(Okay, so I started writing this on Wednesday; I just haven't finished it until Saturday. I had yet another almost migraine this week -- the midwife said that I might get more between now and Week 18 -- so, once again, I'm late.)

Well, it's been a pretty exciting week here in Eugene! But first things first: today we have reached 11 weeks, the end of the embryonic stage, the beginning of the fetal stage, little Hortense is about the size of a large lime, and my uterus has started to grow upward towards my belly button. Hooray!

Now onto the exciting stuff. I woke up (last) Saturday morning and noticed a little vaginal bleeding going on -- nothing too much but all of the pregnancy books say to contact a professional if there's any bleeding. So, off we go to the urgent care clinic (like a walk-in clinic). Fortunately, this clinic's only 4 or 5 blocks from our house. Unfortunately, we were deemed pretty low on the emergency scale, so we sat in the waiting room for a good 3 hours before we saw anyone, but it was kinda hard to get upset about this when one of people in front of you is this ancient man whose head is wrapped up like a mummy's, being attended by his daughter who looks old enough to my grandmother and his wife who looks like a weak breeze could knock her over.

Okay, digression over. So, we finally see someone and both the nurses and the doctor start asking me if I'm sure I'm pregnant. I explain that I'm sure about 46 times, but they still tell me to pee in a cup so they can run a pregnancy test. After everybody's convinced that I'm not some crazy lady, the doctor says he's going to try to hear the heartbeat, but assures us that we probably won't hear anything 'cause at 10 weeks (remember this was last week) the little thing's pretty sneaky. But, after much searching, he found the heartbeat, and it was a strong, steady 165 beats per minute (also normal)! Needless to say, that was pretty amazing.

So, now the doctor knows that I'm really pregnant and starts to do a physical exam. He feels the size and shape of my uterus by pushing on my tummy and then does a pelvic exam to see if my cervix is still closed. (Poor Terrence got to see his first pelvic exam, stirrups and all!) The end results (as this doctor sees it) are:

1. I have a small polyp on my cervix -- nothing to worry about -- this is a pretty common cervical reaction to all of the increased estrogen -- and that's what's causing the bleeding
2. I have a vaginal bacteria infection but that can't be treated until the second trimester
and 3. (again, according to this doctor) I have a huge uterus for 10 weeks and I must be wrong about when I had my last period 'cause I'm more like 15 weeks along.

Well, after much rethinking and re-checking of calendars and counting of days, Terrence and I realize that there's no way that I'm 15 weeks pregnant. Then why is my uterus so freakishly large? Well, as we guessed and as our midwife tells us a couple of days later, the obvious answer is that there's twins on the way. So, we're freaking out a little bit but also kind of excited by the idea, but we're trying to remain calm and relaxed because we just don't know, right?

So, fast forward to our first appointment at the birth/midwifery center. The midwife we see is named Michelle -- she's both very personable and very professional -- very reassuring. She and Terrence and I talk a long time about family medical histories and our lifestyle. She decides that she's going to go ahead and order the second trimester blood tests during this trimester because I want to know if I have an immunity to toxoplasmosis and because she wants to know if I have Von Willebrant's (a bleeding disorder that runs in my family), but other than that, she's very pleased and optimistic about my health and both our family histories.

Now, it's time for Terrence to get to see his second pelvic exam in three days! He's okay with all of this, but I'm starting to think that life's pretty unfair -- I mean, it's annoying enough to get these exams once a year, and I'm now up to three of them since Februrary (when I had my annual physical). Then again I'm going to have to get used to people looking at my cervix over the next few months, right?

So, first things first, we get to hear the heart beat again. (Actually the first thing was Michelle telling me that I have great nipples for breastfeeding -- the kind of complement every girl wants!) It's a bit slower this time, about 135 beats per minute (again, completely within the range of normal), and Michelle thinks that she was only hearing one heartbeat. She also says that my uterus is not freakishly large, so, though she says not to totally discount the possibility of twins, that possibility is considerably lower that it had been for a few days.

So, one thing wrong for the very nice doctor in the urgent care clinic. What about the polyp? Well, Michelle can't find that either. But she thinks that I might have a bit of a yeast infection which could have irritated my cervix and caused a bit of the bleeding. Strike two for the nice doctor.

Michelle then looks under the microscope at something she swabbed from the inside of my vagina (pleasant to read about, isn't it? you should be so lucky as to experience it) to see if I have both the bacterial infection that the nice doctor said I did and the yeast infection that she thinks I have. Guess what? No bacterial infection! (Poor nice doctor from urgent care! But I don't want to insult him that much -- he did find the heartbeat for us when we were pretty worried.) And, yes, I do have a yeast infection! Fortunately, the yeast infection can be treated. Unfortunately, I have been having to use the 7 day Monistat instead of the nice and powerful 1 or 3 day Monistat. Ah well!

Here you have this week's saga -- more to come in a few days!