First Prenatal Visit, Finally!

I found out I was pregnant at a really inconvenient time. We were moving out of Utah just barely too soon to get any medical aid, and moving to California just a little too late in the pregnancy to get the usual 10-week checkup. Neither Bob nor I have jobs yet. No health insurance. Medi-Cal denied us because we didn't understand something in the paperwork and all the bureaucracy nonsense, so we're trying to get an advocate to help us understand it all. Our savings is drained. We are literally dirt broke with about $5 in our checking account and $6 in my wallet. It's been a little stressful, to say the least.

My mother-in-law is pretty good friends with a lady at church who happens to be an ob-gyn. She emailed her and told her about our situation, and this angel of a doctor just told us to come in for an appointment asap. So we did. I called yesterday afternoon and the receptionist asked if 9:30am the following day was too soon. Ha! No way! So Bob and I went in, finally, for our very first prenatal doctor's visit. We didn't do everything during the checkup that most people do, but that's because we weren't going to pay a cent for anything at that time. The bill would come later as we could afford it. Some lab work and results require payment immediately, so to instead of any of that we just talked with Dr. Williams about everything and she did an ultrasound. It was a very simple first visit.

I'm not really showing yet, so it still doesn't seem real. This really helped it sink in. There's absolutely no denying that we're having a baby within the next several months.

There's only one in there (Phew! There's a high chance we could have twins).
I'm officially 13 weeks along (that's one week farther than I thought).
I've gained 3 pounds so far (I think it's due to doing nothing but eating and sleeping for the past two months, not so much the baby weight).
And my official due date is April 4th. That's right, on my very own birthday.

We have the first pictures of our baby!

The ultrasound pictures were so fun to get! And Dr. Williams is wonderful. She was trying to get good images at different angles all over my abdomen. I have a tilted uterus, which makes it slightly more difficult than normal, but by this point it doesn't make too huge of a difference. Our little fetus is quite the mover, too. Dr. Williams had a tough time getting a good image because this growing baby just would not hold still! So don't worry if you can't see these images very clearly. It was tough to get any clear shots. Dr. Williams even took the time to rewind the footage and show us our baby's individual fingers as they moved across the screen at one point. We could see four perfect little finger tips and a little thumb. Facial features were clear, especially the eyes. We could see the umbilical cord, spine and other bones really well.

It was tough not to cry as we looked at the beginnings of our first child-to-be. It was a really exciting moment for us, and we can't wait to see the progress in the coming weeks and months.