7 weeks old

We're back from our appointment with Douglas. This time, there's progress. I shall describe the whole proceedings in as much detail as I can remember.

There weren't any patients in the clinic when we arrived, much to our delight. It meant that we won't have to wait long for our turn. As standard procedure, the nurse takes my wife's blood pressure and weight before the consultation. Then, we went in to see Douglas.

As usual, he was all smiles and cheerful.

"Hi, how are you feeling ?" he asked.

"Oh not good at all." Lina said.

"I'm feeling tired very often, threw up quite a few times, had tummy upset most of the time, feel bloated very often, change in taste for certain foods and loss of appetite" She added.

Douglas said "Oh that's good !"

While she was a bit stunned and surprised at his reply, I was half expecting he would say this, given his bubbly character. I chuckled.

"What you are feeling right now, although you may feel uncomfortable, you might be relieved that these are signs that provides reassurance that your pregnancy is going on smoothly. These are common signs of a healthy and proper pregnancy" said Douglas. He added "What you should not be feeling, is that, you do not feel anything at all."

After this short conversation, he proceeded to do the scan for my wife. It was still the vaginal scan method. Well, Lina did not protest nor requested otherwise.

This time, we got to see a very clear image. The image showed that the sac has grown to about 27mm in length. And inside the sac, we saw the baby. Its about 13.3mm in length and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat ! It went "boop poop, boop poop, boop poop" -grin- We could also see the baby's heart beating in real time. Well, not exactly see the heart, but can see a fuzzy little image pulsating. My heart was beating together with the baby's as it was played through the speaker on the scanner. -wide grin-

Douglas determined that the baby is around 7 weeks old. Therefore, he calculated that our baby's due to be born on 16th April 2006 !!!

We were also given a print-out of the scanned image to bring home.

Douglas told my wife "Now, what you are feeling now, are going to get worse. Your pregnancy is within the 6 - 8 weeks period. The symptoms are going to get worse up till 9 to 10 weeks, thereafter the symptoms will being to slide off, and your lifestyle will be back to normal. You are in the transition stage now. Your body is still adjusting to your pregnancy. "

He also emphasized "No coffee, limited amount of tea, no uncooked meat or seafood but uncooked vegetables are fine. You should eat whenever you feel hungry, but don't have to eat huge quantities. You should eat whenever you feel like eating and eat whatever you feel like eating. It would be good if you could keep some snacks in your handbag. It will come in handy whenever you feel hungry and need a quick bite. You should not leave your stomach empty as the acidity level will be very high and thats when you feel like throwing up. This is the case for the so-called morning sickness as the stomach is kept empty throughout the night. "

We took note of his advice and even before us asking him, he said he would prescribe some Vitamin pills, extra folic acid pills and some nausea pills to take whenever she feels uncomfortable.

He fixed our next appointment one month later, on the 28th September, a Wednesday.

We got up, and he shook our hands and he boomed "Congratulations !"

Next, payment. The nurse at the counter called "Lina Tan !" We went over to the counter, and the nurse was smiling broadly when she said "Consultation, SGD50.00, scan, SGD50.00, medication, SGD16.00, GST 5%, total is SGD121.80. Cash or nets ? " gee, talk about no hidden costs. They actually dictate each and every chargeable item, and the way she said them, I thought it was a bit amusing.

The nurse also mentioned that they would be discussing the package with us on our next appointment. The way I see it, is there anything to discuss ? I think its a "we'll take it" or "we won't take it" kind of decision. But then again, I don't think we have any choice. We don't take it, we're going to have to look for another specialist. So I guess both parties assume that we are taking the package, and they are going to tell us what is included and what's not included in the package on our next appointment.