Anatomy Scan Scare

We had our anatomy scan today, and while it started out as a fun and exciting day, it ended on a bit of a low, worried note.

I was sick to my stomach with anxiety this morning as we waited for the ultrasound, but once we got into the room I found myself quietly calm. The tech wasn't able to tell us any results, but did tell us what she was looking at. She also spotted the, ahem, family jewels right away, so it's going to be another boy for us!

I will admit I was surprised at how NOT disappointed I was, because I was secretly hoping for a little girl. But having another boy just seemed so right, just like, "Oh, that's exactly how it is supposed to be." I was instantly very happy and content.

After the ultrasound we waited for a long hour to see the doctor, who was running way behind. She walked in and immediately said, "All right, let me talk to you about what we found in the heart..."

...and then proceeded to write something on a piece of paper for about 45 seconds while my heart pounded and my throat constricted so I felt like I could barely breathe.

That was NOT cool, Dr. A.

So here's the basics: the baby has a tiny calcification on its heart, which while not a health risk in itself, can be an indicator of Down's syndrome. The baby shows no other signs or indicators of the syndrome and in fact was textbook perfect in terms of how healthy it was. Babies who have this condition do not always have Down's, but babies with Down's very commonly have the condition, if that makes sense. Dr. A. said that she diagnoses one of these at least once a week and in all of her eighteen years she has never had one turn out to be Down's. She said she is 99.9 percent sure that the baby will be perfectly healthy.

But. We have to be certain. So they are sending us to the Maternal Fetal Medicine (high-risk pregnancy) doctor for another ultrasound next week.

So our super exciting morning took a definite dive at the end, with tears and fears and worries. All we can do now is hope and pray for a healthy baby boy. Not sure yet when our ultrasound will be, but I'll keep you posted.

OB Appointment 14w3d

Had my first appointment with Dr. A., my awesome OBGYN, on Thursday. It started off awesome as the nurse found the baby's heartbeat right away and without all the drama of last time. Baby was plugging right along with a heartbeat of 152.

The first thing Dr. A. said when she walked into the room was, "Well, look at you," with a big grin on her face. For the doctor who told me I probably would never have children naturally or perhaps at all, she could not be more delighted to be proven wrong not once, but twice now. The doctor and all of her staff are all very excited for me and it really warms my heart.

I'm doing pretty well - up about six or eight pounds from before I got pregnant (not sure what I weighed before I was pregnant) and up three pounds since my last appointment, which isn't too bad considering it was Christmas/New Years. I have made a pretty serious promise to myself to really start concentrating on eating healthily.

The one slightly worrying part of my appointment had to do with my still leaky left breast. (I was send for an ultrasound and then a biopsy of it in November when they found a small mass, which turned out to be benign). The discharge has continued and the doctor was scared for a minute when she thought it might be blood, but she did a quick test and it wasn't. She wants to send me for a mammogram pretty soon after the baby is born, just to be on the safe side.

The other really weird thing is that my blood work came back and it turns out I am somehow NOT immune to measles. ??!! The doctor said some people lose their immunity over time and some are just never fully immune. So I have to avoid anyone with the measles (does anyone even get them anymore?) and if I get them it could be fairly serious. There is no treatment, much like chicken pox, so I would just have to let the disease run its course. After the baby is born they will give me a booster shot. Just one more thing to worry about, right?

SO. The big anatomy scan ultrasound has been scheduled for January 30, and I am SO excited about it. I think we might just do a small, fairly simple gender reveal party. I didn't do one with E because the pregnancy was so scary, and I think it will be a lot of fun.

That's all for now, except that I am blogging from my new Mac Book and loving it! Happy New Year, all!

A truly wonderful day

Today my beautiful, bright, inquisitive, strong-willed, joyful, imaginative E turns two years old. It seems unbelievable that time could have passed so quickly.

We celebrated with a trip to visit his aunt at work and then took cookies to our Gymboree class, where they sang him happy birthday. Later tonight Mr. M. and I will give him a couple of presents and then take him out for his favorite meal (chicken and French fries) and ice cream.

E also made the trip to the doctor with me for my first checkup since becoming pregnant. He sat very nicely in his jogging stroller and ate his lunch and drew in my notebook while completely charming the nurses.

There was a very tense moment for me when after about five minutes of trying, the nurse still couldn't find the heartbeat. My retroverted uterus definitely does NOT help with things like that. So she wheeled in the ultrasound machine and spotted the heartbeat pretty much right away. And I got to see Baby again! Baby was lying on his/her back with one leg extended out, and we also saw the arms, some fingers and even a hint of a nose. She printed out the picture for me to take home.

I showed the picture to E, telling him it was the baby in Mommy's tummy. He looked at it quite seriously for a moment, then said, "Baby sleeping." It totally melted my heart.

The best part of the appointment (besides seeing the baby) was at the end, when the nurse, who I love dearly, gave me a big ol' long bear hug of congratulations. They all know me and genuinely care about me and it is such a comforting and reassuring feeling.

