.com/about/). There are also two younger doctors: Holly Masel and Kathryn Born, and a midwife, Karen King. When we selected Arlington Women's Center, we were using the Washingtonian Magazine's Best Doctors report and looking for a practice as close to Arlington as possible. There were two doctors that I read about who I was initially drawn to - Jane Piness (also at VHC, but in a different practice) and Mary Crowther. I first called Dr. Piness's office but she didn't have an opening until late July for new patients. That would probably be a little too late. Dr. Crowther was able to get us in pretty quickly. On our first visit, we met with Dr. Crowther and immediately really liked her. She has an English accent and Paul thinks she sounds like Mrs. Doubtfire. She paid attention to Paul, answered all of our questions, and didn't scare us with a long list of things we couldn't do or pass judgment on being curious about a scheduled c-section. She explained that we would rotate through all of the doctors in the practice to make sure we would be comfortable with all of the doctors we might be working with.

During our second visit, we met with Dr. Rossi. We were his last appointment of the day, and he looked like he'd had a rough day! He was very friendly though and had a great sense of humor. He told us that he was going to try to get a heartbeat for us, but warned that it was probably too early to be able to hear anything. He told us not to panic if we didn't hear anything because it wouldn't mean anything. About 30 seconds later we were listening to our baby's heartbeat! It was coming in loud and clear. That probably didn't mean anything either, but we like to think that it means that s/he is really strong!

The doctor also went through our results of our sonogram with us. Apparently they'd found a cyst on my left ovary. He said that the doctor probably didn't mention it because it's fairly common. They commonly develop to produce progestone until the placenta takes over. They'll check it again on the 24th, but he expected that it would go away on it's own. In describing how it happened, he described the process of the egg being fertilized as when "Mr. Pac Man meets Mrs. Pac Man." We also learned that Dr. Rossi has delivered nearly 5,000 babies! So far, we love our clinic. We're really happy with both Dr. Crowther and Dr. Rossi. They have a lot of experience and spend time answering all of our questions. They've also done a great job of making Paul feel like part of the process (we've read about men being ignored during prenatal visits). It's a nice, new, clean facility andwe're very lucky that we could walk (or waddle) there if we had to.


The Old Man's Observations:

"Checking out the talent in the waiting room ;)"

I wake up before our 1st visit with Dr. Crowther, and I feel like its a cross between Christmas and the morning before a job interview with Maybelline. I'm excited about the new information that will soon be opened up to us (like tearing into your first gift under a tree), but I'm also preparing for a series of probing questions asked by Dr's who couldn't give a crap that anyone with a Y-Chromosome is in the room (I got this from reading one of the 35 books Shonna has purchased over the past couple of weeks.)

So back to waking up... Lately, the first thing I think about after I get up is to make sure I nourish our new fetus. I of course have to eat IMMEDIATELY, so if (s)he is anything like me, (s)he will be pissed if food isn't consumed ASAP. I usually make a bowl of cereal for both of us (actually the 2.0047 of us). At this time Shonna is either struggling to get out of bed (90% of the time), or frantically running around the house because she's late for work. In other words, Shonna either wakes up with a bowl of cereal on her chest, or I hand it off to her football style.

This particular morning, our appointment is not until 10am, so things are unusually calm. We eat, shower, and head to the appt. (only a mile from the house). We walk into the office, and while Shonna makes her way to the window to take care of administrative paperwork, I start checking out all of the expected mothers in the waiting room. Its not what you think. First, I find myself analyzing their bellies, calculating how long I figured it will take before they pop. Second, I wonder WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING HERE because not only is Shonna the only mom-to-be in the room without belly fit to rub for good luck, she is the only one who doesn't look pregnant at all... I have one hot pregnant wife :)