More complications

In my last update, I mentioned how I've been holding my breath waiting for something else to go wrong. Well, it did. On Tuesday afternoon, I had another scary bleeding episode.

It happened very much the same as last time. I was sitting at my desk when I felt a sudden gush of blood. I ran to the bathroom and lost bunch more all at once. After 5 minutes or so, it slowed to a trickle and I was able to call my OB's office. The nurse checked with the doctor on call and advised me to go home and get in bed until further notice and go to the ER if the bleeding got worse. Luckily, that wasn't necessary and by Wednesday morning the bleeding had stopped.

It was definitely unnerving to have so much blood again right when I thought everything was going to be smooth sailing! I didn't panic this time, however, especially since I was pretty sure I could still feel the baby moving. While I haven't been 100% confident that it's the baby I've been feeling every time, I've noticed enough activity in that area that some of it has to be him...

I already had an appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon, so Chad and I went in together. Dr. P. immediately went for the good ol' ultrasound probe (which I thought I'd totally graduated from weeks ago!) and started looking around. She quickly spotted a small clot sitting on top of my cervix, and noticed that I also have mild placenta previa (where the edge of the placenta is on top of the cervix). The previous SCH on the top edge of the placenta is also back; it's unclear whether or not I had a new bleed from that location or if it's still the original one that became visible again. Luckily the prognosis is good: the previa is mild and should resolve as my uterus stretches and the clots are very small. However, there's a good chance I'll have more bleeding episodes. Until the previa resolves, I'm to be on restricted activity and can't lift anything over 5 pounds. I have to stay on bed rest through this weekend and can go back to work on Monday if I don't have anymore bleeding.

Profile shot

Dr. P. also did a thorough anatomy scan of the baby to look for abnormalities. She measured his neck, brain, and femurs and examined his kidneys, spine, face, heart, and umbilical cord. Everything looked totally normal! We were especially interested in the heart since we have an increased risk of heart defects since I was born with one. Right now the baby's looks fine, but it will be checked again later in the pregnancy as well.

Why hello, 3rd leg

Stats:
Gestational Age: 17 weeks, 1 day
Heart Rate: 152 bmp
Baby's Weight: 7 ounces
My Weight: -6 lbs (!)
Gender: 99.9% boy

I lost 6 pounds over the last two weeks somehow (I would have thought the totally decadent meal we had at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse last weekend would have made me gain 6 pounds, not lose it!). While it's not concerning yet since the baby's weight is spot on, Dr. P. told me to start eating small meals every 2 - 3 hours. The problem is that I'm just not very hungry lately, so I forget to eat or nothing sounds appealing.

Anyway, my next appointment is in 2 weeks. I'll update if anything interesting happens.

Combined screening results are in...

...And everything looks good! As you can imagine, I'm very relieved by this news. I've been holding my breath, waiting for something else to go wrong and give us a reason to do an amnio. However, with my results, there's no need as the risk of a major chromosomal issue is minuscule. It looks like we're finally in the clear! I can't believe we finally made it to this point...

Here are today's stats:

Pregnancy length so far: 16 weeks, 5 days
Fruit Comparison: Onion
Movement: Maybe? I feel lots of little twinges; it's hard to tell if they're kicks or not though...
Combined Screening Risks:
Down Syndrome: 1:1,100
Trisomy 18: 1:100,000
Neural Tube Defects: Negative
Next OB appointment: March 10th


Here's what's happening developmentally this week, courtesy of pregnancyhut.com:

The baby is about 6 1/2 inches long and weighs 4 ounces. The umbilical cord becomes stronger, thicker and longer as the weeks advance. It carries blood and nutrients to the growing baby. The baby’s sense of hearing is progressing as the ears move to their final position. The internal parts are well developed by now. The baby develops adipose tissue which helps in regulating the baby’s body temperature. The baby has distinctive features now and holds up the head more erect. The body and limbs of the baby are longer than the head by now making the whole body more proportionate. The baby develops pads on the tiny fingertips and toes. The eyes are well developed now but remain firmly closed.

Meconium or the excretory waste is formed which consists of a black gooey substance. If the baby is a male, the prostate glands start developing. The skeleton transforms from cartilage to bone and the bones remain flexible to be able to pass through the birth canal. The baby’s skin develops further but is still transparent. A protective cover starts developing around the baby’s skin called vernix. Brown fat deposits will start forming under the skin which will help to maintain body temperature during birth. The baby now weighs more than the placenta and loud noises can actually startle the baby.

It's (probably) a boy!

Everything continues to go well for the most part. I'll be 15 weeks exactly tomorrow and I'm definitely starting to look it. I took advantage of the President's Day sales this past weekend and purchased a bunch of maternity clothes as my regular clothes are starting to get tight. I was a bit nervous buying clothes without knowing for sure that everything was still okay!

I'm also doing great in the weight department. I'm still down 1 pound from my pre-pregnancy weight, which is perfect since I'm only supposed to gain 15 - 20 pounds total. I think this week's return of morning sickness has helped. Now please go away already as I'm really sick of saltines for breakfast.

