Friday 22 July 2016

14 Weeks





Officially in the 2nd trimester for the first time! Woohoo!

We had our 13 week scan on Monday and bubba is looking perfect. Measuring right on track for every measurement and, even though we already have a low risk assessment from the NIPT, the NT measurements were all perfect as well. Was overwhelming to see all the little numbers, like the tiny thing bones measuring 1.2cm.

That afternoon we had the first midwife appointment at the hospital. Again I freaked out about having to see the Doctor from last time, thankfully he was nowhere to be seen. The appointment was much less complex than I thought it would be, basically she asked a few questions about diet and lifestyle, and told us a bit of information about parenting classes, etc. She did also say that due mainly to my age but also BMI I am high risk for gestational diabetes and that I have to go for an early GTT. That's booked in for next week.

After such a positive scan we decided to tell my family. It was really difficult. I just kept hearing over and over how 'things have worked out now' and really, who knows? There was also mention of 'first grandchild etc and that was hard to take. The first couple of times I corrected people, to acknowledge the babies we have lost, but in the end I just stopped, it was too upsetting to go over each time.

So to top it off I have been feeling a little odd since Tuesday night. After a busy day, I started to feel a little aching in the muscles on either side of my tummy. This stayed around on Wednesday and I didn't feel the little 'flutters' I've been thinking are baby. Still didn't feel 100% on Thursday and started to worry that something had gone wrong. I'm sure it was just my over reaction to telling people on Tuesday, I was sure I had jinxed this pregnancy somehow. Late Thursday everything seems to be back to 'normal' and I felt my little flutters last night and again this morning. I hope all is well in there!

My progesterone this week was 50.8 (161.4) and the specialist is happy with that. She said minor fluctuations are normal, and as I had dropped my dose it was to be expected, but still well above where she wants me at the moment. She also wants me to stay on the current dose for the next week and see how we go.

I'm hoping to head back to school next week. The high progesterone and the midday dose is causing extreme fatigue but seems to have eased off a little. It's only three days so I'm hoping I can manage!


Saturday 16 July 2016

13 Weeks


So now we have reached 13w3d! Every day is another step closer and that's what I keep reminding myself. Today our baby is still with us and that has to be enough.

After my little scare on Monday I was thrilled to get my progesterone results back yesterday, 171! 53.4! Amazing! It's looking more likely that the placenta has well and truly kicked in as I had only been on the extra 400mg of progesterone for 2 days when this test was taken. On hearing the result our specialist was thrilled and wants me to drop down 200mg for the week and we will test again next week. If all is well, I'll drop 200mg a week until I am off.

Having heard that news, my anxiety then switched to the next available target - Monday. Monday is a big day for us. We are having our big 12 week (but almost 14 week) scan, redrawing for the NIPT and then in the afternoon I have my first midwife appointment which means going back to the hospital again. I am so scared of having to see that previous specialist again - I can't get it out of my head! I'm also a little worried that I won't have the results of that morning's scan to take with me, but my GP didn't seem to think that was a big deal.

I finally remembered to get my blood pressure taken again, back to 130/80 which is exactly normal for me. This was good news after my high reading at the previous hospital appointment with the high risk registrar.

Apart from that, the next question will be how much longer I can put off telling family. My little bump is obvious to me (I can feel it in the way all my clothes are starting to feel so snug!) but it's winter so jumpers and jackets and my natural 'padding' go a long way to hiding it, most of the time. It's just that weekly visit to my nan that has me worried! Nothing escapes her! I'm also really starting to feel that I want people to know about our baby. I want to be able to tell people about their grandchild, niece or nephew, or cousin, I really want people to acknowledge that this little one exists...but I also break out in a cold sweat thinking about it! The other thing that worries me is people thinking that suddenly our other babies don't matter, and that couldn't be further from the truth. I overheard someone talking in the supermarket about having two children under 2 years old and thought, 'That could have been me.' Needless to say tears soon followed.

As much as I am in love with the little one growing inside me, nothing will ever take the place of the babies we have loved before and lost.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

12 Weeks


Week 12 has been an absolute rollercoaster. All the anxiety, all the time.

