The Tadpole #1

It goes bump!
Complain about it if you must, but 'straya has one of the best public health systems in the world. Ok, so I haven't done any sort of empirical analysis of public health systems throughout the world, but I have spoken to several Tanzanians and a couple of Ugandans who were all born on the floor of their mum's hut, so waiting outside an ante-natal clinic for an hour or so doesn't seem so bad.

Today's clinic appointment was fairly routine - blood pressure normal; weight not too bad considering the quantity of pasta and Vegemite toast the Tadpole has been consuming over the past couple of months; wee-in-a-cup-please. All good. But just because I had a teensy little collection of heart defects when I was born, and my blood pressure was a teensy bit high once, I had to wait to see an obstetrician and a renal specialist and a cardiologist also. It's just so hard being special. They're all just covering their arses and mine, of course. Bless 'em.

The most exciting bit today was the Doppler stethescope thingy used to listen to the Tadpole's heartbeat. After a few seconds, there it was, sounding like a pumping, healthy techno sample. It's those little things - the first scan, the heartbeat, the palpable fundus - that make pregnancy more fun. I mean, for the first twelve weeks all I felt was nervous and nauseous, so it's nice to put a face, a beat and a bump to this little thing.