Lets Catch Up cont.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was learning how to crochet. And I'm proud to say that I stuck with it and I finished my first project a week ago. Mark will tell you that I have a hard time finishing crafty projects. I've got a closet full of half done projects/ideas.
I'll post a pic of my first shawl. It turned out well for a first try. The only problem is that because I chose a pattern that stretched easily horizontally, than vertically, my shawl is a little wider than I would like. It's ok, lesson learned and it still looks fine. I'm currently finishing up a yellow and white baby hat. Its hard to discribe... so I'll have to post that pic when I'm done. Lets just say its cute!

I don't know if I'll give this baby hat away or keep it for a future baby. Even though it's yellow and white, I think it looks better on a girl than a boy.

So, now I will make the offical blog annoucement that we're expecting! Due November 2nd, with a 60% chance it's a girl. We don't know yet offically cause its still alittle early to tell and Baby's legs were in the way.
The reason why we have a good guess, and why we've waited SO long to say anything about being pregnant (almost half way there), and why Mark mentioned in a previous post that we were going through "health issues", is because there was a chance that this pregnancy could have turn for the worse.

I've been debating for a while whether I wanted to post about such personal matters. I could hold off making the announcement till we were certain things were normal but then I thought it would have been odd to suddenly post that we had a baby.

We did tell family and a few friends we were expecting, thinking that since everything with my first pregnancy went by the book, that we didn't have anything to fear about telling everyone right away. Maybe that jinxed it for us too.

Without getting into too much detail, I'll explain what happened... a little over a month ago, out of the blue, the pregnancy started showing signs that it was going to miscarry. But not all the signs were there, I was not in pain, running a fever, or anything that I physically felt was wrong. It was enough to send me into panic mode because I was flying home from Seattle alone with Evan, and I couldn't contact Mark because he was on his flight back from Japan. I called my uncle, who's an OBGYN, about whether I should cancel my flight or not. He calmed my fears and said that whatever is happening has already started, and all I can do is bedrest and take it easy. So I might as well get on this flight, go home, see Mark, and see my own doctor asap. The next day my doctor took an ultrasound and found the baby alive and well, but recommended that I take things easy until we knew what the problem was. We set up an appointment for me to see an ultrasound technician to get a better idea of what was going on a week later. I had another sign of miscarriage a few days before meeting with the technician, and I really took it easy after that.

After my appointment with the ultrasound technician, I was diagnosed with placenta previa, and my doctor put me on "strict bedrest" until things got better. With a husband in bed with his eyes itchy/in pain and kept shut, and a very active 2 yr old, "strict bedrest" was impossible. I did my best to do just the bare necessities of things that needed to be done day to day and take it easy, but I'm sure my doctor would have shaken her head. I needed to be on my back because while standing or just sitting gravity was working against me getting better.

Placenta previa occurs 1 out of 250 pregnancies. Its when the placenta, what feeds and filters food and oxygen to the umbilical cord to the baby, grows and develops close to/partially over/completely over the cervix, where the baby is to exit. So, any physical or strenuous activity could pull the placenta right off the uterin wall causing baby to lose its lifeline to food and oxygen. Our placenta was completely covering the cervix, and thats what was causing bleeding. Because this was discovered early on, there was a good chance that things would resolve itself as the baby grew that the placenta would move out of the way; and I wouldn't be on bedrest for the entire pregnancy or have to deliver by c-section.

I have to say thank you so much to Liew and Michelle for being so great and taking care of Evan for me when they visited us/we visited them. I think I needed someone to step in there and make me take it easy cause I have a hard time asking for help and not being able to do anything.

It was an emotionally tough time for me. I felt alone with my problems and Mark's eye problems; that I was being the good wife and mother and taking care of things around me but no one was taking care of me. And the thought that I could loose this pregancy scared me and it would be the worst failure I ever experienced in my life, even though it was out of my control. And what if the baby did loose partial food and oxygen, would it develope problems later? To top it off, Mother's Day was shot.

I'm glad that the worse of Evan's problems during that time was just a runny nose and cough for a few days. It was kind of nice to have him sit in with my 10/11 yr old Sunday school class instead of going to nursery.

I'm glad I typed up a very well written letter to convinced my doctor to let me go to FL to visit Michelle and Jason and Elias. It was a nice distraction and great to be around friends again. I'm sure I looked weird being pushed around in a wheel chair at the airport, because I didn't look like anything was wrong.

A few days before coming out to Seattle, I had another appointment to see the ultrasound technician. And we found out that the placenta previa resoved itself. My doctor said its amazing, because she's never seen or heard of placenta previa resolving itself so quickly. I'm so glad this cloud has passed, but maybe I shouldn't have told Mark anything about not needing to be on bedrest anymore, since now his eyes are better?

My doctor still recommends that I take it easy since its hard to tell if the placenta will reattached itself where it wasn't before. I've got another appointment when I get back to DC, and then we'll know for sure if its a boy or girl too.