We're pregnant again!! And what a roller coaster it has been so far. I am officially 25 weeks today, Sunday, October 11th. So here is the whole story from the beginning.
I had had my IUD taken out last July in 2014 and we thought we'd see what happened and to try for a second baby. Once in mid January and again in mid April I had gotten really faint positive pregnancy tests, but then would start my period a couple days later. I had called my doctor's office and they said I was testing too early and that I needed to wait longer. And if I wasn't pregnant in the next six months to come in and see them. It's crazy how some people get pregnant from having sex once or right after coming off birth control and how it takes so much longer or not at all for other people.
It was May 15th and I decided to go to the clinic here in Big Sky to have a blood test to confirm it. My hcg was 215, which is quite low. They had me come back in on Monday the 18th to test hcg again too see if it doubled and it came back at 373. It didn't double, so then I was really confused if I was just early in the pregnancy or if I was further along in the pregnancy, had had some bleeding, but the hcg numbers were really low for some reason. I was frantically googling what low hcg numbers could mean. The doctor in Big Sky estimated me at around 4-5 weeks, which didn't really make sense, but they asked that I get an ultrasound in Bozeman to confirm that it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy and that I wasn't further along, but with some sort of issues. The ultrasound ended up not showing much and they thought maybe they could see what was an egg sac, but they couldn't confirm anything. They could confirm that there wasn't anything in my fallopian tube, so that was good. But then they said to come back in a month for another ultrasound. So I had to wait to see what happened. This really has been the pregnancy of waiting and of ultrasounds (I had actually forgotten about that very first one, but that puts me at 5 ultrasounds in the last 24 weeks!).
On June 19th I went in for the second ultrasound and based on the size of the baby they put me at 8 weeks 5 days with a due date of January 24th. Now that was strange, because it was the exact same due date I had had with Cora! What are the chances of that happening?! Here was the little frog looking baby at almost 9 weeks.
I was back at the doctor's in Bozeman having another ultrasound at 12 weeks 4 days, which was in combination with the first trimester screen involving measuring the nuchal folds of the baby's neck and taking some blood samples from me. We had done this with Cora and had just decided to do it again. Here is the baby at 12 weeks and you can see the nuchal fold area of the neck that they measure...the black space on the back of the neck in between the bottom white line and the curve of the baby's neck. I thought the measurements seemed normal and similar to what they had been with Cora and I really didn't think twice about the testing. Everything with the pregnancy seemed to be on track and I even told my director at work the next day. I was into the second trimester!
By the way, I had been feeling pretty awful and nauseated pretty much from the moment I woke up until the moment I fell asleep ever since week 5 or so. We had road tripped to Oregon to see my family and spend a weekend with my college girl friends and I was starting to feel queasy and was thankful for some ginger candies my girlfriend gave me to suck on. However, as soon as we got home from that trip, around week 6, suddenly the ginger candies were revolting and the nausea kicked into high gear. I was even in Maine that first week in June and it was everything I took to be engaged in the training and act normal around my colleagues and not focus on how awful my stomach felt. Ugh, that really is the worst.
It was July 17th, just before 13 weeks, that Neil, Cora, and I packed up a rental car and headed south on a work road trip to Moab, Bryce Canyon, and the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon. It started off exciting with Cora throwing up all over herself and her car seat about 15 minutes before we got to the hotel the first night. I was dreading that we were all going to be puking from a stomach virus the next few days, but luckily it was an isolated incident. We stuck Cora directly in the hotel room bath tub and set off to find the local laundromat, which is not much to speak of in the small town of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Even with the thorough cleaning job Neil and I could manage, the car seat had a lingering puke smell for much of the trip. Febreeze definitely helped!
It was somewhere between Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon North Rim that I got a phone call from my midwife, Cassie. Cassie had also delivered Cora and was my doctor of choice for this pregnancy as well. She said that the first trimester screening had come back abnormal and that it showed a higher than normal chance of the baby having down syndrome. Normal for my age (33) is a chance of around 1 in 300-400 or so, but my chances came back as 1 out of 83. Well, hmmm. We were in terrible cell reception and she said to talk about it and give her a call back by the next day with what we would like to do. We talked a little bit with our parents and a lot with each other in the car and we decided we wanted to know for sure and we would just do an amniocentesis.
