Thursday, March 13, 2014

8 Weeks, First Ultrasound and Some Answers

My belly has been pretty bloated again this week, probably from food haha. Taken at 8 weeks:


I could not be happier today! My mother and I went in for my dating ultrasound and we finally got to see our little gummy bear. He/She measured at 8 weeks and 4 days, so two days ahead of schedule (just like I expected!) and was actually wiggling around. He/She was also upside down just like their big sister was in her 10 week 4 day ultrasound :'). I got to see 5 little fingers and little tiny feet, and of course there is still a little "tail". Everything looked absolutely perfect with a strong heartbeat of 168 BPM. The only thing on my ultrasound that was something to note was that I have two very small "blood pockets" in my uterus ("hemorrhages" sound much scarier than it really is) but they are fairly common and they will dissolve on their own soon enough.

Here is baby's very first picture. I just about cried when I saw the screen wiggle at me!


I will be taking it easy on using my doppler because I have a feeling I may have been using it too often or too hard and that could be why I have the irritated areas, but even if it's just me worrying, I know everything is going well and I don't need to hear it so often this early. I have a video that I took from yesterday and it was clear as a bell, but I will upload it at another time :).

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Another bit of information that really impacted me today was learning the actual reason for my preterm labor with Evelyn. My last OB/GYN was absolutely terrible in my opinion. She didn't listen to any concerns that I had and she gave me very vague answers without ever actually looking at my history. She wasn't even the doctor who delivered my girl. This is pretty upsetting for me.. But when I told her that Evelyn passed away, without missing a beat she told me, "All women who have cervical incompetence pretty much have to lose their first baby before anything can be done about it." That was not even the cause of her passing in any way, and it was not even determined by this doctor that this was what caused my labor. This was the closest she ever got to telling me what happened and I will never get over her reaction to what happened to us.

Now skip forward to today at my new OB's office. I fully believe that I am in GREAT care. He had my records in his hands as I asked him if I could just go ahead and get the cervical cerclage at 16 weeks to prevent losing this baby if, in fact, I had a weak cervix. He told me that that was NOT the reason for why I had Evelyn early. My records showed that I actually had an infection of the amniotic fluid called "Chorioamnionitis". This infection would have been the cause of my dilation, my water breaking, and my high fever and other symptoms. There would be no reason to risk having the cerclage done if this was the cause, although I will still need to have LOTS of Perinatologist appointments to be sure.

In a way I am so, so relieved that this is the answer I've been begging to know. It still hurts to know that there was no way to avoid what happened, but at least I have some answers now. I will continue to have high hopes that this baby will be born healthy and right on schedule. Keep growing in there little gummy bear <3.

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