Back to Normal

I am happy to report that yesterday's OB appointment was uneventful. Angie's blood pressure is back in the normal range, and absent any consistent high readings from home, we are done for now with the elevated-threat-every-two-week appointment and back to every four weeks. So, the next appointment isn't until the end of February, at which time Angie will be just shy of 25 weeks, not that I am obsessing over that particular gestational age or anything... gulp.

I also had a weird unexpected emotional surge come over me during the doppler-portion of the appointment. The OB was maneuvering around Angie's stomach to find the baby's heartbeat (which was a beautiful 140 bpm) and it seemed like the baby was trying to kick at the doppler. The OB mentioned this, and Angie smiled and said, yeah, it feels like she is trying to kick it. All of a sudden I get all teary-eyed. A very small part of the emotional-wave was jealousy, that I wasn't the one who was feeling my baby inside of me, but mostly I just felt so, so grateful and indebted to Angie. It all just felt so REAL at that moment.

I think I have mentioned in this blog before, how I can't really get my hopes up that this is all going to work out in the end. I can't really let myself believe that I will get to take home a big, fat, healthy, full-term baby in June. That said baby is living and kicking inside my sister's belly right at this moment. That Angie is enduring some not-so-fun pregnancy symptoms (some of which she chronicled in her last post) and really putting her own health at risk, in a way, to help me realize my dream of a healthy full-term baby. That she is taking such great care of her and protecting her every day. It just all came crashing down on me at once.

Angie is not a very emotive person, so I don't really talk to her about the crazy emotions of this situation, but I just felt like I needed to say something. So, on the ride home from the appointment I said, "uh, thanks again for doing this." She just laughed at me and then told me I needed to get my eyebrows waxed ASAP and to use her frequent client card so she could get her next one free.

I'm posting, OK

I am posting this to make my sister happy, she has been nagging me for weeks, possibly months to make a post.

I have lots of things I could complain about here, my elevated blood pressure (which is perfect now thanks to ald.omet), my loss of sleep because I am no longer able to sleep on my stomach (and a husband that snores like a locomotive), or the best ailment is bleeding hemorrhoids (I know gross, I did not sign up for this).

But, instead I have decided to share my story of breaking the pregnancy news to my boys. We were at the dinner table, earlier in the day I discussed this with my husband letting him know I was getting strange looks from Trey while dressing in my stretchy maternity jeans, and I asked him if he remembered when I asked him if I should have a baby for Erin so Fletchy could have a brother or sister. He said yes he remembered. So I said well, I have a secret, I have a baby in my belly and could he guess if it was a boy or girl, he guessed correctly. Next he asked if someone could grow two babies. I said yes, knowing he would ask for one, but that I just had one baby in my belly and it was Erin's. He was fine with that and continued to ask where would the baby come out and I told him mom's have a special hole for babies where babies are born. He was fine with that explanation until the next day when I was getting into the shower and he stopped me and said wait a minute, let me see that hole. I declined and told him it was private. The next week he went to school and on the way home he tells me he told his teacher that I had a baby in my belly but it was Erin's because Fletchy has holes in his brain. I wondered why I got strange looks when I picked him up that day.

Michael handled the news a little differently, he immediately went into denial saying he was going back into my belly and Erin's baby was not in my belly. Now he has moved on to acceptance but occasionally tells me Erin's baby is in his belly.

Twenty Weeks

Yea! Please say a prayer for us that this truly is only the half-way mark. Angie had a couple of nerve-wracking days where it seemed like her blood pressure wasn't responding to the meds and remained elevated, but thankfully it looks like it is now back down into the acceptable range. Home blood pressure monitors can cause more trouble than they are worth sometimes (particularly the budget-conscious one Angie has (can you believe some of the more advance models are nearly $100!?)). Thanks, Angie, for taking it easy this past week.

Going Public

Originally, I restricted access to this blog to only those I invited in order to be able to control when I disclosed this pregnancy to my work colleagues (did you think it was because of modesty or fear of broadcasting the most intimate details of my life to anyone who stumbles upon this site... ha!). Because I was laid off in November, that obviously is no longer a concern. So, I have decided to make this blog public. I have not been good at posting, and Angie has been even worse, so this way, anyone who still reads this can use a subscription service like the one I use, that will alert you when any blog you may follow has been updated.

Second OB Appointment

Started off with the anatomy scan and guess what... it's a girl! Okay, so that is not as exciting as it could have been, you know, if we hadn't already found out gender from the chromosome screening and all. Everything looked fine with the baby and she is measuring right on target, which is good, considering that already, at one day shy of 19 weeks, Angie's blood pressure is elevated.

As most of you know, the beginning of the end of my pregnancy with Fletcher started with elevated blood pressure, so not surprisingly, this news makes me a little nervous. Angie's OB explained to me that Angie has a history of borderline-high bp anyway, so this is most likely more indicative of chronic hypertension (which is no surprise given our family history) and is not a sign of preeclampsia. Chronic hypertension is not without its risks to a pregnancy, but it is much more manageable than preeclampsia. Even so, he has prescribed her a very low dose of pregnancy-compatible blood pressure medication and also advised her to take a daily calcium supplement. He also asked her to check her blood pressure at home a couple of times a day and to make her next appointment for two weeks from today, instead of the usual four.

Angie insists that her high bp is due to the fact that she has gained more than a little weight since we started the fertility treatments (lupron is known to increase appetite, and she was on it for four or five months off and on before the cycle) and that the doctor is just being overly cautious with everything because I am making him paranoid with all of my questions and comments. But you know what, better safe than sorry. Even though I would have to pay her paycheck if she gets put on bedrest and can't work, I would gladly do that to insure she makes it well into the third trimester of this pregnancy. I just pray it doesn't come to that.