I don't have time to reply to everything at the moment cause I have to take my husband to work again, but yeah, Patsy, never knew a heart rate with any of these kids. I mean, they always listened for a heartbeat on the doppler, but never mentioned any specific number, just that it sounded fine. I never thought about asking as I, with the 1st anyway, didn't know there was any significance regarding gender. Then my SIL told me about that towards the end of that pregnancy, but we already knew she was a girl so I didn't really care. With my son I never even thought about it. This time around I didn't care since my SIL's theory had just been proven wrong by the birth of her daughter 2 months before my 1st appt with this baby.
Interestingly, we had a fetal echocardiogram done with this baby so I am sure they knew the heart rate at that time for sure, but it didn't even cross my mind to ask. We knew she was a girl since it was that 2nd trimester ultrasound that referred us to the fetal echo, but I think the reason I didn't even think about heart rate was simply that I was terrified they were going to say there was in fact a problem with her heart (which, thankfully, there was not). But this week's ultrasound I saw they captured a heart rate of 159.
Regarding scheduling of ultrasounds, there is a machine in my OB's office, but you have to schedule it as a separate appt, or you can do it through the radiology center across the street or at the hospital. And for the fetal echo that is done through the children's hospital. So I don't need an order for an ultrasound if I have it done in the OB's office, but the hospital did ask who my OB was, why I needed it, etc. Both hospitals actually, as I had one at the hospital I'll deliver at when I had my son and then the fetal echo at Children's. The referral for the fetal echo came from the sonographer in my OB's office though, as I hadn't yet met with my OB about it. Technically though, his name was on the file.
Locolala - So sorry about the back pain. Mine hurts daily at this point and I have never suffered an injury like yours, so I can only imagine the pain you must have to deal with.
Okay, gotta take my husband in, then I'm picking up my kids (there's a half day) and heading to a friend's house. I've known this friend since 9th grade, but she has some very, very different parenting strategies from my own. Normally that is fine, clearly I don't do everything my friends do, but this friend is one of those people who knows she is wrong (and she really is wrong, I am not just saying that!) and tries to justify her actions by preaching to other parents to try to convert them to her own crazy methods. Like she just decided to stop feeding her 3rd child a bottle overnight cause she's tired of getting up. Well, yeah, it sucks, but arbitrarily stopping a feeding when you confine your baby to a crib for over 12 hours is a bit much. And my son slept 12 hours straight by 3 months old, on his own doing, so I am aware it is possible, but in this case, her baby was not showing any signs of being ready for that, but she didn't care. She just sticks them in their cribs at 5pm, yes, 5pm, and does not retrieve them till 7am the next day. That is a crazy long time for an infant to go without any food, abruptly anyway. But enough of my rant, time to go!
ETA: I forgot, the best part about this friend is that those kids she confined to their cribs for something like 18 hours a day (cause she forced 2, 2 hour naps, even though they had long since stopped napping), well, once they got old enough for beds, that was the end of that! The older 2 would just climb out of their beds, over the fences at their door, and right into her bed at night. And she couldn't do a flipping thing about it cause if she brought 1 kid back to its room, it would cry and wake up the sibling in the next room, so then she had 2 of them up overnight. And now at 5yo and 3.5yo they do this routinely. So all the preaching she did when her oldest and my oldest were babies came back to bite her when my 3yo was sleeping all night and hers was up screaming.
Welcome pixiegoose 
That was a lot of exertion! And man, did that thing not want to go together willingly!
