Update on our life...

It has taken me a long time to get the courage to write this on our blog. We are not very open about our life. I mean, we have nothing to hide, but it's just not our style to broadcast our business for the world to hear, not to mention 'read' about on a blog. But, here it goes...we have decided to put updates about our life and this pregnancy on our blog so that our friends don't have to "wonder" how we are doing.

This is LONG! It is about the past 6 weeks of this pregnancy. I have to also put it out there, that we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, our OB doctor! Personally, I think he is the absolute best there is!

Ok, here it goes...
I am now 17 weeks pregnant, it has been a LONG 17 weeks and we know it will not start to move faster anytime soon. I think we are OK with the waiting for this pregnancy to be over, though. It has been a really bumpy road so far and it's not going to get any easier. This pregnancy was a big surprise to us, not a surprise to God, but a surprise to us. We were nervous about having 3 children under 3, and still are nervous about this. I guess God knows what he's doing though.

Things started out normal with tiredness, nausea, and 4 positive pregnancy tests! I started having some spotting at about 11 weeks, which made us nervous. I called the doctor and they said that it could be perfectly normal, just let them know if it got worse. Over the next couple weeks, the spotting just kept happening. I went in for an appt. and they checked the baby's heartbeat and everything was ok. They set me up for a sonogram at the hospital just to make sure nothing else was wrong. At the sonogram, they concluded that I have total placenta previa. My placenta, which is supposed to be attached to the top your uterus, is sitting completely on top of my cervix and it's putting some pressure on the cervix (not good). Doctor gave me restrictions for work and told me as long as I was careful, everything should be fine. They made sure to tell me to carefully follow my restrictions because if I didn't, and something happened, I could bleed to death before I got help. That REALLY freaked me out!!! I went to work the next day, followed my restrictions, and was very careful to not do anything I shouldn't. It was right before lunch, I stood up from a chair, and my pants were immediately soaked with blood down past my knees. We called the doctor and he was waiting at the maternal/child unit for us. I ended up being in the hospital for 4 days, not fun at all! He took me off work for the remainder of the pregnancy and told me to take it easy at home (not an easy thing to do with a 1 year old and a 2 year old). I am following orders best I can, though.

It is hard for my mind to process the fact that I need to be on restrictions, I don't feel sick and I don't feel like anything is wrong with me. Well, I went to the doctor yesterday and kind of got "slapped" back to reality! He didn't tell me anything new, but just reaffirmed that I'm not "ok". I took my printed calendar with me to show him the days in February that I had spotting or bleeding. There were 11 days, 11 out of 28 days! That is alot, and it didn't make him happy, he is very concerned for us. So, he put things into perspective for us (or more for me!) Our doctor is SO good about putting things into perspective and being extremely blunt and he's really good at bursting bubbles! But, that's why we like him so much, he doesn't sugar coat anything. He tells you the ugly truth, no matter how bad you don't want to hear it.

Here is what we were told yesterday:

• We are officially a "high risk pregnancy." I should have known this was coming, but hearing him say it made it more real.
• We have an appt. on March 19th with the high risk pregnancy specialist in Wichita. Our doc said he wants us to become comfortable with her and he wants her to become familiar with us. She is going to do an extensive sonogram to check for other problems.
• We have small goals set with the doc in this pregnancy. The final goal is for me to reach 34 weeks. If I reach 34 weeks, they will take the baby by c-section at that time.
• The doc also said the reason he wants us to become comfortable with the specialist is because he doesn't think I will reach 34 weeks, therefore the specialist would be the one there for the deliverly.
• He also said that if I keep spotting or bleeding, no matter how minimal, by the time I'm into the later 20's weeks, I WILL be in Wichita in the hospital until they take the baby :(
• And, I need to continue to be extra careful while at home.

So, the appt. yesterday went well. Nothing new thrown at us, just kinda brought me back to reality. We have had several people bringing us meals and helping out with other tasks that we may need, and we appreciate this SOOO much!!!! This whole situation is very stressful to our life in more ways than one. The whole pregnancy situation is stressful in itself, but then we have the stress of being forced to have only 1 income which was definately not in our plans anytime soon.

Pray for our family, this little "baby bean", and our finances in the coming months. I will make regular updates from here on, and I'm sure none of them will be even close to being THIS long!!!