11 weeks with Emelia: I get to be high risk again

People have been asking me if I’m OK. Like, really OK after my visit in the ER last Tuesday. I am. I just ate half a bag of Cheetos Puffs. Chicken still makes me want to barf and while I check every time I use the bathroom for blood, I think overall, being a week later, I’m doing pretty good.

I met with my OB last Thursday for my first OB visit for 12 weeks and to talk about the ER visit from two days ago. I’m so glad I got in to see her instead of another OB I was supposed to see. We talked about what happened and how they couldn’t find anything in the hospital. We talked about my MTHFR mutation and decided that the risk of the Lovenox was far outweighing the benefits of it. She told me to continue my baby aspirin.

“What happened to you,” she told me as I sat on the exam table in my gown, “is what I’d consider a hemorrhage. You lost a lot of blood, enough to drop your hemoglobin level two points.”

Hearing her say that was… sobering.

We talked about my pregnancy with Olivia and she commented on my preterm labor. I explained that I was diagnosed preeclamptic and went into labor on my own, and I thought it was due to my body being sick. She told me that pre-eclampsia wouldn’t cause PROM (premature rupture of membranes) and that I was technically dealing with two different issues. I just love how I find these little tidbits out, you know, three and a half years after the fact.

So because I went into premature labor with Olivia, I will be going on progesterone shots weekly starting at 16 weeks and going through 36 weeks. Here I am, in the process of weaning off my PIO for the second time, thinking NOW I’m going to be done with shots forever and it’s all GUESS WHAT? YOU NEED MORE SHOTS BEOCH!

Fine. It’s OK. Let’s get this baby full term.

I also will be getting a Level 2 ultrasound in June with a perinatologist.

We discussed what kind of birth I wanted, if I wanted a scheduled C-section or if I wanted to try for a VBAC. I told her how up in the air that is right now. I mean, Olivia was breech and because she was breech for so long, I felt uncomfortable flipping her because I felt there had to be a reason she was staying that way, besides for being stubborn and wanting me to get cut open. I was cleared with my other OB to have a VBAC and I told her I’d prefer that since it’s safer, but I also don’t want an induction because I don’t know if that would lead to a C-section anyway.

Basically, I don’t have a clue what I want. But that’s something to think about later.

She tried to find the heart tones on the Doppler but because of my anterior placenta, we couldn’t hear them, so I got another US out of it. My mom was there in the waiting room, so she came with and got to see Baby doing flips in me. Everything looks good on Queso’s end. He/she was even hanging out upside-down because my uterus is so weirdly shaped. Apparently, it’s like 90 degrees tilted. Here’s a terrible US photo because it was transabdominal so the quality isn’t as good and it’s a photo of a photo. Also, that big black blob above is my full bladder. Poor Queso.

Because of my weight (thanks Cheetos Puffs) I had to do a glucose tolerance test at 12 weeks and again at 27. I’ve been agonizing over this since my nurse OB visit a few weeks ago. I didn’t want to flood my body with that crap twice and was worried about how to ask for an alternative. Luckily, she agreed to let me to a postprandial blood test. I don’t think it’s as accurate as the crap sugar test, so she advised I definitely do it for my 27-week visit. So the postprandial is scheduled for later this week.

Ironically, my blood pressure was low this visit. Every visit at my satellite clinic, it’s been high, averaging 150/100. At first, I was wondering if this wasn’t due to my white coat syndrome I developed after my pre-eclampsia with Olivia, but then at my `10 week appointment, it was in the normal range for once. Then it shot high in the ER and now today it was 104/62. I’m not sure if that was the result of the bleeding or what.

She ended with a bunch of lab work including tests for pre-eclampsia to get a baseline. I did the Harmony test because she told me I did IVF with non-PGS tested embryos and the fact that I used a donor, it might be a good idea. I was toying with it anyway because of my history of chemicals. Along with that, we’ll obviously be able to see what the sex is.

So it was a lot to take in. And I couldn’t adequately take notes because I was up on the exam table, so I’m not sure if I’m forgetting anything. But I do feel like I’m in good hands with her.