When I talked to Cassie the next day and told her this, she got back to me with the information that they don't actually do early amniocentesis until at least 15 weeks. Well, I was going to be 14 weeks that Sunday by the time we were back in Montana. She recommended doing a blood test, the Harmony, which analyzes partial fetal DNA from the mother's blood to give you a high or low risk of a chromosomal abnormality in the baby. I went in that Monday morning at 14 weeks and they sent off my blood sample. And we were waiting again.
Meanwhile, Neil and I are having to think about what we would do if the baby has down syndrome. Would we want to continue with the pregnancy? Would we have to move or change jobs or live closer to family or...or...or? Cassie told me that the Harmony test would come back in 1-2 weeks and that Planned Parenthood does terminations up until 21 weeks. I felt like we had plenty of time to think about this, to get the information, and to make a decision. But at the same time I suddenly was not very excited about the pregnancy. I didn't want to let myself get excited about the baby, because I didn't know if it was going to work out. I didn't want to tell anyone else about it or start writing this blog or let myself get attached.
10 days later on a Thursday evening Cassie called and told me that the results had come back inconclusive. They weren't able to get the results from the partial DNA out of my blood for one reason or another. I was now almost 16 weeks along (and definitely starting to show!). She said to come in to the doctor's office first thing the next morning to resend another test out. They opened at 8am, so I was going to leave at 7am for the hour drive. Right as I was getting in the car I got a call that the phlebotomist was not going to be in until 1pm and to come in then instead. I got there at 1pm, but the guy didn't come in until 2pm. Around 2:30pm he finally called me up and when I said I was there to do the Harmony test he said unfortunately they don't send that test off on Fridays because of the risk it could get stuck in a truck over the weekend. Ugh! So frustrating that I just taken my entire afternoon to accomplish nothing. Luckily they gave me the kit to take with me to have the clinic in Big Sky draw blood first thing Monday morning, so at least I didn't have to drive all the way back to Bozeman again. So I got the second test sent off Monday morning after several calls with the hospital and clinic to make sure that it was getting FedExed to the correct place. And then we had to wait another couple weeks.
In the meantime I had my regular 16 week follow up appointment with Cassie. She knew I was anxious about the results and wanting more information about the abnormal screening, so she scheduled for me to meet with a Fetal Maternal Medicine specialist, Dr. Damron, at the same time, which was great. He explained that the initial first trimester screening had shown that the hormones they measure were a little bit higher or lower than normal, which is why it had come back as abnormal. But a 1 out of 83 risk was still quite low with about a 1% chance of the baby having down syndrome. He suggested that since I had already sent off the second Harmony test that we should wait for those results first. We decided if they came back abnormal then he would get me in for an amniocentesis in Billings right away for confirmation. He gave me his direct phone number and email and asked that I let him know when the results were in, even if they came back normal. I at least felt like I had more information at this point and had a plan A, B, and C depending on what we heard back.
It was 9 days from when I sent the second Harmony test off that Cassie called me with the results. They had come back normal! Here is a picture of me at 17.5 weeks right after I got off the phone with Cassie and got the good news that the Harmony test came back normal and that there was a 1 in 10,000 chance of a chromosomal issue. I had also just finished hugging my mother-in-law and crying out of relief. I really didn't want to have to make a decision about possibly terminating a pregnancy. Whew! This was also the photo I sent to my group of college girl friends so they could guess the gender. Cassie had let me know that the blood test came back with confirmation that the baby is a GIRL!
I sent Dr. Damron an email that the test results had come back normal. He sent a really nice response saying, "I'm soooooo happy for you. Thanks for letting me know. I truly wish you all the best."
