22 Weeks: Bed Rest Day 14

22 weeks pregnant today, and week 2 of bed rest. I hope I can make it another 15-16 weeks! I woke up to Anya kicking like crazy this morning, and that was pretty awesome. She never stops moving!

I had my glucose test on Monday, and just found out a few minutes ago that I failed the 1 hour test :( I have to call back to schedule the 3 hour test, which I will probably fail as well. I probably do have gestational diabetes, it would add just another "exciting, terrifiying" twist to this pregnancy! Monday was also my last visit with my old OB, so he copied my chart and gave the copies to me to take to my new OB next month.



This morning I had an appointment with fetal cardiology at UMMS, and a cervix length check. The ultrasound of Anya went well, her heart hasn't changed any. She "waved" hi (first pic), and was covering her face in the second :) She weighs about 1 lb now! Her heart rate was a good 151bpm. The tech said my amniotic fluid looked good, and Anya is still hanging out head down, like she has been for the last two weeks. After the measurement scan, they did my cervix length scan. I could tell right away, and I could tell the tech looked worried. Last week she said my measurement was 2.3cm, she looked up my scans to verify. Today, I measured at a scary 1.7cm. She asked me if I had been feeling pressure, and I said yes I did for a short amount of time yesterday. The next thing she said was even scarier... She said they were probably going to send me upstairs to L&D to monitor me for preterm labor. She left the room for what felt like forever, then came back and led me down the hall. They put me on a contraction monitor in office for 20 minutes, and in that time I did have one small contraction. The lady monitoring me wasn't concerned about that, ecspecially since I barely felt it. I thought it was just Anya rolling around and pressing on my skin, because it only felt a tiny bit tight. After being monitored, I waited an hour to see the fetal cardiologist. She did a quick heart scan, then told me to come back in two days for another cervix check, that we could not wait a whole week.

While I was there, they also set up my weekly cervix length appointments for the next six weeks, later in May I also see the pediatric cardiologist again, possibly the surgeon again, and I get to tour the NICU in a few weeks too! I have at least 12 appointments at UMMS in the next 7 weeks.

They also got a good "girl parts" shot for me today too :)

So what am I doing while on bed rest? Mostly, sitting in the recliner or laying in bed. I do get up frequently to pee, because it feels like my bladder puts pressure on my cervix if there is anything in it. I have been crocheting a lot. I've made a few things for friends (not pictured, since they haven't seen them yet, and some do read this blog!) and I am working on baby hats to donate to the NICU. I have made a few things for Anya too <3 I am not "cheating" and driving at all anymore, I am instead working out other arrangements for Emoree to be picked up from school.

We had to cancel our Ocean City trip completely :( I can't be in the car that long, or be that far away from home/hospital for an extended amount of time. Taking Emoree to the zoo for her birthday is still pending, I will rent a wheelchair at the zoo. I can't believe my baby will be 4 years old in 3 weeks! She is very much looking forward to her birthday party, she talks about it everyday. I have help to make it happen, since I can't set it up myself! I get to sit and tell people what to do, and I must say I am pretty good at that :)

I have been crocheting a lot lately :) Above is all of my yarn for baby projects!! All of it is baby yarn or simply soft (my favorite!) yarn. And below are a few of my completed projects:

This is my first loom knit blanket, it is small (about 25"x 25") and matching hat. The blanket I made with the idea of it being a good NICU isolette blanket, or car seat blanket. I also made Emoree a matching one too in a child size (not pictured).

This is my first loom knit hat <3

I made this one two weeks ago with scrap yarn I had left over.

I made this one yesterday... I actually made two (the other one is going to a special heart mom I know). I love this one!!! I saw a similar one on etsy and had to recreate it myself.

Three hats I've crocheted so far to donate to the NICU.

Last one, this is my work in progress. This is while it is still on the knit loom, it is going to be a baby hat for NICU donation, a little more than half way complete.

I might post a quick update on Friday after my cervix check!!



21 Weeks & 2 Days: Found a little hope...

After a long, emotional, depressing weekend last week, I found some sort of peace that I will be able to handle all of this, no matter which way the outcome turns out to be. I don't know where it came from, it could simply be that I had no more tears left to cry. It could be that I've looked into my options (and situations that aren't really options) just so that I would know the processes of what can happen, if that makes sense. If I understand what is going on, I am a little more at ease.

Earlier this week, I had my mind made up that Anya wouldn't make it. I talked about burial plans, and even layed there awake at night thinking about what I would dress her in when I had to say goodbye. I thought about her little hands and feet and how I needed to do hand prints and foot prints so I would never forget how tiny she was. Now I know I needed to have those plans in place so that I wouldn't have to think about it after the fact, if that ever were to happen...

Now I am in a much better place. Tuesday morning I got a call from the Perinatal Center that the preliminary amniocentesis results were good!! No extra chromosomal material, she has 46 chromosomes and is definitely a girl by DNA :) Yesterday morning I got a call that the micro-array test results were back, and all looked good: there are no mutations or abnormalities within her 46 perfect chromosomes! This means that her Hypoplastic Left Heart is simply a rare anomaly... that happens in 1 out of 100,000 babies, and makes up only 7-9% of all congenital heart defects.

