Good News and Bad News

First I want to say thanks to you ladies who like the name we've picked out-- it has been so nice to hear some positive feedback after all the stress and anxiety we've been through lately!

A week ago, we went to a maternal fetal medicine specialist to get an advanced ultrasound done to check on the placenta. While we were there we found out really bad news, but the good news is that we are at least aware of the situation and can try to make the best of it now.

We've known ever since the week 20 ultrasound that I have a low-lying placenta, but those are fairly common early in pregnancy and normally move up and away from the point of danger-- the cervix-- over time. At a week 24 ultrasound it was moving in the right direction, but when I went back at week 32 it had taken a nosedive and was overlapping the edge of my cervix, which is called a marginal placenta previa. Previas occur in one of every 200 pregnancies, and they aren't genetic, so if you're related to me don't worry that this will happen to you too! Partial placenta previa isn't always a problem, and normally women are able to go through a closely monitored trial labor in this situation and can often have a safe birth that way. However, the advanced color doppler ultrasound I had last week revealed that there are major blood vessels on the small portion of the placenta which is overlapping the edge of my cervix, which makes everything a lot more complicated. If I were to start experiencing labor contractions and dilating, the force of contractions combined with the movement of the cervix would probably cause the major blood vessels over the cervix to rupture, putting both of us in a very bad situation with all the blood that would be lost very quickly.

It has been really hard to come to terms with all of this. This is exactly the kind of pregnancy that would not have ended well not that long ago, and it's hard for me to wrap my mind around how dangerous this situation could be and how fortunate we are to know about it. The advanced ultrasound I had done is more powerful than a 3D ultrasound and isn't routine procedure at all. I feel so lucky that my doctor ever thought to refer me to get one done and I hate to think what could have happened had I started labor naturally, the way I've been planning to for months.

Now I'm under the care of the team of OB/GYNs at my regular practice, as well as a maternal fetal medicine specialist, and I feel like I'm in good hands between all of them. The specialist, Dr. Rosemund, is the one calling most of the shots at this point, and the plan is to do a c-section as soon as the baby's lungs are matured. Normally it's best to leave the baby in as long as possible, but in my case we have to get her out before contractions become likely. We're doing an amniocentesis next Thursday, the day I turn 36 weeks, to test the amount of surfectant in the baby's lungs, which will show how matured they are. (If you're not familiar with preggo lingo, this is a test that is done by inserting a needle into the abdomen and withdrawing a little amniotic fluid from the area surrounding the baby). I took a couple of big steroid shots in my butt last week to help her lungs develop more quickly. If the test shows her lungs are ready, we'll do the c-section that afternoon or the next day. If her lungs are not developed enough to get her out right away, they will estimate how many more days it will take for them to mature and plan the c-section accordingly, but they will not wait until I turn 37 weeks because of the increasing danger of contractions starting.

So this means our little Isabella could be born as soon as nine days from now, four weeks before her due date, and I think she will be born by two weeks from now at the very latest! As you can imagine, this has been a lot to take in and it's been a struggle to adjust to all of this news. Last week was really tough, but I was beginning to feel better by Sunday and felt so good that I started doing a little housework to get ready for the baby, then Sunday night I started bleeding and having contraction and we spent the next 12 hours at the hospital. They gave me shots of a muscle relaxer to stop the contractions, and we were able to get the contractions and bleeding under control within a couple of hours. Later the specialist, Dr. Rosemund, came to do an ultrasound and found that everything looked fine for the baby and the placenta and sent me home with directions for bedrest and a warning that if I have another episode of bleeding and contractions, I will have to stay in the hospital until it's time to do the c-section. I really did not enjoy being at the hospital-- being attached to a fetal monitor all the time, having an IV that bruised my entire forearm, wearing a hospital gown, eating hospital food, and trying to sleep in a triage room with all kinds of noise through the night-- so now I'm doing everything I can to prevent anymore contractions, staying off my feet, limiting the time I spend sitting upright, drinking as much water as I can. Stephen's "Mr. Mom" training from the first trimester is coming back into play now because I can't do much of anything if I want to prevent going back to the hospital any sooner than I have to. We are just hoping that everything will turn out okay and that we will have a healthy baby girl within a couple of weeks!