I had a little more brown spotting this past weekend, but it seems to have stopped. Dr. P. didn't see any obvious cause for it. The SCH seems to be gone now as well! So, there's no reason I can't go to Seattle this weekend. Yay!

Here are today's stats:
Crown to Rump Length: 9.25 cm
Fruit size comparison: Navel Orange
Heart Rate: 158 bmp
Gender: Boy (80% accuracy)
Food Cravings: Sushi, especially albacore tuna sushi (mmmm...)
Food Aversions: Chicken and eggs and gingerbread cookies (?!)

Pictures are pretty blurry, unfortunately.

Alien Brain!

I'm finally starting to relax and enjoy this pregnancy now that everything continues to look normal. I didn't get nearly as anxious before the ultrasound today as I have in the past (and my blood pressure was the lowest it's every been at that office). I still get a slight ripple of fear at the beginning of the ultrasound while we wait to see if it's moving and has a heartbeat...

I go back next tuesday for the second trimester screening test that checks for spina bifada and downs. We should get both those results and Chad's genetic testing results around the end of next week. Crossing my fingers those come back okay!

First trimester screening results

I spoke to Lynn, the very nice nurse at my OB's office today. As we pretty much expected, the results from my first trimester screening blood test are good as everything came back normal. So, my preliminary risk for trisomies is the following:

Down Syndrome - 1:340
Trisomy 18 - 1:17,000

The DS cutoff for being considered at high risk is 1:100, and my age-related risk was 1:300. Once I have the second trimester screening in two weeks, we will have the final risk assessment numbers and be able to decide whether or not we want to do an amnio.

In other news, everything is going fine. My belly is definitely pooching out more and I had to go up a notch on my belt. I still think I look like I ate too many doughnuts though as all of the growth is below my belly button. I'm still having spotting from time to time and lately it has turned pink after going #2, so I was told to take Colace and continue limiting my activity. I've been chowing down on prunes and dried apricots with little effect. It's very weird for me to actually be constipated -- I don't think that's happened since before I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 16 years ago.

I will be officially in the second trimester after Saturday. Crazy!

12 weeks, 2 days: NT scan

This week I am officially in the second trimester if you go by development. At this point, all of the major organs are formed and just have to grow and mature. I'll be in the second trimester by gestation in another week and a few days.

We visited my OB for genetic counseling and the Nuchal Translucency scan. We met with the geneticist first to go over all of the possible conditions we could have passed on to our baby and determine what tests we want to do. Luckily neither of us is aware of any genetic issues within our families, and our ancestors come from different parts of the world, so that should lower our risk some. In going over my labs from PRC, we learned that I've already been tested for being a carrier of Cystic Fibrosis (negative) and had sufficient chromosome testing to rule out 90% of chromosome issues. We decided to just test me for Fragile X at the moment since that can cause high FSH.

Chad hasn't had any testing done yet, so in light of our history of recurrent pregnancy loss, we were advised to do chromosome testing on him since it could offer another explanation for all of the losses if something is detected.

After meeting with the geneticist, we moved to the ultrasound room for the NT scan. I was super anxious about this test since an abnormal results frequently points to birth defects... I tossed and turned all night last night and was really nauseous all morning. I hope someday I'll be able to accept that everything really is okay and I don't need to be nervous before ultrasounds... :-/

Anyway, all the worrying was for naught as the baby appears to be totally normal! First, Dr. P. showed us the baby's head and pointed out that the nasal bone is, indeed, present. Next, she checked the heartbeat, which was at 160 bpm. Then she got a couple of shots of the back of the neck where the pocket of nuchal fluid is located. That measured 1.35mm, which is great! Anything under 3mm is normal. It was a bit difficult to get a clear picture of the baby as a whole since I have a fibroid in the way and my uterus is tilted towards the back, Eventually, she switched to a transvaginal probe to look for the SCH. It's still hanging around, but down to 1.5cm from around 2.5cm last week.

Pictures are pretty fuzzy this week. It looked way cuter in person!

We asked if she could tell anything about the gender this week. Of course the little guy was being shy and had its umbilical cord hiding the goods! One shot might have looked like a penis, but it could just have easily been the umbilicus. The baby was sleeping initially, so Dr. P. knocked on my belly a bunch of times to wake it up! Pretty funny since after that it started moving all around (but not enough to move the umbilical cord out of the way). Maybe we'll have better luck at my next appointment in 2 weeks.

We should get the bloodwork results back in 1 - 2 weeks. At that point we will also get a risk assessment for the likelihood of Down's and Trisomy 18. At the moment, our thinking is that if the risk is around the same as the risk for miscarriage from an amnio (around 1:300), then we will go ahead and plan to do an amnio. My age related risk is around the same, so we'll see how much that changes based on today's tests.

In other news, since my SCH is shrinking, Dr. P. said most likely I'll be able to fly to Seattle in a few weeks!