Wednesday is about when I started feeling hopeful again. That morning I had an appointment at the Pediatric Cardiology dept at UMMS. They did another 1.5 hour fetal echocardiogram, and I got to meet one of the 7 cardiologists on the cardiology team at UMMS. She was straight forward with the facts and didn't sugar coat anything, but somehow she gave me hope that Anya can eventually have a normal life. She is just going to have a rough start. Once she comes home, typically 3-4 weeks (sparing any complications) after the Norwood procedure (1st, and most complex surgery), she will likely be on a feeding tube and I will have to monitor her weight, stats, and pulse ox daily. She is going to come home with a lot of equipment! Right now, I see the Pediatric Cardiology doctors once a month until I give birth, and then after Anya eventually comes home from the hospital they will need to see her once a week at least until her second surgery.

After meeting one of the pediatric cardiologists, the pediatric cardiac surgeon (who specializes in HLHS surgeries) was free to meet with me.. so we walked over to his office. I was happy to meet him. He showed us a 3D model of the heart and explained the surgeries to us again. He talked about his success rate, and how the national average is 75% successful, his for the Norwood procedure is 85-95%. He also mentioned there is a 10% mortality rate interstage, between the 1st and 2nd procedure. He said this number is decreasing however, with diligent home monitoring, home care nursing, and keeping up with frequent cardiology appts so that IF something goes wrong, they will know right away. For the 2nd and 3rd surgeries, he said he has never lost a baby during those surgeries. This made me feel a lot better :) I can picture us going through this now, and while it will be hard, I can do it! I asked about how he feels his success rate will vary with smaller babies, and he said he prefers babies to be over 5lbs (which is what I'm hoping for!), but if not he can do a "hybrid" procedure, where the first major open heart surgery is post-poned until the baby is a little bigger, and is kept on medications to keep the fetal shunts open for blood flow.

I had my cervix check this morning (which is why I delayed updating the blog until now), and bed rest seems to be working!!!! Two of the measurements I saw this morning said cervix length is about 2.4cm, which is stable, if not *slightly* longer than last time!!! While the tech was doing a quick heart scan before doing the cervix check, my mom asked me if we were going to go to Precious Previews (3D-4D imaging place) with this pregnancy, and I said no.. I get ultrasounds every week and I don't want to pay for 3D images... so when the tech was done scanning, she switched over to 3D and printed to facial shots for me <3 She had her hands in her face the whole time (like the one above, you can see her thumb and all her fingers!!), but then moved her hand for two seconds and we got the first one I posted, and you can see her facial features :) Her nose is a bit different than Emoree's!! (I'll have to find Emoree's 3D scans from around the same gestational age and do a comparison pic...)

So obviously I'm a lot happier now that we have a plan and know what is going on :) The inital shock has worn off. Over the weekend Emoree's Poppy painted the room where the potential nursery will be... and though I am excited about it, I'm not setting it up as a nursery until after I know Anya is coming home. For now, we are going to put Emoree's books and her bean bag chair in there, and it can be her "library".

My next appointments coming up are first on Monday, I see my old OB and do the glucose test (yuck), it is the first time I will be seeing him since the diagnosis and he wants to talk to me about it. After that is a fetal cardiology appt and cervix check on Wednesday.

I haven't weighed myself lately, my scale is downstairs and since I'm on bed rest, I'm not supposed to do steps!! My mom has been getting me McDonald's breakfast every morning before she goes to work (so that she makes sure that I'm eating, so she says), so I am sure I've gained weight this week for the first time in 20 weeks! I have "cheated" on my bed rest parameters... I pick up Emoree from daycare about 3 days a week and bring her home... but it's not like I'm up walking around the mall or anything!! That is the ONLY driving I do, my mom takes me anywhere else!

Update: I created a comparison pic!!! In these pics Emoree & Anya are 6 days apart gestationally, and look so different!!!! I assure you they ARE from the same donor and are full siblings!!

17 Weeks & 1 Day

So this week I had two appointments.. my regular OB appointment on Tuesday, and my first cervix length check at the Perinatal Center on Wednesday. OB appointment went quick as usual, they took some blood, and I got to hear the heartbeat. The heartbeat was clear and strong! I made my appointment for 4 weeks from now, I will be 21 weeks. My OB also said the perinatalologist wants me to do the glucose tolerance test earlier than normal, so he gave me the nasty orange drink I have to drink 1 hour before my next OB appointment. That stuff is icky... it tastes like stale orange soda.

The Perinatal Center printed me a new ultrasound pic! Yay! They did a quick abdominal ultrasound before doing the cervix check. I wasn't too fond of the ultrasound tech I had... usually the ultrasound tech will talk to you and tell you what they are measuring... this girl stayed silent. I asked her what she was measuring, she said everything looks fine. Your cervix is closed (I'd hope so!). Not exactly what I was asking though... after the ultrasound she flipped through my file, mumbled to herself, and said she needed to check with the doctor, she would be right back. Way to make a pregnant lady worry, geez! She came back and said, "ok, see you in two weeks!" I asked again what did my cervix measure, and she said, "um, well, it was about 2.8cm." I thanked her and left. From research I've done, I know they wanted me to be over 3cm. between 2.5 and 3.0cm is a wait and see sort of zone... and below 2.5cm means bedrest and if before 21 weeks, a cervical cerclage. I hope to know more at my 19wk scan... including the baby's gender. :) Hoping for a nicer ultrasound tech next time!

I feel baby move every now and then, not everyday. One thing that makes me a little nervous is after being up and about all day, by the afternoon I start feeling light pressure in my lower abdomen. I go pee about every 45-60minutes to avoid putting pressure on my cervix, but I still feel pressure! It can get uncomfortable sometimes, like today. If it gets worse, I'll call my OB, if not I'll just mention it next time...

Now I just need to get someone to give me my p17 shot today!!!

17 Weeks: 190.0 lbs (+ 0.4lbs)