My doctor's visits are bi-weekly now. Starting in two weeks they will become weekly, accompanied by a weekly sonogram for weeks 36-40. Doctor explained it's because of my age I need the extra attention. He apologized for keeping to bring up my age. I told him that I like it. We both agreed it's a big deal. My age. I got spontaneously pregnant at age 46. The odds of that are 1%. He keeps using that term: spontaneous pregnancy. I know what it means. Without sounding patronizing, let me convert it to layperson's terms like the doctor did for me on my first visit. "You got spontaneously pregnant?" he asked. "What does that mean?", I probed. "Did you get pregnant naturally?" he furthered. "Are you trying to ask me if I got pregnant having sexual intercourse?" was my response. "Yes." "Yes, the answer is yes." He was and still acts impressed and brings up my age and my spontaneous pregnancy at every visit. Today he told me I should blog about women in the 45-50 age group getting pregnant. As I mentioned earlier, we only have a 1% chance each month of getting pregnant with our own eggs. The rate of miscarriage for our age group is over 50%. That is why I didn't tell anyone I was pregnant until I was almost 5 months along. I just had to be sure my pregnancy was viable. I couldn't bear the thought of announcing such joy, then having to retract it. I'm pretty much out of the woods now, but I'm still not going to jubilate until I hear a crying baby. So, my doctor sort of praises me each time I see him. Today, I told him, "You know, as fortunate as I am, I wouldn't go around recommending women to wait to have babies in their forties." With the statistics out there, the over 40 age group isn't exactly on the top of the stork's list. Mother Nature cast an unfair spell on us ladies. We have the best fertility from puberty up until age 25. Then the eggs start aging even then. By 30, a woman only has a 20% chance of getting pregnant in any given month. Then it drops to 1 percentile by age 45. When you're at your most financially insecure and emotionally sporadic, you have the strongest eggs. When you're at your most mature and responsible, your eggs are giving out. Irony can't be more acute than it is for us women having babies.
Well, the doctor's appointments are fast. I leave a urine sample, my belly gets measured from top to bottom, blood pressure is taken, the baby's heartbeat is monitored, and I get to stand on the scale. Oh my goodness. I just left my big rain clodhoppers on today because what's an extra pound or two in shoe weight going to matter to the fastly-gaining poundage I've amassed? All my doctor said was, "Your weight is good." He's not exactly a health nutritionist ob/gynie type. My weight is not good. My weight is too much. I have gained more than Demi Moore probably gained in her three pregnancies combined. Oh well, if Dr. isn't worried, neither am I. I plan to breast feed those pounds off. I like the pregnancy-age compliments I get from my doctor at my appointments. I like the quickness and ease of them. He's so laid back and it keeps me non-stressed. As long as baby's heartbeat belts out on the monitor, I'm a happy mother-to-be patient.
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