on the baby front

Well I haven't posted in a while because things have been a little crazy. While i was in for 31 wk ultrasound (Which they do because of my thrombophilia- to ensure the placental perfusion is good and baby is growing well) they found a really really rare cord issue- An intra-abdominal vein varix- basically after the umbilical vein enters the baby- it is dilated within the abdominal cavity of the baby. I noticed the U/s tech kept looking at something but i couldn't figure out what is was. Well the perinatalogist came in and explained it and said she thought i needed to have weekly NSTs and we needed to move up my next ultrasound. Well I went home and started reading-- Unfortunately reading up on it only made things scarier. The first thing I learned was one it was really rare- There are less than 100 cases documented. Each study maybe only included 7-9 patients.Then of those cases documented outcomes varied widely. Some showed really good outcomes 7 out of 7 healthy babies- other showed stillbirth and fetal loss rates of 25-44%. the problem that frequently occurs is thrombosis of the vessel- not what you want to hear when you are already high risk for thrombosis (I'm on lovenox 2x a day and aspirin)That was definitely not what I wanted to hear. Especially after all I have been through ( 8 m/cs) I called the perinatalogist back the next morning, got kicked over to high risk for my managment and we came up with a new plan- 2x a week Bpps,Nsts, doppler studies, we did steriods to speed lung development, and we are due an amnio to check lung maturity on the 12th and assuming we're good- baby will be induced then at 35 weeks- So I have to keep this baby hanging in for 11 more days and then we won't take any risks.We are hoping with our careful monitoring we could catch a "problem" before it happens but again there is enough to know who things play out when they go bad. So we are hoping we don't have to deal with that- needless to say I live hour to hour and day to day and appt to appt- poking and prodding this little boy to ensure he is always moving and dopplering him a few times a day. But there is nothing like need to be ready for the baby- so i am trying to not stress myself out- but also expedite things and get in gear. So keep your fingers crossed!

think blue

yes my ultrasound yesterday revealed- it's boy #3 on the way- I let the boys put together this blue party for dh. It looked great until smart baby found a way to get himself an early serving of cake- it was well out of reach so he went to the playroom- grabbed a lacrosse stick and used it to procure himself a sample of cake and frosting.

my kryptonite

Okay, I'll let the cat out of the bag (as zoe guessed in one of my posts)-- I am pregnant- 12 weeks today-- and that has been the main cause of my conspicious blogging (and well general life) slump for the last few months. Now if you know me and pregnancy, the two don't go well together. I get sick and basically become a hermit who leaves the house only for drs appts. and other absolute necessities because I feel TOTALLY miserable. I cut down on all extraneous and non-essential activities including things like washing my hair. Add to my already unpleasant state you have to factor in my tiresome medication regime which includes swallowing handfuls of pills each night and 2 daily shots in in hopes of keeping this pregnancy (if you are new and don't know my history I had 7 losses between smart son and smart baby and was eventually diagnosed with blood clotting issues- hence my major pregnancy medication cocktail) and then there is the stress, the appointments, the labs and ultrasounds to ensure things are progressing normally - because after having numerous pregnancies end unfortunately after perfectly normal 8 wk u/s-- you really can't relax and get excited for a long time. But I decide it was time to start acknowledging I might actually have another baby. I am happy to report that as of today (thanks to my trusty doppler) the newest smart baby is still plugging along nicely.

The other night I was bemoaning my state to smart daddy-o explaining to him just how little I was capable of doing in a day given my present condition. I complained about my inability to do simple tasks like getting dressed, cooking, as well as my lack of all "umph" and creative abilities. Seriously when I get pregnant I cannot be creative, I become a shadow of my normal self and lose all of my skills. Smart daddy-o laughed and said, "When you get pregnant you do lose your super powers".

It is totally true. Pregnancy is my kryptonite-- no leaping tall buildings, no going faster than a speeding bullet, and no accomplishing super smart mama feats- just writhing miserably, whining on the floor with green and sickly glow.

So know you know you know my weakness...