28 Week Appointment

We have officially made it longer this pregnancy than we did with Dylan AND I am in the 3rd trimester. Hooray! That is so exciting for us.

This week I went in for my 28 week appointment. It did not go as well as my 24 week appointment did. At my 24 week appointment I was told that the baby looked great, my blood pressure was great, and that I was overall doing awesome. So when I went in this week, I expected to get the same sort of results. That was not the case.

Baby still looks great. He is measuring the right size and, according to the ultrasound, has already surpassed Dylan's birth weight. So exciting. He looks healthy, so there aren't any worries about him at this point. He is completely breech though, with this head right below my rib cage & his bottom & legs on my bladder. Since I have crazy insides, there is a good chance that he won't flip before my due date, so it is a blessing that we are already planning a scheduled c-section.

Now on to me - the doctor is concerned about my blood pressure. I have been on blood pressure meds, low dose aspirin, & another heart health vitamin since the beginning of my pregnancy & they have been keeping my blood pressure under control really well up until now. When I went in this week, my blood pressure was higher than normal. The nurse (who tends to overreact), was really worked up, but the doctor (who knows my history a little better) was concerned, but didn't freak out. He did however, put me on another blood pressure med & tell me to come back in a week for a recheck. We aren't really sure if the spike in my blood pressure is due to my preeclampsia showing up again or if it was high because I had taken Sudafed for two nights before my appointment, not realizing that you aren't supposed to take it if you have high blood pressure. Whoops.

They also did lab work this week - Glucose testing (to check for gestational diabetes), a 24 hour urine collection (to check for protein - a strong indicator of preeclampsia), and several blood draws (one was for the glucose, but I am not sure what the others were for). My appointment was late in the afternoon on Tuesday, so I am assuming the results will be in Thursday sometime. So now we wait. My doctor is supposed to call if there is anything abnormal with any of the results. If he hasn't called by Friday, I will be calling just to make sure that everything is fine.

Overall, I am actually feeling pretty good. I am having some minor swelling in my feet, but that's really about it. I am thankful that this has been a relatively easy pregnancy & that my doctor is very proactive about keeping me on track. I would appreciate your prayers though - even though we think that everything is probably okay, it still makes us nervous. I will update when we hear something!

Anatomy Lesson?

So in order to really understand some things about my pregnancies, you need to have an overview of my internal "issues." Just before I got married I went in for my first gynecological exam. After being given a clean bill of health, I continued to go to the doctor once a year for a check up. When we decided that we were ready to have a baby, it was taking us a lot longer than one would expect it to take. We went to the doctor & they made all sorts of suggestions about what we could do to increase our chances, including fertility drugs of some sort. I was not interested in going that route...and there was no way we had the money to attempt that. So we continued to try on our own.

In 2007 we moved back to Davenport & I went back to the same clinic I had been seen at before I got married. The doctor realized there was something not right about my female parts.

So this is what normal female reproductive organs look like:

Image from: http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/your-guide-female-reproductive-system

And this is what my reproductive organs look like: 

Image from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1521693409001205

Even as a non-medical person, I am sure you can see why this is an issue. There are a lot of things that have to come together correctly to result in a healthy baby in a normal reproductive situation. Then there is me...In our case, there are a ton more things that need to happen just right in order to get a baby. So, that explains why it had taken so long for us to get Dylan, and again why it took us so long to get pregnant with the little one we lost in 2011, and this time, with the sweet baby who will hopefully stay put until June. 

So basically, right now, my insides look like this (aside from the fact that my little stinker is breech): 

Image from: http://sincanokhanankara.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/woman-with-two-wombs-gives-birth-to-a-one-in-a-million-baby-girl/

I share all this for a few reasons:

#1 - I know there are other women out there with this condition who either don't know that they have it or who think it means that pregnancy is not going to happen for them. My advice? Find a really great gynecologist & get checked. 

#2 - I have told people about my condition & they think I am crazy. So, friends, I am not crazy. This is not a common issue, but it is real. 

#3 - We will be delivering this baby by c-section. Hopefully it will be a scheduled c-section at the end of June. If something happens, we will deliver by c-section earlier. I have several people tell me that "just because I had a c-section with Dylan doesn't mean I have to have one this time." I know that and my doctor told me he would support my decision either way, but if it was his choice, he would advise us to do the c-section. While I appreciate the feedback from friends, we have weighed the options & we feel like this is the safest delivery for both me & the baby. I'm high risk. I have a uterus didelphys, I have high blood pressure, and I have the possibility of a repeat of preelampsia. Besides all of those things, since this little guy is breech, he may not have the room to flip before delivery since my uteruses are smaller than normal sized uteruses would be. After experiencing a kind of emergency c-section delivery with Dylan, I would rather have this completely controlled, if possible. 

So that's our situation. Please keep us in your prayers, but know that things are going pretty well and we are so excited as we get ready for this little guy to join us!

Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down

I started this blog several months ago, then got distracted & never finished it. So it might be a little out of date...I'm finishing it & posting it anyway!

My friend Meggan (http://meggansmomentsblog.blogspot.com/) runs a pretty successful blog. I love reading it. One of my favorite parts are her posts about "Roses & Thorns." This is where she shares some good & bad things of her week. After the few days I've had, I decided that I want to do something similar. So Thumbs Up & Thumbs Down is born!

This week (honestly several months ago now):
Thumbs Down:
- Family letting their 1 1/2 year old wander the grocery store eating a corn dog & chewing on a still wrapped candy bar. Although at least the candy bar wasn't opened, right? (Side note: This week I saw a lady eating something in the check out line. I see people all the time wandering around Walmart eating popcorn chicken. What is this about? Why is it considered okay?!)
- Morning (or in my case - mid-morning) sickness. Yuck. (And yes, several months later, I am still experiencing unexpected & occasional morning sickness.)

Thumbs Up:
- Seeing a 4 door sedan with the licence plate "Poorsh." That's awesome.
- Preschool shows. As annoying as they can be, I have silence in my house right now (aside from the sounds of Little Einsteins).
- Pregnancy! Even with the morning sickness, I still love being pregnant! (And if I make it 5 more days, I will be pregnant longer than I was with Dylan! Double thumbs up!)
- Little boys. I cannot believe I was once sad about Dylan not being a girl. He is nuts and hilarious. How can you not give a thumbs up to someone who is so imaginative and creative? And crazy. For real. He sure keeps us entertained!