Thursday, January 23, 2014

Ulrasounds, ultrasounds, and more ultrasounds!!!

Hey everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I have not had much energy to do much of anything lately. The nausea started around 6 weeks, and some days are better than others but for the most part, the nausea is all the time, all day long even when I wake up to pee in the middle of the night! I am 9 weeks today! Yay!! So the nausea shouldn't hopefully last for too much longer and I am definitely looking forward to it!

The first ultrasound was done a few weeks ago, which confirmed a heartbeat and gave us a better idea of how far along I am. That's right, there is just one in there!!! The oven won't get overcrowded and the bun is going to brown very nicely! :) For many reasons I was a little relieved when we figured out there was only one, but I am so glad that it is a healthy baby right now and so are the intended parents.

About a week and a half ago, I was bathing the kids before bed, and felt some warm fluid gush out and so I quickly sat on the toilet, and discovered a light days pad full of blood! Dark, crimson, blood and I have to admit, I FREAKED out!!! With my previous pregnancies, I had never had any bleeding and so especially with this pregnancy, I was a lot more worried and wanted some kind of answer as to what it could be coming from! Troy, being the awesome person that he is, finished up the baths for the kids, and I went upstairs and called the nurse emergency number to the clinic in Connecticut. I got a call back pretty quickly and spoke to the nurse that was there with me when the transfer was done. She immediately told me not to panic, and that 80 percent of their patients have bleeding in their first trimester. She acted like she was used to this happening and said to take it easy for the rest of the night and that I was on pelvic rest from that point on until further notice. This happened on a monday, and my first ultrasound was scheduled for thursday, three days later. Well, honestly, I didn't feel like I could wait that long! So, we moved my appointment up to Tuesday morning, and by that afternoon, most of the bleeding had slowed down significantly and almost stopped. I was still very nervous, and couldn't wait of the appointment. At the first ultrasound, we immediately heard the heartbeat and a lot of my fears subsided. At 6 weeks, the baby is still considered an embryo, and they are just so tiny on the screen, but we could still hear and see a heartbeat which was great! The heart rate was 123 beats per minute and the doctor said that was very good! He then did a little exploring in the rest of my uterus, and found what he called a sub chorionic hematoma. He explained to me that it is a large bruise in my uterus that was the cause of the bleeding and that the hematoma will either bleed out, so I could have weeks of more bleeding, or my body will just absorb it over time. It was definitely nice to have an explanation for the bleeding and he said that if it were going to cause a problem for the baby it would have done so already. I was relieved to hear that for sure!

On Monday, I had another ultrasound to check on the hematoma and just to make sure everything is still fine with the baby. Strong heartbeat still and heart rate has now increased to 180 beats per minute!  I have not had any more bleeding since the first time but the hematoma is still there and still fairly large according to the doc. He said, at this point in the pregnancy, the cervix has for the most part, closed up, so more than likely, my body will slowly absorb the blood clot and bruise over time.

On January 30th, I will be considered 10 weeks, and will have my last ultrasound with the monitoring clinic and as long as everything is fine, will be discharged as a patient from the clinic in Connecticut and will be free to see my regular OB. They have been notified that I'm pregnant and should be expecting me as a patient again soon! I'm a little nervous with how my doctor will react to this pregnancy but from his perspective, it's no different than any other pregnancy.

I will keep you posted on the last ultrasound coming up of course!

The intended parents are having a hard time registering that they actually have a baby on the way! For a regular couple, able to conceive on their own, there is a constant reminder there. But for them, we are countries away, and while we speak on FaceTime a lot, it's not the same. They are planning to visit at the 20 week ultrasound, and I am looking forward to it, for sure!!!

Will update next week after the last ultrasound!

Thanks for reading!
Sarah