Coming Out of the Closet (Pregnancy Wise) (long)
Alan Jeddeloh
I've equivocated in some of my posts the last couple months -- "When Jan
gets pregnant again she plans to have CVS" and stuff about how they will
follow her in the last weeks with weekly ultrasounds. I was lying.
"We're" pregnant -- 18 weeks -- and Jan is due October 9.
When I asked for CVS experiences I was fishing for stories about spotting
afterward. Jan had CVS at nine weeks, and she had already had it done when
I asked for experiences. _Jan spotted for three weeks afterward!_ We must
have gone in to hear the heartbeat six or seven times in those weeks. Half
the time they couldn't find it and had to bring out the ultrasound machine
and look. `Olga' (c.f. Olga Korbet) would be in there turning somersaults!
So that's her name, for now. (BTW, Jan really enjoyed the `First names'
thread, particularly "Freddy the Fetus"!)
It's a normal little girl. (And the nursery is painted light blue.)
We had a 1 1/2 hour ultrasound yesterday morning. First the Sonographer looked
at everything and made hardcopies, then the doctor (department head at that)
came in and looked at everything, too. Olga has two of everything she should
have two of, four chambered heart, no cleft palate, the head and spinal column
are closed. She has kidneys and brain and bladder all the rest of the stuff
they can look for at this point. Everything looks normal. The doctor even
did a quick doppler check of the umbilical blood flow (also normal). True to
her name, Olga wouldn't hold still for pictures.
We didn't have any real reason to suspect any developemntal problems, but
we had to *know*.
They don't really know what happened with Emily. The final diagnosis was
"Perinatal asphyxia due to placental insufficiency" but there is no hard
evidence for that, there just isn't any evidence for anything else. This
time we're seeing a high-risk specialist. In the absence of any other
evidence, he is treating Jan as if Emily was an unexplained stillbirth. If
Jan's waters hadn't broken when they did, Emily would have been stillborn,
Jan will be expected to rest the last month. Maybe not full bedrest, but no
real exertion. They don't *really* know if it will do any good, but it won't
hurt (the baby). So much for "getting into shape for labor". We're getting
air conditioning for the cars and house, just in case. Starting about
week 32 they will be doing weekly ultrasounds to assess the baby's condition.
This is assuming everything goes according to Hoyle. If things start to go
wrong, then "we'll have to decide whether she is better off inside or outside."
Her doctor really feels that with the additional monitoring Jan should be
able to go full term and deliver normally -- even VBAC. But has also
promised Jan that if she really can't go through with it, she can have a
C-section. He said he would hate it, but he would do it.
It's real hard to make any kind of plans. We're afraid to be optimistic, and
we're afraid to be pessimistic. There wasn't any reason to suspect anything
was developing abnormally, but we were on pins and needles to the end of the
exam. It seems like we just *sure* something has to go horribly wrong with
this one, too. There are so many things that can go wrong, it's a wonder
any of us make it! As one of the people in the subsequent pregnancies group
said, "It's not a pregnancy you can enjoy, you just have to try to survive."
It seems like we've been pregnant for a year already. Why must it take so
long? I feel like I want to press the `fast forward button' till we get out
to October and just find out how it comes out! This is going to be a long
five more months.
Emily's Dad, Alan Jeddeloh (503) 685-2991
Tektronix Network Displays
D/S 60-180; PO Box 1000; Wilsonville, OR 97070
al...@nevermore.wv.tek.com T-minus 22 weeks and counting
Jane Philcox
>We had a 1 1/2 hour ultrasound yesterday morning. ... Everything looks normal.
That's good news Alan!
>As one of the people in the subsequent pregnancies group
>said, "It's not a pregnancy you can enjoy, you just have to try to survive."
I missed that one. Who was that perspicacious person?
>T-minus 22 weeks and counting
I think we're all counting with you. Let us know, from time to time, how
Jan's getting on.
Regards, Jane.
--
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.