hey guys thanks so much for sticking
with us through a couple of our first
technical difficulties! Welcome though
from belly too baby. We're really excited
about this project. My name is Abby and i
work at St. Louis Children's Hospital
and you can see from my surroundings
that I'm not exactly in the clinical
office. I work here in a non-clinical
role- I do a lot of writing and social
media work for the hospital and I am
very fortunate that I am surrounded by
experts who know a lot more than I do
which comes in handy right now
considering my husband and I found out
in December that we are expecting our
first baby so I am 15 weeks along right
now. We are very excited to share the
news with everyone finally and to share
the news with all of you because like it
or not we're going to share the whole
experience with you and as I mentioned
working in this environment I have
access to a lot of knowledge. I have the
maternal fetal experts and the OB is at
barnes-jewish hospital and those
Washington university physicians that
work there as well as at st. Louis
Children's Hospital we have
pediatricians and newborn medicine
specialists all of these people who have
such incredible information to share you
know a lot more than I'm able to find on
google it can also give me far more
reliable information than that and I
thought along the way I've had so many
questions what do people who don't have
someone to turn to right away what do
they do they turn to google and as i was
talking to a doctor yesterday especially
in the first trimester before you're
sharing this news with everybody and
when you're nervous about what could
happen and you don't know what's going
on it again especially with your first
it's really hard when all you can find
online is information about morning
sickness and i don't know about you I
was I was really lucky I didn't have a
lot of morning sickness or nausea but I
had horrible mood swings just ask my
husband he reminded me regularly so it
was good to be able to turn to people
who knew friel information and could say
no you don't need to be evaluated for
depression you're perfectly normal it's
fine to cry every once in a while your
hormones are going a little bit crazy
right now so over the course of the next
few months we are going to talk to all
of those experts
and gain their insight into what's going
on and hopefully whether you're in this
boat right now or if you're talking
about having a child in the future it
will be of some benefit to you all of
these episodes with these experts from
barnes-jewish hospital Washington
University in st. Louis Children's
Hospital will go on to our heatless
Children's Hospital youtube channel
they'll be available there for you to
check out anytime and we will go week by
week in real time like I mentioned
earlier i'm 15 weeks right now so
officially ended a second trimester but
we're going to have our first episode
tomorrow talking about all things first
trimester and we're going to be talking
with an OB by the name of dr. Cameron
chrisman Robbins she is a mom of 2 and 0
be too many and when I first met her I
asked her if she'd be up to this and she
said I don't know can I get up lighting
and the fan that Beyonce uses for her
hair so I assure you she is very cool
and you're going to love talking to her
as much as I have so we'll cover
everything from the first trimester
everything talking about finding out
you're pregnant for the first time
whether you went to a holiday party the
night before you found out maybe had a
cocktail or two and whether that's a
problem I'm guilty and scheduling that
first OB appointment what to expect if
you weren't planning on getting pregnant
what groan do you need to cover it's all
manageable it's all doable and it isn't
a scary process or at least it doesn't
have to be and that's what these acts
are here to tell us and it's been really
reassuring to me and I hope that it is
to you as well and we'll be answering
your questions in real time our
physicians can't give you advice on your
particular problems obviously those are
best suited to your own obstetrician but
in terms of general experiences things
that you've gone through one thing I
have learned and I'm really lucky I'm
surrounded by a lot of friends who have
already gone through this process and
who since we've told them has been very
helpful just in giving me advice and
letting me know what's totally normal in
what may be is something to cause
concern I have two sisters Emma who have
been through this and if I'm awesome
about getting their advice but it's nice
to have these people and around and to
know that if you've gone through it or
if you're going through it someone else
have before
has two so that information is not only
useful to you but everyone else so we
encourage you as these episodes are
going to ask us your questions life will
do our best to answer as many as we can
and if we can't answer them in real time
but it's something that maybe we can
find the answer to later we'll be back
next week to talk more so our goal is to
be here for you a one o'clock every
Friday that will vary a little bit to be
perfectly honest because I want a
vacation day every once in a while and i
have a few on the calendar so i'm not
giving up my vacation for this web
series but i will push it back a day so
we have a couple of Thursday
appointments we'll look all around this
campus something that's really really
