9 week picture and answer session

Today I had my nine week appointment with the peri from the maternal fetal medicine group. My husband met me at their office and we got to see little Spot on the ultrasound for quite awhile. Heartbeat was ticking away at 168. The ultrasound tech did both an abdominal one and atransvag one, and then the peri came in and wanted to do a transvag one himself, so it seemed to take awhile. We got 12 cool pictures to take home, but their printer printed most of them dark. When Spot first made his grand appearance on the screen, I heard my husband gasp. I thought something was wrong, but he was just sosurprised at how much bigger Spot had gotten since he saw the ultrasound in person two weeks ago. He was most amazed to see the heart beating so clearly. Last time he saw it, it was so tiny it was hard to find. The peri also seems to think he knows where the bleeding I'm having is coming from, finally!

When we were done with the ultrasound, we sat down with the peri to talk about things. He saw a complete placenta previa right now. He said many people have this early on in pregnancy and then it moves. However, he feels like with the cramped space that the baby and placenta have due to my unicornuate uterus, it may not. Furthermore, because of the location it was at, and due to the small space of my uterus he is pretty sure that is what is causing all of the bleeding. The problem with early ultrasounds (prior to seven weeks and even 8 sometimes) is that the exact location of the placenta is not easily seen, thus explaining why it has been difficult to visualize until now.

Spot is measuring only 6 days behind, instead of the 9 days he or she was behind last week, which is great. I won't bore you with all of the details of the appointment and discussion, since the peri loves to talk and we were there over two hours. But basically we'll just continue the weekly checks and ultrasounds for right now. I'm supposed to keep them informed as to how much red spotting I have, and if I have any bleeding to let my OB or him know right away. I am so glad I can actually call it spotting and not bleeding the last few days! We will know a better idea of how my cervix looks at 12-14 weeks to know if a cerclage will appear in my crystal ball future. He wants me to continue the progesterone through week 12.

Even though the little one is only nine weeks old, I was shocked to learn that Spot already has a functioning kidney and is urinating. I find that every time I go to the bathroom now, I wonder if both Spot and I are peeing at the same time! Another interesting thing I've discovered in reading is that Spot already has some fluid in his ears and is establishing a sense of balance. Hopefully, he or she will take after my husband since I am completely uncoordinated and am always tripping over my own two feet. I'm one of those people more likely to fall going up the stairs, than down. In addition, the iris of each of Spot's eyes are functioning, yet the eyelids are still fused shut. Perhaps that is how my husband feels when he is searching for his glasses in the morning?

I always leave feeling better than when I came, after seeing the little one on the screen. The office could check all of the boxes they felt like today or labeled me however they please : severely threatened spontaneous miscarriage, complete placenta previa, unicornuate uterus....bring it on! Nothing can squash my happiness that another week has passed. We've pulled through one more week closer to having a little one to take home someday. It's still so early, but if we keep making it one more week, and one more week, then eventually we'll be beyond the point of viability. Well, this has been a long enough post as is, I guess I'll have to save the rest of my rambling for another day!