It started with a call from our specialists office to say that she was away sick, but our NIPT came back as 'no result' and that we would have to do another blood draw at 14 weeks. We booked this in for the same day as our 13 week scan. Then I started obsessing about all the reasons that we might have no result, maybe something is wrong with baby/placenta/my blood... and so on. We did a lot of reading over the next few hours and found that although they can do the test from 10 weeks (I had been 11w2d) they recommend at least 12-13 weeks. So I managed to calm down a little.

The following day I received a call from our specialist. She saw our 'no result' and knew that wouldn't be good enough for us, so she actually called the testing centre to find out more details. Apparently they don't report an official result unless more than 4% fetal DNA is found, and they only had 3.2% from me. However, of everything they did find, all the chromosomes were perfectly balanced, giving us a low risk result! Fantastic news! They also told us the gender of our little one, but I am not ready to share that just yet! We will still have the second blood draw done to confirm, but this really put us at ease.

I had also had my weekly progesterone test that morning and was anxiously awaiting the result. I just wanted it to be higher than the previous high result, and above 30. I didn't hear anything on Friday and then found out this was because my GP was on leave. AAAHHH! So I spent the weekend looking up everything there was to know about progesterone. So much so that I'm going to write a whole post dedicated to this troublesome hormone.

Monday school was back and I still hadn't heard. I confided in our acting AP that I was expecting a call and that depending on the result I may have to leave. She immediately told me to be sure to do whatever I need to do. So the call came through and my progesterone was only 28.25. I couldn't believe it. I was expecting a higher result as surely the placenta has taken over by now? I tried to call my specliast but she was in a meeting. Hearing how distressed I was, her lovely office booked us in for a scan and appointment with her for that afternoon.

Once again, bubba wriggled for us as soon as we saw the image on the screen. The relief I felt was immense. Hubby was lost for words, just watching our little jelly bean wriggle around. A healthy heartbeat and a growing placenta assured us that all was well. The specialist then added a midday dose to my progesterone regime (now 1200mg) and also recommended that I start taking vitamin D as my levels were low and this can affect progesterone in the body. Who knew?!

So I am off work for the rest of the week, after only being at school for one day. I don't even feel bad, although I know there will be so much for me to catch up on when I return. All I know is our little one is hanging in there and I want to give this the best chance I can.

Saturday 2 July 2016

Scan update!






That's our baby's heartbeat! A visual representation of the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. 156bmp which is right around the average for 11 weeks (150bpm).

We were told we would have a 'quick scan' before the NIPT to make sure that the pregnancy was still 'viable'- we weren't expecting such a detailed scan! We were in there for well over 10 minutes, for us this an eternity compared to scans in our last pregnancy.

The moment we saw the image baby did a little wiggle and kept wiggling for the first few minutes. It was amazing the amount of detail we could see compared to last time and hubby was truly in awe of the little person he could see on the screen. He's also convinced it's a boy, but promises he wont be too disappointed if it's a girl!

I also found out that my cervix is measuring 3.7cm which is good (anything over 3 they said at this stage) which was a relief as I'd had a nightmare the night before that it was less an two and shrinking as we watched on the screen.

I also found out that I have an anterior placenta, which means that I probably wont feel baby move until about 20 weeks according to the sonographer.  I was considering getting a doppler but thought I'd be able to hold out till feeling movement at 16 weeks or so, but I don't think I can wait that long so we might actually look into it. I know anterior placenta can interfere with that too, so a little more research is on the cards!

We were recommended to have the Percept test rather than Harmony or Panorama due to a higher accuracy with older/higher BMI women. It is also an Australian based test and we are expecting the results in 3-5 days, so should know by the end of next week.

I was just about ready to relax and actually think about the future of this little one, when my GP called the clinic during our appointment with our latest progesterone results. Having been on 800mg for the last week, I was expecting a nice high number, but it was actually lower than my last result, 88 rather than 105. They assured me that this was fine, still within the normal range, and was probably because I had taken the test much later in the day than normal. I'm going to make sure I go as close to the same time as possible each week now!

We have almost decided to tell family after we get our results back. I am happy with that decision, at the moment! I actually really wanted to call my dad today, but decided that a few more days wont hurt!