Today we had our 20 week ultrasound, to make sure the baby is developing at a healthy and normal rate as well as to find out the sex (a little later on this). For me, we needed to find out if this pregnancy was going to continue better than it has been or if it would proceed in the same, not so enjoyable vein.
The last time I wrote about my pregnancy, I was just getting over a month-long feeling of malaise. I was finally feeling well enough to start cooking and cleaning again and was excited to start enjoying this pregnancy like I did with Wes.
We went to our September check-up, everything seemed well and the heartbeat was nice and strong. Then the very next weekend I started bleeding a little bit, then a lot. I checked with my doctor's office and was told to come into University Hospital's ER if I got really crampy or the bleeding worsened. Luckily neither of those events came to pass but they still wanted me to come in Monday morning for a viability ultrasound. After throwing up in the lobby of the hospital (right in front of Starbucks, not embarrassing at all) we got a to see the baby, doing really well. A little spotting here and there, but nothing to worry about when we went to my next appointment in October.
My appointment was on Wednesday, everything again going really well and then on Thursday afternoon I started bleeding heavily. Of course it was after hours and when I got a hold of the on-call doctor, she said unless I was in a lot of pain to not come into the ER but head in to the hospital in the morning for another viability ultrasound. So I dropped Wes off with Casey Friday morning and headed up to the U to make sure everything was okay.
I got my ultrasound done, again saw the baby bouncing around and was reassured that nothing on the ultrasound indicated why I might be bleeding. I headed down the hill, got lunch for us and then went to Casey's office to get Wes and eat lunch. I was literally walking into Casey's building and felt myself start bleeding again, and heavily this time. I freaked out, called my doctor's office and waited for the nurse to call me back. Sure that something was wrong, I just waited for them to call me back and tell me to head back up to the hospital. (Not that it hasn't been a TMI post already, but here comes the good stuff!) When the nurse called me back, I had already started to head home, figuring that they would catch me on the freeway and I could whip up to the hospital, no problem.
I had been using the only maxi-pads I had at home all morning and they were overnight ones leftover from my post-delivery recovery two and a half years prior. The nurses said if I was soaking through one or more pantyliners an hour for more than one hour or having severe cramps to come in immediately. At that point I had soaked through an overnight pad in less than an hour but had no cramping. So I waited. And while I waited for it to get worse my mom came to pick Wes up and take him to a Halloween party that I couldn't make. My mom and dad took Wes for the weekend and I didn't do anything; I slept, got up, moved to the sofa, ate, and then went back to bed.
The bleeding got better early Friday evening and never did have any cramping. Sunday afternoon I drove up to north to pick up Wes but stopped at my sister's house in Clinton first. As I got out of my car I got some pretty severe cramps but they stopped after a few minutes and I was able to head over to my parent's house in Roy. I felt a pressure on my belly and had to lean my seat back and thought maybe that was what caused the cramp. I got to my Mom's house, ate lunch with them and then got Wes packed into the car and ready to go.
As I got into my seat, the cramps hit again. It was horrible pain, starting in my back and then coming forward into my lower belly. I couldn't sit down in my car and had to get out and lean over. Not wanting to leave Wes alone in the car, I walked back to my parent's door and rang the bell. My mom answered and I told her I had some bad pain and if someone could go sit with Wes for a minute. I really didn't mean to scare my parent's that bad but the cramps were horrendous and I couldn't stand up straight. My dad wanted to call Casey to come and get me but after about fifteen minutes or so the cramps were gone and I felt well enough to drive home. My parent's wanted to follow me and make sure that we got home safely but with a promise to pull-over if I had any problems, we made it by ourselves.
I went in Monday morning to get checked out and make sure the baby was alright. After hearing a strong heartbeat I got an awesome exam. I was told that my cervix was closed and that there was no apparent reason why I was bleeding. The NP I saw told me to treat this bleeding as if I had a placenta previa and to go on pelvic rest until I knew for sure if that was the case.
