What's Up Doc?

I had my first OBGYN visit this week. He looked me over and declared me to be a man. Really though, I went with Jess to get a rundown on her pregnancy.

Let's just say I was a wee bit uncomfortable in this type of doctor's office. The main problem with our surroundings wasn't the pregnant women though, it was the lack of entertaining periodicals. Where's the Sports Illustrated? I'd even have settled for a copy of Us Weekly! Guess SI isn't read too frequently in there. They did have copies of Parenting, Motherhood, Fatherhood, Pregnancy and Cat Fancy--if I remember right.

After we were ushered in, our Doc asked some basic questions. Thankfully, are you pregnant wasn't one of them. (I obviously didn't know what to expect.) After a short while, he got out what looked like a Fisher Price My First Microphone set and placed it on our baby's current home--my wife's belly. He announced that we'd be hearing our baby's heartbeat soon. He also said that sometimes it takes a while to find amongst all the stomach rumbling (OK, he didn't say that last part.). After a few minutes passed of sounds that weren't far from Jaques Cousteau's undersea recordings, he playfully complained that Jess was his first patient of the day and he hoped it wasn't indicative of how his Monday would go. Finally, we heard the heartbeat. While visions of E.T.'s glowing red heart bounced through my brain--don't ask why--we heard something like a choo-choo train (i'm trying out my babyspeak). There, it was evidence that something was in there. Doc also told us that a sonogram is a waste of money at this point because it doesn't tell you anything.Wow! A competent, no-nonsense dude that's out to save us a buck--sounds good. Mr. M.D. strikes a balance somewhere between frugal and fantastic, so we're quite happy with him.

We'll provide another medical update in about a month. Maybe I'll bring my own copy of SLAM.