Diagnosed with Placenta Previa and Vasa Previa...

My obgyn appt did not go well yesterday. The good news is that the ultrasound from last week showed that baby is totally normal and healthy, anatomy is normal.

Bad news is I have Placenta Previa which means that the placenta is down on top of the cervix. It often moves out of the way during pregnancy, but if not you have to have a c-section because baby cant get out.

The more worrying of the two conditions is Vasa Previa, which I had never heard of until now. It means that there is a vein, or veins, which are connected directly to baby, at the opening of the cervix also. These dont move on their own, and it means a csection between 31-36 weeks gestation.

It is dangerous for baby because first of all if it is undiagnosed, as soon as the baby starts to come through the cervix, its head ruptures the veins and baby bleeds to death before he even comes out. Luckily, they found that I have this now and will be watching it closely as the pregnancy progresses. I have to have internal ultrasounds every 3 weeks now.

Our obgyn said that I will probably have to have a csection between 31-36 weeks, and be admitted to hospital a few weeks, to several weeks, before the csection in case I start early labour or begin to dilate. Dilation is also dangerous, and can rupture the veins.

Right now I am just supposed to take it easy. No exercising, housecleaning, or walking more than necessary. Not bed rest or anything, but just taking things slowly. She said I was to leave my job immediately, and I told her I already had- so thankfully I had already done that in October or I may not have made it this far. That job was very physical, and alot of heavy lifting.

We dont know alot about this yet, but it looks like everything will be ok now that they are aware of it. Baby will be born premature, but hopefully after his lungs are fully functional. We read yesterday that babies can survive at 24 weeks with artificial help, and I am 21 now.


Will keep my blog updated on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsF_Dth40Zs

Baby Boy has hiccups

This morning I woke up to what I thought was a little kick, but then a few seconds later I got another, and a few seconds later anoter, and so on. I woke Dan up so he could feel it, but baby rolled and they werent as strong anymore. He felt one or two, but that was it.

It was the absolute cutest thing I have ever experienced in my life. Very sweet. :-)

Daddy felt first kick today!

Dan has been waiting for 5 weeks to feel baby boy kick, and this morning he finally got to feel it. :-)

Baby lets me know when Im in a position he doesnt like and one of those positions is when I am sitting on the couch and leaning towards my lap top on the coffee table. He gives definite and sharp little kicks when I do that. He was doing it this morning, so I called Dan to come and see if he could feel it. Usually when I call him its too late, but not this morning. We think he might have felt one little kick last Wednesday night, but it was very soft.

It's a BOY!! :-D

Yes, its a baby boy! We are very excited, but not that surprised. Dan bought the first little boy outfit last night, we couldnt help it. We've been waiting so long to buy clothes.

When we got home from the ultrasound yesterday we made a coconut cake and coloured the inside blue, and made the outside white coconut to surprise Dans mum and dad- and we took it over to them last night.

I think its easier for everyone to imagine the baby now that we know what it is. We can settle on one of the two names we have picked and start getting the nursery ready.

Will update again next week after we see the doctor.

Its a...

We found out what baby is today! But.... I cant post it on here yet, we havent told Grammy and Grampy yet. We are going there tonight so will post it tonight when we get home. :-D

Belly pains, growth, and Im soooo hungry! :-O

Ive always had some aches and pains in my belly from really early on, so Im used to that.. problem is they are getting really bad. Not abnormal I dont think, but still not fun at all. Ive been doing some research online and Im finding that its very very common, especially around this time.

Also, something weird is going on every morning when I wake up. Again, its something that has been happening for quite awhile, but is getting worse. When I wake up in the morning my belly is really round and hard and popped out, and it hurts. I think maybe they get curled up in a certain spot while Im sleeping and it might be comfy for them, but not for me.

Ive been getting menstrual type crampiness, which I also read is common. I just generally feel like something is changing. My belly is feeling very heavy suddenly, and I have been absolutely exhausted this week. I dont know if they are going through a growth spurt or what.

Im also STARVING all the time. Its horrible because Im worried about gaining more weight than Im supposed to gain. Ive been having trouble eating veg, also, (it gives me bad belly aches) so I havent been eating enough of those lately. I need to ask the dr what the solution is to that because I have to eat vegetables. The other thing Im worried about is all of the junk that I know Im going to want over the holidays. lol This week alone we have three Christmas dinners/parties to go to.

So, I think we're in a big growth time at the moment. From what Ive read the baby is supposed to be about 6 inches from crown to rump now, and the size of a cantaloupe.