I go back to meet with the doctor in about three weeks. I will be 14 weeks along then and will get the go-ahead to schedule my anatomy scan ultrasound for about 18 weeks. EEP!

The other awesome news? NO MORE PROGESTERONE! I am SO glad not to have to mess with that nasty stuff anymore.

I'll probably be absent for a while as I try to relax and enjoy E's birthday and the Christmas season. Sending you all love and hoping for a joyful holiday season for all of you.

-DJ

I don't have breast cancer!

WOO HOO!

Went for my biopsy last Tuesday, which was a pretty scary process. They numbed me up good but I didn't realize that when they take the samples, they don't just draw them out with a needle. They like shoot something down into your b.oob with a loud SNAP and it's very intense and startling. They also left a little metal marker in the area to let future testers know it had been looked at.

I wasn't expecting to hear results until Thursday, but the awesome nurse at my OBGYN's office called me on Wednesday afternoon because she had been watching for them. The biopsy was negative for cancer and the mass is basically just denser, more fibrous tissue that they think might have been caused by the radiation I had received for my lymphoma treatment.

I'm sorry I've been so lax about posting, but with cancer scares and Christmas and planning E's second birthday party (that's right, my son will be TWO on Wednesday), things have been more than a little crazy. I'm also on deadline for the magazine that I copy edit, so once that is finished I would really like to just relax and try to enjoy the holidays.

I was supposed to go in for my first "official" doctor's visit last Friday, but it got canceled due to a snow storm in our area. Now I'm going in on Wednesday, and am very excited to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler! I am also hoping they will give me a date for my anatomy scan.

I am 11 weeks today and baby is the size of a lime. I got on the scale this morning and hadn't gained nearly as much weight as I thought, which was a huge relief. My pants have been getting pretty snug but I guess that's just partly baby bump and partly bloating from the progesterone. I'm not sure exactly what I weighed when I got pregnant, but at my best estimate I'm up 4-5 pounds, which is probably mostly just holiday weight gain anyway. My mother-in-law did tell me last night that I have a baby bump (not in a mean way), which made me kind of happy.

Well, that's all for now. Back to my editing (and listening to the dulcet tones of my son NOT napping) I go.

Have to have a biopsy

Well, I went for my b.reast ultrasound on Thursday and got some not-so-great but hopefully not too terrible news. They found a small mass (9 mm) in the b.reast that had been having the brownish discharge, and they want to biopsy it the week after Thanksgiving. The good news is that it is smooth and small and the radiologist was pretty sure that it was benign.

Still, not a great thing to have to worry about while I'm pregnant and trying to stay low stress.

So that's what's going on with me. Wish me luck.

Symptoms and such

The pregnancy app on my phone informs me today that at eight weeks, baby is the size of a raspberry and my uterus is the size of a grapefruit. I can definitely feel my uterus is bigger, especially when I'm rocking E and he is leaning back against me. If feels weird. I also have quite a belly going, although it just looks chubsy and not pregnant - the progesterone adds a lovely bit of bloating to that.

Here are the symptoms I have had so far:
-Cramping: this was worse earlier in the pregnancy and still kind of comes and goes. Sometimes it gets really intense (like menstrual cramps) and worries me, but I have to remember that with E I cramped until about 20 weeks.
-Sore back: this is much worse than with E's pregnancy, probably because I wasn't hauling around a 30-pound toddler at that time. It just gets tight and sore super easily, especially my lower back.
-Fatigue: this comes and goes. Sometimes I'll be feeling fine and then suddenly feel as if I have been run over. There's a pile of clean laundry on the bed (something I NEVER allow) because after folding two shirts I simply couldn't move anymore and had to go lie down.
Nausea: I don't have anything even approaching morning sickness, but when my stomach gets too empty I will get nauseous until I eat something. I seem to need to eat pretty steadily throughout the day to keep from feeling sick.
-Numbness and tingling in my arms: This started in last week, and while the Internet assures me it is perfectly normal, I'll call my doctor tomorrow to make sure it's okay. It's kind of just that "pins and needles" feeling and it seems to happen when I lie down to rest or stay in one position for a long time.

And now the kind of scary one: breast discharge.

Last week, I noticed some brownish spots on my bras, just a couple of little spots every day. I told my doctor and she was a bit concerned; while breast discharge in early pregnancy is not uncommon, it is usually whitish in color. Since this same breast has cysts in it that have caused me to have a mammogram and an MRI within the past year (both were clear), they are sending me for a breast ultrasound on Thursday. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it, but at least after Thursday I will hopefully have some answers.

So that's what's going on with me. I go in for my first doctor's appointment on December 6, which seems a long way off but in reality really isn't that far away. Time seems to passing incredibly slowly right now, but I am working on being as "Zen" as I can during the pregnancy. I'm doing everything I can, so I'm trying to just relax and accept things as they are.

Did anyone else have the tingling during early pregnancy? If so, drop me a line and let me know. It makes me a wee bit nervous.

Have a happy Monday, ya'll.