Another milestone- 23 wks

I've never seen 23 weeks before, it feels good!  The 119 days to go is a little scary though, Boo will be here before we know it.  I can't wait, but it's a little scary.

I had a cervix check today, holding strong at 5 cm (up from 4.7 last week) and she switched to abdominal so I could see her wiggling around a little.  She was moving her mouth a lot, not sure what she was doing but it reminded me of how they exagerate cartoons snoring with their whole face contorting and blowing air out their mouth....I giggled picturing her blowing little bubbles of amniotic fluid out with each breathe.

I was stuck with Dr. A hole again, but I didn't complain because I don't usually go on Thursdays, but they couldn't get me in on Tuesday, so I suspect that is why I saw him.  But none of my questions are pressing, so I just saved them for next time so it was a really quick, simple visit.  They put the sheet out for me for a pelvic exam and I asked the nurse if I was still getting one even though I just had a good vaginal u/s and she said yeah, he likes to do them.

Ordinarily I am not a "go against authority person" (well, in some instances....I surprise myself from time to time) and I would just do whatever a doctor said.  But his pelvic exam last time was not pleasant, and I spotted and cramped more than usual for three or four days afterward.  I can handle the small spotting from a pelvic from my other doctor, but the multiple days of spotting and extra cramping really freaked me out last time.  I also read a birth story the other day and the woman stressed being your own advocate and not taking everything a doctor says as gospel, you don't have to accept any treatment you don't want.  So when he came in, I asked if I really needed it since I had the u/s, and he was like well, we can see that it's nice and long, so we can skip it if you want to.  :)

I was supposed to go again next week, but they wanted to set my appt after that for two weeks from today instead of next week...keeping me on the weekly schedule.  As much as I like the assurance, my cervix is doing great, I am past my milestone, and I haaaate not taking lunches to make up for missed time at work.  So it's time I go back to every other week as long as things are going well.  So we canceled next week and set it for two weeks from today. 

I feel like I've gotten huge in just the last week, and despite feeling her kicks last night, I decided to use my doppler last night.  It had been a while and I just felt like hearing her again.  As I was putting the gel on, I was horrified to see that my belly button is seriously caving in on itself.  It had been getting there for a while now, but last night was like whoa!  Please don't let me get an outie, please please don't let me get an outie.  I have a strange thing with belly buttons, they make me feel ill just thinking about it.  I don't know how I'm going to handle cleaning around Boo's until it falls off, gross!

Speaking of Boo, I was thinking today how it's going to be weird calling her by her name once she gets here.  I'm so used to Boo....of course Boo will be a nickname, but to me, her name is Boo.  Maybe it will be easier to call her by her name once she's an outside baby.  I ordered her a Boo doll the other day from Monster's Inc.  It's not a plush doll, so it will be a while before she can play with it, but her name is Boo, I couldn't not get it.