I cant wait until Monday to find out what it is. We want to name them and be able to relate to them in a better way than just referring to them as "the baby" or "them" or "it". Will write again on Monday with the big news. :-)

December 14th is the big day!

We went to our check up on Tuesday with the obgyn. Everything looks really good, and baby is growing well. It is right under my belly button now. I am 17 weeks and 5 days now. This is the last week of my fourth month.

Our next ultrasound is scheduled for December 14th and we should be able to find out what the gender is, if baby cooperates. We've been really anxious to find out, so Dan and I are very excited.

I have always had the feeling that it is a boy, so this is a good test to see if that maternal instinct that everyone talks about is accurate or not. We don't have a preference either way, though.

I noticed yesterday that my belly button isn't as deep as it used to be, so I have a feeling it will be popping out some time soon. I've been using palmers lotion too, trying to fight off stretch marks. Hopefully it will work, or at least help somewhat.

I am still having headaches. I was told tylenol is safe but still didnt take it unless things got really bad. The dr told me this week that there is no benefit to not taking it, Im just suffering needlessly. So I have been taking it once sometimes twice a day. I think they might be relenting a little bit now, but I do still get them at least once a day.

I probably won't be writing again now until the ultrasound.

Hormonal headaches?

Ugh.. So, I have had a headache since Monday morning. Non stop- 24 hours a day, for four days so far. I was worried that it was my blood pressure at first so I went to my family Dr on tuesday. They said everything was fine, baby was fine, etc..
I was wondering this morning if maybe I am dehydrated so I called the OB and they said no they think it is hormonally caused and nothing to be done about it.
I am allowed to take tylenol except it doesnt actually work for some reason. It goes from an ache to almost migraine. Hopefully it stops soon. I am trying to drink more just in case that does have something to do with it.

First movements, 14 weeks.

Today is the beginning of 15 weeks, and everything is going really well. I felt the baby move for the first time last Thursday (Nov 5th, 14 weeks). I wasn't sure at first, but then I felt it again the next night, and more over the weekend. Its almost always in the evening or before Im going to sleep.

After talking to some friends over the weekend who are exactly 3 months ahead of us, we decided to call and set up meeting with a midwife today. Unfortunately, they are all booked up until July with expected births, so were not accepting anyone new. We are on their waiting list just in case something opens, but that is very unlikely.

Its not that we arent happy with our obgyn, its just that we have been doing alot of research about obgyn vs midwife births, and wanted to at least talk to a midwife. We definitely want a hospital birth, but it looks like alot of things go on in hospital births that are not needed and cause prolonged pain and recovery for the mother. Standard episiotomys, forceps, etc..

I am resigning myself to the fact that whatever happens happens, and worrying about it will not make it any better. Dan is wonderful, and I know I will have nothing to worry about with him by me.

One baby, not two.

I just thought I should mention here that there is only one baby, not two. They had told us in the beginning, before we had the first ultrasound, that they thought we were having twins. We are not, thankfully! There is just one baby. lol

I have had a few people email me and ask if we are having two because of the way I refer to the baby as they, them, etc.. I just do that because I dont want to call them "it", and we dont know if its a boy or girl yet so I cant say he or she.

We should know around the middle of December what the gender is, so will keep posted.

Heartbeat- 13 weeks 3 days

We went for our checkup yesterday and everything was perfectly normal. The routine testing, ultrasound, blood work, was all normal.

We got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, so that was really nice. There were other noises in the background and the dr said that was movement. I have a feeling we have a real squirrel on our hands from all that movement noise, and the moving around we saw them doing on the ultrasound.

Its cute though, and it means they're happy and healthy so that's what matters.

Ultrasound, week 12.

This is the ultrasound picture from October 16th. I was really surprised at how much they were moving. I guess because I cant feel it yet, I dont think of them as moving around much. This kid was jumping and dancing all over the place, it was so cute.

We wont know the gender until the middle of December. Stay tuned... ;-)

Baby Hamilton

We decided to make this blog so that our family and friends who dont live nearby can be kept up to date on all things baby.

Baby was a surprise even though it was planned because we expected it to take longer than this. The Dr said not to expect anything right away because it takes normal healthy couples six months to a year to become pregnant. We got lucky on the very first month!

It was a relief too though because I have known for nine years that I have endometriosis and have had no way of knowing whether or not that would affect my becoming pregnant. No worries, apparently. lol Some women with endo have fertility problems and some have loads of children, no way of knowing until you try.

We are in the middle of week 12 now and finishing up the first trimester. Things were pretty rough for awhile, but I am feeling much better now. We are planning the nursery, and starting our registries.