True confession: This is the first week of pregnancy where I am actually writing this in real-time. I started writing actual blog posts at about 14 weeks after I announced this pregnancy on Facebook and it’s taken me about 5 weeks to get caught up. Luckily, I started taking notes on my phone around week 6. I honestly thought I was going to miscarry and wasn’t in a place to write actual pregnancy updates as I did with my two other pregnancies. If this went south, I figured I would write one post documenting the awfulness of getting pregnant spontaneously and then going through the hell of a miscarriage.
But that never happened. Somehow I stayed pregnant. One of the weirdest things about this pregnancy is the fact that I haven’t had any bleeding. Nothing. With Olivia, I did bleed a bit in the first trimester, and then there was the Night of All the Blood where I sat in the emergency room at 11 weeks with a massive hemorrhage that turned out to be an equally massive subchorionic hemorrhage.
I’m 19 weeks now, almost 20 on Christmas Day tomorrow, and I remember having my level 2 ultrasound with Emelia this week. It still doesn’t feel real that I have this baby inside me that looks like how Emelia did when I saw her on US.
Because of scheduling, I don’t have my level 2 ultrasound for another week and a half, at 21 weeks. It’s been hard, this waiting. Waiting to find out the sex of the baby, waiting to find out if they’re healthy. With Olivia, I knew immediately she was a girl, right from the first ultrasound at five weeks. With Emelia I was SO SURE she was a boy until the genetic testing came back at 13 weeks and told me she was in fact, another girl. With this one, with Pokemon, I don’t have those same strong feelings. I feel like it would be really convenient if Pokemon was a girl because I have all of Emelia’s clothes from 3T on (2T if you count the takesies-backsies from my best friend who recently had a girl and I gave all the 2T clothes to). Oh, even the rug in the baby’s room is pink and of course, I should have gotten something more neutral, but hey, I was having my last baby and I figured we’d just go with pink.
And I feel like I already have two girls and so odds are, this is a boy. Which is totally stupid because no shit. I have a 50/50 chance with either sex. So it’s not a good reason, but I also think there’s a good chance this could be a boy as well. And I’ve been analyzing my abdomen trying to figure out if I’m carrying high or low but all it looks like is I ate a burrito.
Is it too early to nest?
Throughout the later part of the first trimester into the second, I began collecting baby clothes, both from online baby clothing stores when they were running clearances, and from the kids consignment sale I sell at. If you remember, we sold our baby stuff a while back. Though I was delighted to discover this week that I still in fact have the travel changing diaper pack I still have from when Olivia was born. The only reason a few of those items were still down in storage was that I hadn’t gotten around to selling or giving them away.
But I’ve recently scored a high chair, bouncer, and nursery glider from my city’s buy nothing Facebook group. The glider I got when I was pregnant with Olivia cost us about $25 secondhand and it lasted through two kids. It recently started squeaking when rocking in it, which was annoying when I was trying to get Emelia to fall asleep. The glider sat in her room without a real purpose for several months until this week, used more for kids leaping on it and crashing it into the wall than rocking a toddler. When I got the new glider, this one a comfy recliner that swivels and rocks, I gave away the old glider on the Facebook group.
Honestly, I didn’t want to overthink the significance of giving away the glider because I’m already overly-emotional thinking about how many hours I spend in it rocking and nursing babies. I remember sitting in it in Olivia’s nursery, back in 2015, my hands on my stomach talking to the baby and rocking in the quiet of her room.
It’s better if I just gave it away, and made way for a better rocker that was more comfortable for my ass. Plus, if this heartburn keeps up, I now have an option for sleeping upright if needed. Yay me.
The girls officially moved in together, with Emelia now sharing Olivia’s room. They were over the moon to have their bunk beds and we’ve been slowly reorganizing which has been quite the process. A desk gets moved here, the dresser moved into the baby room, and Emelia’s old dresser moved into their closet. We ordered a bigger rug since Olivia’s full-sized bed is no longer in there, and a big cube storage organizer to hold their toys.
Now that Emelia’s old room is now the baby’s room, I can move some of the things that have been taking up room in Chris’s office into it such as the bassinet ($25 from Marketplace, thank you), car seat, high chair, and boxed baby clothes to go through. It’s a good thing I feel more energized and want to nest. I nested early with Emelia too, around 20 weeks. I think it was my body’s way of getting in gear because she would come early. Hopefully, that’s not the case with this baby, but you never know.
Blood pressure
My blood pressure has been pretty stable. I’m still not happy with my systolic floating around the mid-130s, and I plan on talking with my doctor about that when I see him next week. The labetalol, because it was doubled in dosage when I went back on it last week, has been making me feel crappy. About an hour after I take my morning dose I feel off for a few hours. Lightheaded, racing heart, and breathlessness with any exertion. It sucks. I’ve had a few headaches, but luckily, it doesn’t seem to be blood pressure-related because that’s always been fine when I take it.
Liver enzymes
Last week, I also talked about the high liver enzymes after the preeclampsia labs. After some calls between my clinic and the gastroenterologist to get the referral sent, I was able to get in this week. Which was such as relief because I really wanted some answers.
I saw a really great nurse practitioner who specializes in liver disorders. After having lunch with a friend, she came along to my appointment as my emotional support person as Chris was at home holding down the fort with two kids out of school.
She told me my ALT was 146 and my AST 90. When my ALT was elevated after being on a particular blood pressure medication postpartum with Emelia, my numbers got as high as 224 (normal is 0-45). Still, they went back from down to 44 which was just under the normal range about a month postpartum. My AST got as high as 114 (normal is 0-40) postpartum as well. In fact, 9 days postpartum, my liver was at its worst. So while 146 sucks, apparently I’ve been this high before.
The NP told me my bilirubin and protein levels were normal. So that tells her my liver is “stressed” but isn’t indicating any liver damage.
I have a FibroScan test in mid-January to check my liver for scarring or stiffness, which can tell her if I have fatty liver disease. She doesn’t think I have what’s called autoimmune hepatitis, but that’s always a possibility as well. Or, this entire thing can be attributed to normal pregnancy. She told me 50% of pregnant people have these elevated liver enzymes (most probably aren’t even aware) and it goes away after the baby is born.
Besides the FibroScan, she wants to monitor my labs throughout pregnancy. Blood work monthly, which I can get through my OB to be sent to her. She also wants to run additional liver blood tests.
Overall, I’m feeling a little better about all this. My biggest worry since finding out is what happens when my liver enzymes get elevated if I get preeclampsia again, or if I need to go on that one blood pressure medication that was the only medication to stabilize my blood pressure but shot up my liver enzymes.
And basically, it is what it is. She said that would be a temporary event that shouldn’t have lasting effects on my liver. Hopefully.
