My Wish..

Dearest baby boy,

Growing up a little Latin girl in New York City gave me very little (if any) exposure to country music. It wasn’t until I went to college in upstate New York, made some friends, met your father and met his family that my love & appreciation for country music began to flourish. Now I’m not a HUGE country fan (and for the record, your father is NOT a fan, lol) but I no longer have a negative reaction to the sound of a “twang” and if I wasn’t a happily married woman, I’d make Brad Paisley participate in a shotgun wedding in a heartbeat J

Any who, I’m explaining this now because I have a song I hold dear to me. A popular little diddy I imagine but like I said, I came into this music a little late. I think of you now every time I hear it. I hope one day, if you decide to get married and you decide you want a mother/son dance. I hope this can be ours <3

My Wish-Rascal Flatts

Never a moments rest.......SUA?

Oh the new things I learn everyday...

Part 2 of my anatomy scan went pretty smoothly. Baby boy is very stubborn but will give in to the technician after awhile. This time she was able to get some excellent photos of the spine but getting the photos of specific sections of the heart were still difficult because of the position he was in. 

The high risk doctor switch out with her towards the end just to see if he could have better luck with it. He did manage to get some pictures and let us know that even though he thinks it looks fine (baby has 4 chambers and everything) they want to schedule me for a fetal echo-cardiogram because he didn't get everything he needed. During the scan he also mentioned to us that our son has an abnormality with his umbilical cord. Normal umbilical cords have 3 vessels, 1 vein and 2 arteries. My son's umbilical cord has 1 vein and 1 large artery. This condition is called Single Umbilical Artery (SUA)

Naturally this threw us off guard since how many first time parents know what the hell that is?!
The high risk doctor didn't seem overly concern with this new information. Ducky has been measuring good in every aspect and the echo-cardiogram will rule out any abnormalities in the heart. He explained normal function of delivery of oxygen and nutrients could still be handled by just 1 artery. I wish I would have asked more questions but in the end he is not my regular OBGYN and I figured the best route to take would be to discuss what (if any) new plan we would have to make in light of having SUA.

I've tried not googling but I can't lie, I have a little. Most of the information out there is relatively positive but of course you always find horror stories here and there. So far I have found out that it is a rare condition, about 1% are diagnosed (1 in 100 births).

*Small vent=I'm really tired of this 1% bullshit. I was told by our R.E. we had a 1% chance of conceiving naturally without the use of fertility treatments. Can I just say...grrrrrrr? Yeah that is about as eloquently as I have the energy to put it right now, lol.

Anyways, I also found out that the reasons for it are relatively unknown and the likelihood of it repeating in another pregnancy is highly unlikely. Seems that many women have had healthy pregnancies despite of SUA however they are monitored much more closely once the diagnosis has been made. Some women have had to have early inductions if the baby is showing signs of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) since the baby will have a better time growing outside of the womb. Most doctors will not allow SUA babies to go past the 40 week mark. There also seems to be more concerns if a baby has other abnormalities besides SUA (heart defects, one kidney, markers for down syndrome, etc). So far baby boy is looking good, measuring in at a whopping 12 ounces! Just have to keep my faith strong and hope for the best possible outcome.

I'm 20 weeks today, officially half way there. Lets keep going at this my baby boy, mama's determine to make it another 20 weeks! Can't wait to meet you :)

Quaking on,
~JD

My Christmas Story...Part 2 (Finale)

Ok we continue on with the show….

Once we were at the ER I was put through a series of tests and such. They placed an I.V. in me, took about 4 vials of blood, sent me for an ultrasound and checked out the PH of my “leakage”.

Well when all was said and done a very tired and out of it looking doctor discussed our results with us. All blood work is fine, I’m not leaking amniotic fluid but the results of my ultrasound stated that my amniotic fluid came back on the low side. I needed to follow-up with my OBGYN asap. We left the hospital around 3:30am.

I spent all Sunday in bed with a gallon of water by my side in hopes by some miracle I could replenish fluid that I had somehow lost. Although I tried not to despair it was impossible not to. I was miserable and very tired. I tried to find some information on this but since the possibilities on why I was low varied from source to source, I stop googling since it was not helping me calm down. My mother spent the day with me feeding me and keeping me company. I couldn’t believe how good it felt to have her there. We have very different personalities and we tend to bicker more as we get older but when it is needed she is there in an open, loving way only. My DH is wonderful but he couldn’t provide me with the comfort I needed. I think he was having a hard time processing this as well.

