Drs appointment....

We went for our 10 wk appointment today. The doctor didn't do anything really and we both felt the appointment was kind of a waste of time. My lab work all came back fine, including my thyroid. Urine test was also good. The dr did not seem very concerned about the Subchorionic bleed and said about 30% of women have bleeding in pregnancy. She just said to call them if I have any additional bleeding and that we are doing everything we can to avoid miscarriage & everything looks great so far. She said the heartbeat being 200 bpm (which is what it was at the emergency room) is nothing to worry about. She said it is too early to hear the heartbeat on doppler, so they scheduled me to go back in a couple weeks on 07/14/09. I have always heard that you can hear the heartbeat on doppler at 9-12 wks, so I think she just didn't want to do it in case we didn't hear anything & I would panic. All in all, we didn't learn anything new about the status of the baby, and now we have to wait 3 wks for our next appointment.

I am pretty sure I can now feel my uterus, but I am not 100% sure that is what I am feeling. For now we are trusting in God and putting our faith in Him....if I decide I cannot wait 3 more weeks then I will call and request an ultrasound.

Subchorionic Bleed....

After a very long week, we were both happy it was Friday & had settled in for the night, when I went to use the restroom and noticed some light pink spotting, which quickly turned bright red. Although it was not very heavy & I did not have any cramping we decided to err on the side of caution and go to the ER. At the ER, they took blood and did an ultrasound which showed a Subchorionic Bleed of 5mm. The ER doc said it is a relatively common condition wherein the placenta pulls away from the uterine wall a little bit as it is growing and causes the bleed. He likened the baby to a cancer, where the baby is attaching like a tumor and as the placenta grows it can kind of tear. He said everything looks great and it should resolve although I may continue to have some bleeding. No heavy lifting, lots of rest, and f/u w/ Ob in 2 days.

I got to see the baby on ultrasound (Dan could not go in with me) , and it was absolutely amazing!! Lima is now 2.3 CM long, the heartbeat was 200 BPM, and the baby measured at 9 weeks 2 days. The ultrasound tech said the heartbeat was great - is usually between 120-200 BPM, so Lima is right up there at the top. She checked it twice just to be sure and both times it was 200 BPM. Considering that when we last saw Lima on u/s was about 3 wks ago & he/she was .61MM at the time, the growth rate is amazing. You can also now clearly make out what parts are what...head, arms, legs. I got to see Lima's little fingers moving & waving in the air & the tiny little feet buds where you can start to see the toes separating. Absolutely amazing, and I wish Dan had been able to go in with me to see it. When they wheeled me back from ultrasound Dan immediately knew Lima was ok by the huge smile on my face though.

Speaking of high heartrates, there is a wives tale that if the baby's heartbeat is over 140 it is more likely to be a girl..... hmmm.....

Anyway, of course I came home and researched subchorionic bleeding this morning on the internet, and it does seem to have a high success rate but can potentially cause problems with placental abruptions, but it appears that is more likely to happen with larger clots. We are still praying, but seeing Lima & knowing he/she is okay has given me a great deal of relief at this point. I have never made it this far as far as seeing the baby alive and kicking at this point in the pregnancy before. We continue to pray & keep our fingers crossed. I cannot wait for the first trimester to be over! This has been very stressful for us.

Blood work...

Yesterday was the IOB appointment, which basically consisted of them going over my health insurance coverage, hospital info/classes we can take in the 3rd trimester, obtaining both our family histories, and having me sign a bunch of forms about that tests we want done. Oh, and how can I forget, the dreaded blood work. That actually went well though - the plebotomist did a good job and I could not even tell when she switched out the vial. I did get kind of light headed afterwards though and was "kind of out of it" according to Dan.

I signed the form for the Quad Screen Test, but after talking about it we have decided to probably skip that one. All it does is tell you if your odds of having a baby with a problem are elevated, not if there is an actual problem, and apparently false positives are common. We do not want a test that will potentially just cause us more worry, especially since terminating is not an option for us. We will love what God gives us whether there are problems or not.

Other than that, the delivery will take place at St. Luke's hospital, which is a nice hospital. All Labor & Delivery & recovery rooms are private, which is a definate plus. I kind of felt that it was a little early for them to go over the hosp & stuff, but it is good info to have.

Our next appointment is on 06/23/09, which is the "make it or break it" appointment in my opinion. If everything looks good at that time then we will share the good news with everyone.

8 weeks!

We are now 8 wks pregnant & everything seems to be going okay so far. I haven't had any morning sickness at all but have been extremely tired & slightly emotional :-). We go on Tuesday for blood work...hopefully everything goes well there & my HCG levels are where they should be. After that we don't have another appt until 06/23/09 which will be at 10 wks.