cool is that we are if you have noticed
if you've driven by kings highway in
this medical campus here you've probably
noticed there's been a lot of
construction over the last few years
it's probably slowed you down and you
may or may not have cursed at once or
twice I know I have however it's for a
very good reason we have this incredible
new women and infants program opening in
August as I have said to my colleagues
when we talk on that we're expecting I
am just not dedicated to my job this
baby is due right about the exact same
time that that Center is going to open
so we will go inside the new center take
a look at all of this amazing technology
that's available we will show you what
an ultrasound is apparently we're
talking about doing that right at the
20-week appointment of the 19 and 20 20
week mark i'm told is when most people
have that first ultrasound so we will go
into exam room and take a look at what's
going on with baby in real time and
along the way we'll talk about the
different questions that come up when do
you need to pick a pediatrician we'll
talk to the newborn medicine specialist
at st. Louis Children's Hospital who
helped with those babies that come very
early and those that come right on time
and who may need a little extra medical
support for those whose really don't but
you just need those those dates on your
calendar to really figure out what you
need to do to be ready we'll talk about
these sweeps for baby I know my husband
and I just started looking at nursery
furniture the last couple of days and
then we read that the American Academy
of Pediatrics is suggesting that this
baby sleeps in our room for six to
twelve months
which my first reaction was I'm sorry
what now I don't know how that's going
to be possible we will find out more
about that recommendation how we're
actually going to sleep if the baby's in
our room and just kind of the best
advice and how to go about making sure
that the environment is the safest for
our child and it's the best for us as
parents and getting some sleep and what
the realistic goals are and realistic
options are and when do you really need
to have a nursery buddy and is it that
important or is that more for us i know
that i'm pretty set on having a pretty
room ready but i am reminded regularly
but that's more possibly for me them the
kid who probably won't know when you got
her to find out not to find out whether
you're having a boy or a girl and things
like genetic testing you can have some
many tests around as early as i think
eight weeks which most people barely
know they're pregnant by them so we'll
talk about whether or not those tests
are necessary at what age pregnancies
become high risk we've got these
incredible maternal-fetal experts at
barnes-jewish hospital use washington
university physicians who have seen
everything and i'll tell you when i go
to see my doctor i'll bring up a number
of concerns that i have and she looked
at me in my first appointment and she
said you know you have to realize that
you work in an environment will you see
a lot of really unusual situations the
bonus that is i see a lot of really
unusual situations turn out really
really well and these kids go until it's
really incredible wise the downside is
that probably as much as any expecting
mom worries I worry a lot about things
like genetic disorders and conditions
that my child could deal with so we'll
talk about the long-term repercussions
for those what's inherent to pregnancy
what isn't and the issues that will deal
with along the way in your questions as
they come up so I like I said I'm only
fifteen weeks in right now but I already
have a lot of questions so we'll address
a bunch of those tomorrow 1pm please
tune in with us and come ready with your
questions and then like I said we'll put
these episodes on youtube so that you
can be go back with your girlfriends or
other people that you know are pregnant
and give them the same resource whenever
they need it and like I mentioned
earlier we're going to do a recap of the
first trimester tomorrow but I also want
to let you know I think it's really
important that we go back and we cover a
lot of the topics things like
miscarriage and move wings and something
of the Naja for sure and the exhaustion
I fall asleep at eight o'clock at night
on a regular basis which is just crazy
but and but it's but it's normal and
things that dad's worried about in the
first trimester will talk to experts
about those issues and we'll catalogue
those on youtube as well so that they're
at least covered because I think a lot
of us once we're out of that first
trimester try and just forget all of the
fears but there's no reason to forget
them when somebody else is going to
worry about them later so we'll make
sure that those are addressed and we
hope to see you all along the way these
will tour the new building as it's
getting ready to open in august and i
will probably be waddling around by that
point i anticipate that i will be as big
about so like it or not you're going to
be there with me so we're really excited
for you to join us and we hope that you
will tune in first tomorrow at 1pm for
our QA with dr. Cameron chrisman Robbins
about the first trimester and then stick
with us from belly too baby all the way
up through august and maybe beyond we'll
see where it goes look forward to
chatting with you a long way thanks