I was concerned that it was going to take weeks to get an appointment for genetic testing. Thankfully, I got a call this past Wednesday. And they could get me an appointment the next day.
This wasn’t for the blood test though. My clinic makes their patients, those brave souls who dare do genetic testing, have an appointment with a genetic counselor first. One hour. I even called my insurance and asked if they covered genetic counseling because I was secretly hoping they wouldn’t and I could just call my clinic and demand they just send the referral for testing only. But no dice. They covered it.
Fine. At least it was over Zoom and I didn’t have to go anywhere.
And the counselor was nice. At the beginning of the appointment, I said, “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve had genetic testing for my last pregnancy, I have no concerning genetic history, but my clinic is religious and is making me jump through hoops to get the NIPT test.”
She told me they actually get a fair number of patients from my clinic and she said it was a shame because genetic screening is just giving a pregnant person more information. “It’s shame that it’s treated like this.”
Still, I had to go through the entire process. It lasted the entire hour. She went through the different options at each stage of pregnancy, we went through my genetic history and Chris’s genetic history.
“Well,” she said when she was done, “You’re what we call a boring genetic history and that’s a good thing!”
Luckily, she pushed through the process and said as soon as I clicked this link, I would be overnighted a test kit, but told me to wait at least 12 weeks. Apparently, because of my high BMI, there’s a higher chance of having an inconclusive test result if I did it before that.
Which. it sucks. I know I’m fat. I wasn’t planning on getting knocked up anymore, and I’m pretty much in the worst health of my life and I’m pregnant and it sucks.
I also found out my insurance wasn’t going to cover my first progesterone lab at 7 weeks and the first shots of progesterone. I’m pissed because I’m betting it’s because it was deemed “medically unnecessary” and my therapist had warned me about this when we were talking about the potentially unnecessary use of progesterone for this pregnancy. “Insurances are starting to crack down on unnecessary testing,” she told me. Son of a bitch. And I’m going to have a second bill coming for the second draw and the second shot.
So I’ve decided no matter what they say, I’m declining any more testing for the progesterone. Sorry guys, my insurance doesn’t cover it.
Other than that, I think I’ve been feeling the baby move a few times this week. There’s that bubbly feeling that I swear I can differentiate between an actual gas bubble and the baby.
Earlier this week I had a wicked flashback to when I hemorrhaged at 11 weeks with Emelia. It was awful. I’m okay. I recovered, but dang. Even three years later, I can still remember every detail of that night and it haunts me. And it’s very strange that I’m almost out of my first trimester and I’ve had no bleeding whatsoever. I had bleeding with both other pregnancies, though Emelia’s was much worse.
This past Sunday, we made it to the apple orchard. Emelia was born on the last day Olivia had ever gone with my parents and then we hadn’t gone for the last two years because of COVID.
The kids had a lot of fun. I was craving cider, but they were out, but they had caramel apples so I guess that was okay.
Olivia was in a Halloween parade with her class and so my parents and I took Emelia after her Halloween party at school to sit outside and watch a parade of little kids in costumes. It was adorable. Emelia was so excited when Olivia finally walked by.
That evening, we went to the school parking lot for a trunk or treat. Olivia still declined to wear her Pikachu costume she really wanted to get and decided to go as Ahsoka from last year. Emelia was so excited to wear her pony costume!
And then in continuing with the fall festivities, Chris carved pumpkins with the girls out in the driveway this afternoon since it was so nice. I was sleeping most of the morning and into the early afternoon because I felt so bad but then went out to join them later.
They were so proud of their pumpkins.