The Mayo Clinic explains a placenta previa as "Placenta previa occurs when a baby's placenta partially or totally covers the mother's cervix — the doorway between the uterus and the vagina. Placenta previa can cause severe bleeding before or during delivery." Pelvic rest was explained to me as: no sex, no exercise, no swimming, no baths, no undo pelvic strain and no lifting. If it was indeed Placenta Previa I would have to have a C-Section when it came time to deliver so that I could avoid bleeding out during a vaginal delivery. Awesome.
So for the next three and a half weeks I bled, sometimes heavy and sometimes light. I really didn't have any cramping or pain, so that was good. And for the fun part, my nausea and vomiting came back just to make me really appreciate Wes' easy pregnancy. Of course, during this time Wes needs to be taken care of as well. We watch a lot more movies than we used to, he goes into his playroom and plays with his toys and brings them back to me to play with and it's hard to pick him up as much as he wants.
I had plans to enroll Wes in his second swim lesson this November; he passed parent-tot level 1 and is only able to do parent-tot level 2 until he turns three. I wanted to keep the time between when he would be able to do more lessons as short as possible because he loves being in the pool. With my new no-swimming mandate there went our plans to do swim lessons before he turns 3.
Then, as quickly as it started, the bleeding stopped. Just stopped, not that I was complaining but I didn't know what to do. My appointment was that week and to be honest, I was expecting a bad appointment. I didn't say anything but I was trying to prepare myself in case we didn't hear a heartbeat; I know that negative thoughts probably weren't the best thing but I wanted to be prepared in case. Thankfully, everything was good. I had my 20-week ultrasound scheduled a few weeks after that November appointment and the bleeding stopped so my NP decided to wait to do an ultrasound to check on the previa.
So, my 20-week ultrasound was scheduled for December 3 and as luck would have it the first big snow storm to hit our area happened that previous night and early morning. After a somewhat scary drive to University Hospital (stopped car on the freeway + me and a semi trying to stop to avoid hitting him= driving 30 mph the rest of the time on the freeway) we got into the ultrasound room and got ready to watch the monitors.
Right away, we could see the baby moving all over. As the ultrasound tech was trying to get measurements the baby kept bouncing around. We got to see the baby wave at us, see the heart working perfectly, the crossed feet. She asked if we wanted to know the gender and we said yes and as she began checking I could clearly see some baby boy parts!
I had convinced myself that the baby was a girl because this pregnancy was completely different than Wes' and also because I had a dream back in the spring that I was holding a baby girl. As each of my sisters found out they were pregnant before me, I waited for them to tell me that they were having a girl and both of them found out that they were having boys. That meant that I was going to have a girl, I knew it.
Well, I guess I was wrong about the girl bit but I'm still super excited about having a boy. Wes doesn't get the whole baby thing yet but I think that these two boys are going to get into lots of trouble together pretty soon! On the whole, the baby is looking well and progressing at the perfect pace. He is measuring spot on for his age and weighs 10 ounces as of now.
For me, things aren't so positive. While the placenta has moved away from the cervix, which is good news, I have some veins that are running across the cervix which isn't good news. The doctor who read the results is calling this a complete previa at this point, so yeah. My NP called me once she had gone over the results and wanted to go over them with me. Continued pelvic rest at this point, another ultrasound in 6 weeks to determine if there are any changes and, at this time, we are planning on a C-section when it comes time to deliver.
At this point, half way into this pregnancy, I feel okay with the planned C-section. This isn't going to be a last minute surprise and I can plan for it. I feel like being able to come to terms with it now will allow for me to enjoy what I can when he comes. No, it isn't the scenario I wanted (I was hoping for a natural birth this time) but as long as a healthy baby boy is the outcome I think I'll be okay with it.
So here's to little boys! Here's to dirty knees, sweaty kisses and lots and lots of bikes. Fearless, adventurous and loving little guys who need Mommy when they get hurt and want Daddy to go get dirty with. I can't wait!
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