Trimester 2

Holy cow people. Pregnancy is no joke. With the First Trimester of Morning Sickness behind us, we were ready to start enjoying this pregnancy. We had about a month of smooth sailing, and then we received the call.

Mike and I had decided that we wanted to participate in the genetic testing that is offered through Kaiser. Which consisted of a blood test, a Level 2 ultrasound to check out little nugget, and then a final blood test. The first blood test and ultrasound checked out great, our numbers for genetic disorders such as Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18 were really low, and they said that no further testing was necessary. I did need to complete that last blood test, went in, thought nothing of it, and almost forgot about the testing in general. A couple weeks later, I received a voice message from the Genetics Department and they needed me to call back right away. Needless to say, I started freaking out instantly, but I had to wait until the end of the school day to call back.

Once I was able to get ahold of them, they told me that my final blood test came back with a Higher AFP Level than is wanted, which is cause for concern for genetic disorders such as Spina Bifida. They said they needed us to come in for another ultrasound to check things out, but they couldn't get us in for another week because of the Christmas holiday. So I will be honest, this mama started worrying and freaking out, I mean, that's human nature, right?! That next week of waiting was not too fun, even though we had Christmas festivities to keep our mind off things, it was still in the back of our minds.

When we went to the appointment, we had a consult meeting with the specialist before the ultrasound, just to go over our options should anything not ideal be found. So once we got in there, the ultra sound tech tried to get pictures of everything. They couldn't get the shots they wanted, so they had to try a couple different things, and during this time, I don't think I was breathing much, I was so nervous. They finally then called the doctor in, and she told us that while everything checked out fine and little nugget didn't have Spina Bifida, they did notice that he had a cyst on his brain which is a soft marker for Trisomy 18. As soon as I heard that, I broke down in to tears, because this is a disorder that almost means your baby won't survive more than 6 months. Through my tears, I did hear her say that they didn't see any other markers at this time, but they didn't really get the photos they wanted, so they wanted us to come back in 2 weeks to check things out.

Leaving that appointment was really difficult, and to say that I was fine the next day would be a lie. This hit me pretty hard, and it was difficult to pull myself out of it, and I was in a state of constant worry over the next 2 weeks. When we went back in, they tried to get pictures of everything they needed. The cyst was still there, but they weren't expecting it to have gone away that soon. The heart and brain looked good, which was great news, and I was so happy everything was checking out with our nugget. But then they found some issues with mama. My placenta was located really close to my cervix, so they wanted to monitor me for placenta previa down the line, and I also had placenta lakes. Which basically means I had tiny blood clots on different spots of my placenta, and this caused with the location of the placenta could cause it to grow into the uterus, which would mean I would need surgery at the time of birth to remove it, which also means I would need a hysterectomy. Even though everything was looking good with nugget, was great news, but to hear that I may have to have that surgery at the time of birth and take away my opportunity for future children, was a lot to take in after an already emotional day.

It felt like we had been dealt a difficult hand emotionally. First starting with the miscarriage back in June, then the constant morning sickness, now with the past couple weeks of waiting for answers, and now more waiting, was just a lot to handle emotionally, and mix that with pregnancy hormones, and this mama was a hot mess! They wanted to see my back in 2 months to check the status of my placenta, so we had more waiting ahead of us.

Even though the Second Trimester was a difficult one emotionally, we found out some GREAT news in this trimester! We found out our little nugget was a Big Bundle of Baby BOY Joy! We were going to plan a gender reveal with our families and friends, but with all the genetic stuff going on, Mike and I decided to find out on our own, and you guys, it was such a special moment to share just the two of us, it was perfect. We had our neighbors put the right color balloon in a box, and Mike and I took the box out to our backyard where Mike proposed to me, and we opened the box together and out floated blue balloons! Mike instantly started running around the yard and was stoked. We were so excited to finally know what we were bringing into the world.

Trimester 2 was rough, so we were very much looking forward to Trimester 3-almost to the homestretch!!