My first prenatal doctor's appointment

The following is cut from an email I sent to my sister and Sean's parents on September 1. I had to go to this first appointment alone as Sean couldn't get out of work that day. We were both a little disappointed but it turned out to have been for the better...

Hey there folks,

I had my first appointment at the hospital yesterday. All the doctors work out of hospitals here so don't go panicking! I met a really nice couple in the waiting room that live on the other side of the city near the "big factory" maternity hospital and they said the one we have chosen is very well known and respected. They just had their 3rd child there and were very pleased with everything. Anyways, my appointment went really well. I had an ultrasound and even got a photo printout of the wee nipper! Pretty tiny but all is well so far! So technically I'm 5 weeks, 1 day and 7 hours (the hours are crazy I know) into this journey. In two or weeks I'll go back once the spine has formed (isn't that nuts...a spine grows in 2 weeks, I can't even grow a bad haircut out in that time!) and they'll measure the spine length to determine the due date. Some sort of new fangled technology. Don't know if Asian spines grow at the same rate as Western spines so I've added that to my list of questions.

Here's something funny for you...my doctor has a pretty good command of English but he calls breasts "mama's". I figure that's short for "mammaries". So here's the question he asked me yesterday..."Do you have any descention of the mama's?" I was so surprised I actually replied with "what?!!" then "uhhhhh, yes" and then I nearly pissed my pants trying not to laugh. "Descention of the mama's" sounds like some sort of Harley Davidson biker chicks turn feminist B grade mockumentary!

...so translated into English and then Nancy-speak "Do you have any descention of the mama's?" means "Are your boobs getting bigger?". In hindsight I realized that if Sean would have been there with me to get the hiliarity of that question I would have totally lost my composure. So I count his absense for that appointment as a bit of a blessing as I'm sure I would have lost all credibility with my doctor if I melted into a giggling pool of hormones.