Time was flying by and before we knew it Neil, Cora and I were sitting in the doctor's office again for the 20 week ultrasound. This is the big ultrasound where they measure all the organs and bones and heart and brain, etc. It is a bit nerve wracking because you don't know exactly what they are seeing and the ultrasound tech can't tell us anything, although she did confirm that it was a girl. She also said that my placenta was a bit low and would need to be monitored to make sure that it wouldn't cause any issues for delivery. It sounded like worst case scenario if it did cause an issue, then I would need a c-section. I'd be okay with that if that was what they suggested!
Cassie had been up all night with another delivery and was currently monitoring another mom in labor, so they had us meet her in Labor and Delivery to check in. It was kind of funny (and I think freaked Neil out a bit) to be back in the place where Cora was born. What an intense few days we had spent there! We peeked in the nursery windows as well and saw one tiny little new baby sleeping. When Cassie reviewed everything she told us that this wasn't going to be my last ultrasound and that she also wanted to send off the report to the Fetal Maternal Medicine department in Billings for them to review. She'd let me know when she got the update on the official review.
Here I am at 20 weeks. I was starting to feel a bit less nauseated and more normal, but definitely feeling that my belly is bigger at this stage than it was with Cora.
Here were the photos they gave us from the 20 week ultrasound. Even a freaky 3D one! We didn't get that with Cora at all.
The next day I got a phone call from the Fetal Maternal Medicine department in Billings asking me to make an ultrasound appointment in Billings. I ended up playing phone tag with their office a bit and didn't get in touch with them until the next day and made an appointment for 3 weeks from then. I got in touch with Cassie as well and she told me she hadn't received results from the official report yet, but that she had asked another doctor in Bozeman who had said it looks like the baby may have a cyst on her ovary. They likely just want to get more detailed and better pictures with the machine in Billings. Meanwhile I'm googling fetal ovarian cysts and trying to learn what I can. And I just tried to relax and not worry until I had more information. Luckily from most of what I read online it sounded like the worst case would possibly be that it requires surgery after birth. If we needed we would cross that bridge when it came.
On October 4th I drove the 3 hours one way to Billings and stayed the night at my uncle Carle's house. At least it was a good excuse to see him and have dinner together, as well as visit some of the employers I work with there the next day too. I hadn't been feeling nervous, but suddenly sitting at 8am waiting for them to call my name to come in I started wondering if they might find something seriously wrong with the baby. The ultrasound tech took measurements of everything the same as at the 20 week ultrasound. She showed me that there was a cyst, but didn't go into detail saying the doctor would go over everything with me.
Finally the Fetal Maternal Medicine specialist, Dr. Alexander, came in. What they were looking at was basically trying to determine what the cyst was attached to and if it was causing any blockages, which it isn't. There aren't too many organs in the lower abdomen. He said if it were attached to the bladder area then they would likely see a dilation of the kidney, which he showed me isn't there and it looks completely normal. It also didn't show any evidence of being attached to the bowels at all and there is no dilation in the stomach, so those are all good signs. Most likely it is attached to the ovary and will go away on its own. I asked what would happen if it burst and he said that would be good actually because then it would resolve itself. He wants me to come back in 1 month to check it's size and all the organ functions again. Mostly they just want to monitor the cyst and it sounds like worse case scenario was like I thought and that she could need surgery after birth if it doesn't go away on it's own. Usually they go away on their own because the hormones from the mom are no longer present after birth. Also, if it gets larger proportionately or so large that it makes her stomach bigger than normal, then it could affect delivery. But it didn't sound like they were concerned about any of those things at this time and we would just have to wait and see.
In the meantime, I started feeling little movements in my lower abdomen around 16 weeks or so. And now at 25 weeks I'm feeling movements quite consistently and in different parts of my belly depending on her position. I do think everything will work out. And we'll take things one step at a time. There's no hiding that I'm pregnant either and with the possibility of photos showing up on Facebook or whatever, I just feel better with everything being out in the open. This little girl is shaping up to be one little trouble maker so far!
Here she is at 24 weeks. You can see the cyst in the lower abdomen of the second picture. And then another 3D picture with her foot and hand up by her face.
And here I am at 24 weeks with a giant belly already...and a very excited big sister!!
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