Meg and I thought we would periodically add posts to a series called “Checking In”. These posts will be a bit shorter and more “to the point”, and will primarily summarize any new information we’ve learned from the appointments we attend. Although they’ll contain less reflection, we hope they serve as a useful source of information and a quick update on how we’re all doing.

We’re currently seeing three specialists: a primary obstetrician (POB), a high-risk obstetrician (HROB) and a pediatric cardiologist (PC). On Halloween, we had an appointment with our POB, Dr. Uma Penmetsa, at Park West Women’s Health. The appointment was anything but spooky. Dr. P has been tremendously supportive and reassuring throughout our pregnancy, and we spent most of the time during this appointment talking about how we’ve processed the single ventricle diagnosis and what treatment will look like moving forward. Following the lead of a good friend, I have taken the role of scribe during our appointments, jotting down notes to gather our thoughts and questions to ask other specialists at future appointments. Dr. P gave us some helpful things to think about and some insightful questions to ask during our first appointment with our PC this Monday, November 5.

As we always do, we ended the appointment hearing Teddy’s heartbeat through a Doppler — another appointment, another healthy heartbeat. It is amazing to us that even with a single ventricle, in the womb a baby can have such a strong heartbeat. Meg and I agreed during our debrief after the appointment that the sound of that heartbeat will never get old.