We are Pregnant!

This post is long long over due.  But after our struggles this year, I was holding off on posting until we had more answers and were sure things were progressing and baby is healthy!  My last post was mid October, and a lot has happened since then.  Just a week or so after posting I found out I was pregnant again.  Of course my first reaction was one of hope and excitement, but it was very quickly followed by fear and anxiety.  Then within a week a week of getting the positive pregnancy test, we met with the hematologist and finally got some answers as to what was going on with my blood work.

The doctor results were that I did have a mutation of the MTHFR gene and have anticardiolipin syndrome.  As my OB suspected, my levels where high enough to put me at risk for blood clotting, and most likely the clots where leading to the past miscarriages.  The hematologist suspects this is a new condition, not something I had when I was pregnant with the boys.  I have a ton of questions, like why would I suddenly develop a new blood clotting condition, but at this particular moment my bigger concern was what can I do to help keep this pregnancy.

The doctor recommendation is that I need to do daily injections of Lovenox in my stomach every day til 4 weeks after the baby arrives.  This is a blood thinner that is safest for pregnancy, and apparently the common treatment for a condition like this.  I hate shots, and needles, and I knew I wouldn't be able to do the injections to myself... but you gotta do what you gotta do.  That night Mike and I started our daily ritual of him giving me a shot in the tummy every night before bed.  Its not fun, it stings, and its getting harder as my belly gets bigger.  But we do it with no complaints because we know its helping baby.  Thank God for my husband.  This is definitely one of those moments that I appreciate him even more than usual, because he stepped up without any hesitation to give these injections, even though I know its something he is uncomfortable with.

We pretty much told our family and close friends right away that we were in fact pregnant again, and taking it one day at a time.  We were holding off on celebrating, praying a lot, but still hopeful for a healthy baby.  I was kind of stuck in a weird funk.  I wanted to be so excited about being pregnant, to talk about it and plan for baby, but I was so scared to get attached and scared of getting hurt again, that I resisted all urges to just let myself be an excited pregnant momma.  I had a variety of doctors appointments pretty much on a weekly basis for the first few months just to make sure things were progressing.

The week before Christmas, I had a 12 week ultra sound and all the genetic testing blood work, and I had a follow up with the hematologist.  Everything checked out great, so we decided we could officially start spreading the news and more specifically tell the boys that they were going to be big brothers!  On Christmas Eve we told the boys, Ryan was so excited, Patrick not so much.  And then we let them tell all of our friends, family, cousins, as we saw them throughout the holiday week.  It was great to finally get to celebrate the new baby.

In January, at 15 weeks pregnant we did have another scare.  One night as I was getting ready for bed, I started bleeding very heavily.  I have it about and hour to see if it continued and see if I had any other symptoms (based on my OBs recommendation).  About an hour later the blood was still very heavy and I was officially freaked out.  Mike happened to be sick with the flu that night, so I called my mom and off to the ER we went.  At that point I just wanted to hear the babies heart beat, I needed to know baby was safe.  We spent the entire night in the hospital, blood work, ultra sounds, monitoring, and the baby seemed to be doing just fine.  The ER docs were not able to identify the cause of the bleeding, just that it was not a miscarriage or the placenta, THANK GOD!  He sent me home at 5am and told me to see the OB first thing in the morning.

I followed instructions and was in the office about 10 am.  They did another ultra sound and found that I was pooling blood in my cervix, which is why it was bleeding like a heavy period.  Long story short, for some reason my body was not reabsorbing blood the way it should, and it was causing it to pool in my cervix instead.  The remedy,  modified bed rest, stay calm and quiet and relaxed as much as possible, and give myself the chance to heal.  If the blood was reabsorbed, that would be great and we can move forward, if the blood continued to pool, it could lead to early contractions and labor as my body tried to get rid of the extra blood.  So on doctors order, I did just that.  I modified all my activities, asked for extra help from anyone around that could help, and tried to rest and relax as much as possible.  Luckily it worked, and the last week of January we confirmed the issue went away, baby looked great, and I could return to normal activities (as long as I still remembered that yes I am pregnant and yes my body needs to take it easy).

I am now officially 20 weeks pregnant!  Anatomy scan ultra sound looked perfect this week, and I am feeling the 2nd trimester high!  We can not wait to meet this baby in June/July and complete our family!

Next post... finding out the gender!  And other pregnant fun!