have a healthy baby

:-) So happy!

About to start 41st week, according to LMP.

This NOT funny anymore.

My bun is overcooked and still in the oven. (SIGH!)

Doctor visit today. Still just one cm, but I gained a little over FOUR POUNDS in just a week! Can you believe it! We also got to see the baby on ultra-sound, as my non-stress test showed her to be “non-reactive.” The stinker was taking a nap… when she should’ve been showing off how healthy she is! The resulting scan was very reassurring. We learned two things She is smooshed up in tight quarters and she LOVES to suck her thumbs!

After the first part of my visit I texted my husband the following. “Good visit. No weight gained this week. 1 cm dilated. Going to do a stress test.” He called me back all in a tizzy, shouting, “WHAT DO WE DO?” I said, “Hmmm…Go shopping?” I didn’t mean to upset him. I honestly thought he knew the 1 cm means it could still be weeks before the baby comes! I tried to reassure him but whenever I would tell him to calm down he would shout, “I AM calm.” I found it really adorable that he got so frazzled!

The “stress” test (which I think they called by the wrong name – I think it was more accurately called “Non Stress Test” measured the baby’s heartbeat and movement over about a 20 minute time-span on monitors. The doctor said she looked great, “like a very healthy baby!”

Holy Smokes – I gained seven pound in the last three and a half weeks, while I’ve been on vacation. This is twice the rate of 1 pound per week I am SUPPOSED to be gaining. Guess I don’t have to worry about the underweight problem anymore. Baby measured 28-29 weeks in fundal height and 29 weeks 1 day on the ultrasound. She is on target in her growth. I am now 8 pounds over my start weight which was too high to begin with. Now I’m hoping I don’t gain more than 11 or so pounds additional!

My SIL and I got to see her suck her little thumb and chomp on her fist. We could even see her little tongue going in and out of her mouth when she opened and closed it!

28 weeks along
Terrifying gush of blood, though I felt just fine.
Admitted to OB ward for heart monitors, ultrasound, and pelvic exam.
Long story short… Rebecca is fine. I am fine.
This just happens sometimes. Doctor’s orders – no exercise, lifting, and “pelvic rest” until there’s no more bleeding for a week. Whatever it was seems to be over with.
I got to see my baby on ultrasound again, though, so that’s always reassuring. She measured a few days ahead of schedule in her growth as she’s been doing all along. The tech said she weighed 2.8 pounds now. Relieved and thankful.

We knew we wanted the baby to have the same initials as her brother who will be 23 when she is born. We were having trouble finding one we loved and I told hubby, maybe we should just give up on a letter “R” first name since there were so many beautiful ones that we loved which don’t begin with “R.”

Then Hubby said something which gave me chills down my spine. He said, “No. There are 23 years between them. I want this baby’s name to be A TIE between the two of them.” I whispered… “Honey! Do you know what Rebecca means? It means “TO TIE….”

(You see… we had narrowed the “R” names to Rebecca and Ramona by then.)

It was one of those moments. Hubby actually gasped when I told him.

So I read aloud the story of Rebecca from the old testament and she was the wife of Isaac. The symmetry here tickles me, too. If the baby had been a boy we were actually considering “Isaac” since it means laughter and his mom, Sarah, laughed her head off in surprise to be pregnant at age 90. And I haven’t stopped laughing since I found out – however, I’m “only” 41.

So the technician at the specialist’s office checked the baby by ultra-sound, part by part, for about 30 minutes. She checked the symmetry of all her bones, her liver, heart, diaphram, every vertebre of her little spine, checked her skull and face and made sure her little feet are not club-shaped (a sign of DS, I guess.) It was fun to see her moving, hiccupping, and yawning. She was very active!

The specialist came in and said everything looks great and he would lower my risk to 1 in 100 (I guess they never CAN say absolutely NO CHANCE). One little thing kept him from making it 1 in 200…. There’s a little spot of calcium in her heart, which he said occurs in 2-3 percent of normal babies and corrects itself in time. He said that in addition to how good everything else looked he isn’t worried about it.

So, I have a 99% chance to have a “normal” baby! We could opt for amnioscentesis to know for sure, but it wouldn’t change how we do anything anyway, and test itself carries some risk. So we wait and pray.

This little girl, who we’ve named Rebecca, is already who she is – as fearfully and wonderfully made (and imperfect) as any of us. I am thankful and happy – whatever happens. Okay, I’ll wipe my tears and be done with this saga now. Sorry so long!

We got back in town and had a consultation with the doctor ASAP. He said all the tests for nueral tube defects, like spina bifida, etc were negative, but that our baby “tested positive” for Down Syndrome. Luckily I’d read what the screening means and that positive means “at an increased risk for” and NOT a positive diagnosis.

From what I understand my baby had a chance of 1 in 50 to have DS because of my age, then when they factored in my blood test levels of somthing or other it actually DECREASED the odds to 1 in 110. I don’t know how this test gave me an increased chance of the disease. Like – did they look at my blood and go, “Holy Smokes this blood is 41 freakin’ years old! Let’s call this a positive test, even though the bloodwork seems to say otherwise.” ???

So, I was to see the specialist (who I’d already been scheduled to see, again because of my age!). While there at the consultation with my regular doctor we found out that the baby is a girl! The doctor let us take a peek at her on ultra-sound since she’d been uncooperative in showing us her genitals at the 16 week scan.

... your doctor’s office calls and says you need to come in TODAY to discuss your bloodtest results. The screening was for genetic abnormalities, which has been a worry for me, anyway, because I am older than your average bear (41).

Well this happened almost a month ago while I was on vacation in Florida and couldn’t come in. I reached my doctor by phone and he told me I’d tested positive on my quad screen, which could mean the baby had Down Syndrome, or abnormalities of the spine.

I asked him why it was so urgent that he needed me to come in THAT DAY and he said many moms want to know right away so they can terminate. That was never an option for us anyway. This baby will just be who she is and how she is. But she will BE.

I was worried. I won’t lie. My poor FIL was VERY worried (I was at their house, while Hubby did his drill weekend for the Army). My MIL reminded me that even though this baby is a gift from God she still will belong to Him, never really to us, anyway. FIL had started everyone praying. I felt like I should not be worried and just have more faith. Well, that didn’t help, so I gave myself a night to fret and toss and turn and cry a little and told myself I’d have a stronger faith and feel better the next day. Which I did. I never had much worry again after I woke up the next morning! To be continued…. see part two….