Doctors, doctors, doctors.

In my whole life up to now, I've never been to the doctor so often. Yesterday, I had an appointment with the orthopedic doctor about this weird and ongoing pain in my right leg joint. I had a feeling I would get the "I am really sorry, until after you deliver the baby in April, there's really nothing I can do." We can't get an x-ray or do an MRI to see what's going on in there to remedy the situation. Certain pain medicines may be too harsh for the baby right now. To fend off the pain, I just take the pregnancy approved Tylenol. It helps to some extent, but the pain still comes and goes. I was told that if it still hurts in May or June after the baby is born, then we can really look into what's going on. Until then, I'm told to stay off it as much as possible...I guess no marathons or long hikes are in my near future.

Tomorrow I have another check-up with my OB doctor and we're going to do a glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. I have to drink a special glucose beverage when I get there and then they will check my blood an hour later. I hope it goes well. I've been lucky so far to be very healthy aside from this darn leg thing...not a moment of morning sickness or problems like that. The baby is still very active, which is good. She roused me awake this morning with a quick thump on my left side: "Whoa! - I'm up!" It's weird, wonderful and amazing. Sometimes, I do get a little rush of panic in thinking about the birth, but I know it'll all be fine.

We are signed up for several birth and baby care classes offered by our hospital. I have one on Feb. 6 about feeding and formula information. Dan is being very supportive and is more than willing to participate in all the classes he can. We are also signed up to attend together the Infant CPR, Newborn Safety, Newborn Care and the Confident Childbirth course involving the in-depth class on the actual labor, birth, relaxation techniques, the role of the birth partner. These classes will be various days throughout March. Most of these classes were free except the last one which had a fee for the supplies and time. It's a two parter over two weeks with more tours of the facilities and so forth. We both think that the more knowledge we gain now, the better off we'll both be on the day of delivery.

By the way, we do have a name picked out. We are 98% settled on it and will tell you later what it is.