5-month check-up

Today, I had my monthly check-up, which basically consists of taking some numbers, heart rate and blood pressure, and then measuring the baby and getting a heart rate on it. What I love about midwifery is that I was there about half an hour, all of which was office time (except for the bathroom time) and we chatted about a lot of things.

The baby has been pretty consistently active since April 8, and today was no different. Rooby would not be still, so Jayme was only able to get about four heartbeats in a row before she'd have to move the Doppler to try to find the baby again. In the end, she said it was just fine and she was going to go with a heart rate in the 140s. Also, the measurements looked spot on with my being 21 weeks today, which is where I am on paper; so it's nice that the growth appears to be on track.

As for me, I'm exercising as much as or even more than normal. I'm not feeling the net four pounds I've gained - I lost some weight at the beginning, but since I started showing have felt like I really ballooned and was a bit surprised that number was so low. Everything's just moving to my torso and my... um, girls. My hair is silky and growing fast. I LOVE this part of pregnancy. I feel great. After we did the measuring and Doppler, the midwife asked if I needed help getting up. I kind of laughed and declined, stating that I'm pretty ambulatory right now. She said some women, by my stage, are having a hard time.

I actually weigh right now what I weighed right before I got pregnant with Daphne, and I'm definitely in better cardiovascular health than I was when I was 28. This pregnancy has been no more difficult, and, if anything, easier, than my younger one.

Rooby, present and accounted for

This morning at 8, we had our mid-term ultrasound, known as an anatomy scan.

James worked late last night... Well, that's a misnomer. James worked long enough that I texted him that I was going to bed at 10 and woke up and 1:30 with him still not home. His phone had died, but by 2:30 I was able to get him on Google Chat to find out that he was indeed still at work, and then I was able to sleep a little more.

He got home at around 5:00 AM, his very gracious team having let him leave since they knew about our radiology appointment. He got maybe a good hour of sleep before he had to get back up, and we made our way to the medical center.

Just as I was becoming extremely uncomfortable, the tech called us back. She took pictures of everything: 4-chambered heart (160 beats per second), stomach, kidneys, bladder, cord insertion, 3-vessel cord, brain, spine, nose, lips, creepy-ass "orbits" (sorry, kid), and I believe a femur measurement, but it's not labeled. So everything looks good, I suppose, and we don't know the gender. The baby is measuring right on target with my "on paper" dates, which means it's caught up from earlier on, when it was about a week behind.

My friend Lisa had told me to drink some orange juice or something sugary so the Rooby would be up and moving. My mother-in-law suggested drinking ice-cold water while we were there, if the baby was sluggish... but the baby wasn't sluggish. The technician said, "Oh, we're plenty active." We did get to watch it moving around on video, playing with its hands, kicking its legs, and at one point appearing to flash the Longhorns sign.

Today, James and I are both lethargic and groggy, but it was totally worth not making up sleep to see that. Thanks for the prayers and good thoughts!

It's Complicated

I think that BPI stands for "Brain Power Index" or something like that. It's my Lumosity history over the past four weeks. This is your brain on pregnancy hormones.

"Oh my gosh! You're pregnant?! Congratulations."

Well, thanks. But...

Last April, almost immediately after we got married, I became pregnant. I was aware of this for approximately three weeks before I stopped having any symptoms of pregnancy, then had a week or so of "Is it over?" before I was given a resounding "yes" and six more weeks of dealing with that process. Falling into that timeline was our trip to Haiti, the first two days of which I was an emotional basket case... and no one knew why except for James.

I didn't tell anyone that I was pregnant, because I knew at my age that it was likely, if not probable, that I'd not carry the baby to term. That's something interesting about the 25% statistic. Although it is not the majority, it feels inevitable.

So here we are again, about six and a half weeks in, and I'm unsure as how to proceed. A few people, James and my employers and my sister, among them, know that I'm pregnant. But I'm unsure as to who else to tell. The only reason for telling anyone else would be to ask for prayer. While I covet prayers for the health of this pregnancy, I also need covering for my heart.

A Facebook friend posted last week a picture of her two-year-old daughter holding an ultrasound photo and a "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book. She is 5.5 weeks pregnant. I thought, "Wow, it's all well and good for you to be celebrating. You're in your 20s." I can't celebrate. I can't be too excited. And that's exhausting to me.

So far, I've visited the midwife twice. The first time, January 7, my hgc level was 5891. Two and a half days later, January 10, they were 14229, and the progesterone was 19.2. So the hormone level is increasing as expected in a pregnancy. And now, we just wait until an ultrasound will show us more, I suppose...

Pre-natal Care Attempt, #1

Yesterday, I called the Austin Area Birthing Center about coming in for a tour. I filled out a prenatal questionnaire online, and a little while later one of the midwives called me back. 

She walked me through all of the health-issue questions I'd noted. None of them gave her pause (asthma, anemia, ruptured disc) but she did request that, if I needed help sleeping, I take Unisom rather than Gabapentin. She asked, "You *do* know it's a Category C drug during pregnancy?" I did actually know that. I'd researched both it and Naprosyn when I found out I was pregnant. I stopped the Naprosyn immediately, as it can cause birth defects in the third trimester. But I saw enough anecdotal evidence that moms had taken Gabapentin all throughout their pregnancies and had delivered healthy babies, although some of them did have their own infant withdrawals when they were weaned (insomnia, inconsolable). But I didn't know that Unisom was a possibility, and now I do. Anyway, the Gabapentin wasn't really helping with nerve pain... it was just making me sleepy. Same with Naprosyn. I'm not sure whether it helped as an anti-inflammatory; I was still in pain when I was taking it.

The midwife also noted that, when I come in for the tour (which should take about an hour and a half and includes blood work and other risk-assessment tests), that I also needed to meet with their perinatologist, the one MD that they have on staff. This, friends, is because I'm old. Apparently, I require "advanced genetic counseling." That's a tactful way to put it, isn't it?

My hope is that the risk is deemed low enough that I'll be accepted to the Birthing Center. They work with the health insurance I will have a week from now, and it's a wonderful facility. Obviously, my supreme hope is that this baby is healthy... but assuming that, I would prefer this delivery experience to be more calm and less controlled than my hospital delivery. I have no problem advocating for myself, but when one is in labor, one would prefer to concentrate on that and not have to say, "Step away from me; do not intervene unless one of us is in danger!" every half hour.