Monday morning rolls around and I have an appointment with an OBGYN at my new clinic (not the doctor I had an upcoming appointment with) to see what I should do. His name was Dr. Gerber (I found this slightly amusing) and he was really wonderful. He laid down what my options would be if I had lost all my fluid and so forth but he also said that sometimes he doesn’t completely trust the results of the ER because A) They are being transcribe sometimes from a different state altogether and B) The ultrasound technician is not specialized in OB. I prayed he was right.

He checked out my cervix, it was completely closed. He also rechecked the PH of my vaginal fluids, no amniotic fluids found. Amazingly he scheduled me at a high risk pregnancy office for an ultrasound same day (mind you it was New Year’s Eve). The results of the ultrasound would determine our options.

As soon as I settled into the coolest chair I’ve ever been in, the first thing the technician stated to us was “looks to me like baby has plenty of fluids”……THANK YOU LORD!

Honestly the rest of the ultrasound was a blur; I didn’t even realize she had decided to do my anatomy scan that day as well. They didn’t get all the pictures they needed so I have to go back but to me that is just another chance to see my little Ducky. The only thing she could tell me about what happened in the ER is that the shape of my uterus might have caused them to miscalculate the amount of fluid in the amniotic pockets. DH and I couldn’t have been happier that everything was OK, although DH is ready to burn down the ER…..he was very pissed at this whole experience, I can’t blame him though. I’m also happy to say that I love my new practice and have decided to keep good ole Dr. Gerber!

So now for the part you have all been waiting for. My DH gave me two boxes to open Christmas morning. One contained a cookie cutter in the shape of an E. I got very happy at first thinking I knew what it already was but then I figured DH wouldn’t make it so easy.  We already have names chosen for both a boy and a girl and both names have the letter E in it. When I opened the second box the rest of the letters came pouring out along with a onesie. I couldn’t help but start shouting….it’s a BOY! OMG it’s a BOY! :)

 "Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'it will be happier'...." -Alfred Tennyson

Quaking on into the New Year,

             ~JD

My Christmas Story....Part 1

I don't even know where to begin. Last time I posted I was happily awaiting Christmas morning to find out Ducky's sex. I do have that information for everyone but will tell you at the end of my story. This post will be more or less a vent to what turned into a Christmas nightmare.
First off let me start by saying that the baby and I are fine. Tired & shaken but fine.

Christmas Eve was great. Good times were had with my family here at home. I didn't return to my house till about 1:30am and since it was technically Christmas morning by then I begged and pleaded with DH to let me open the gift. He complied and I had a very wonderful Christmas morning as I learned what I was carrying inside :) Now...more on that later (patience, patience)

Christmas morning we drive to Vermont to see DH's family. Drive went smoothly and the rest of the day was good as well. That was pretty much the best part of my vacation, after that things just kind of went nuts.
My DH and I became sick the following day, it was pretty bad. No fun winter activities to be had for us. My temperature went as high as 101.7 and it took a little over 24 hrs. to finally break it and keep it at a much more reasonable temperature. Those 2-3 days were a bit of a blur for me. I just remember couch, T.V., Tylenol, sleep and fluids. We stayed an extra day than planned because we were just too weak to drive home.

Flash forward to Saturday morning, Dec 29th. DH and I are good to go home. We were still weak but doing much better. Our trip that usually takes us 5.5-6hrs ended up taking 8hrs thanks to the horribly snowy driving conditions that never let up.
This day turned out very strange for me. Since the previous night I was having some abdominal pains I couldn’t explain. They didn’t go away Saturday either. The pain wasn’t too bad when I was sitting but the few times I got out of the car and walk around it felt like I had done 500 sit-ups in a row and I kept  having a lot of pressure down there. What also concerned me that day as well is the fluid I was leaking. I didn't have a full bladder when we first stop the car so I could not figure out why with every step I took I would gush some fluid out uncontrollably. Even sitting in the car after using the bathroom it keep coming out. It stayed this way for all 8 hours of the trip and so on. It didn't have a smell to it, just light yellow in color. Being a FTM I was freaked and ended up calling my new OB practice (who I hadn't met yet) to speak with an on call doctor. He told me I would need to have an ultrasound to check on everything but at this time of night I could only get one at the ER.
With this doctor’s recommendation, my DH without a moment’s hesitation whisked me away to the ER. At most we were only home an hour before we were driving again.
We went in at 9:30pm and that's when the real "fun" started.......
                                              To Be Continued