16 weeks & counting– pregnancy #2 update

The last time we spoke, I hinted at some news… well, spoiler, the word has been out for a while now! Oops! Baby Smith #2 will be here in August, God willing 🙂 I never did a formal announcement on here because IG & Facebook seem to be my main forms of communication. My bad guys, my bad.

Anyways, since then, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. We went to the doc for the first time at 10 weeks. I felt slightly jaded by early medical care in pregnancy since my last pregnancy, we saw a heartbeat at 6.5 weeks along and miscarried a few days later. I felt it gave me a bit of a false sense of security. So we waited a little this time. We then had an ultrasound at 11.5 weeks and didn’t go back to the doc until 14.5 weeks, right after we got back from our cruise. It turns out in that ultrasound, the report came back showing a possible subchorionic hemorrhage at the placenta attachment site– something that wasn’t communicated to us at all. Now, this could mean a few different things, but it’s all speculation at this point. In that three weeks that we had the ultrasound and then went back to the doctor, there was no communication with us. I would have expected a phone call from the doctor or nurse potentially explaining or checking in to see if I’d had any bleeding, but they didn’t seem concerned. When the doctor immediately found the little heart rate with the doppler at that 14 week appointment, it was like she then chose to move on from the possible hemorrhage because I hadn’t miscarried. I was kind of in the dark because she asked if I’d had any bleeding, mentioned what they may have seen on the ultrasound, and then went on with the appointment. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it because she was unconcerned, so why should I be? Right? Well, my mom disagreed and so did Marcus. Neither appreciated the lack of communication, and the midwife my mom works with suggested we get a follow up ultrasound sooner rather than later. Me being a runner is never a bad thing during pregnancy, but if I’m at risk for a bleed, well I can see how getting my heart rate up over and over may not be great. So sure, it’d be great to know if this is a minor thing and I can continue being active, or if it’s a potential danger that I need to take everything down a few notches. We got in touch with our doctor’s office and explained we’d like to see the maternal fetal medicine specialist to get a follow up look, and that took a week of jumping through hoops, basically calling the office every few days and reminding them of what we were trying to do. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” my momma taught me. I was feeling a sense of urgency, and no doctor seemed to be. We finally got the referral over to the MFM, and it was still another two days before they tried to schedule anything with me. They came back with an appointment in TWO WEEKS, which made me go “whaaaaaa!?” Clearly, my doc isn’t concerned and now neither is the specialist (granted, I don’t know if the specialist has the original ultrasound report that indicates the questionable placenta attachment), so today I finally said “forget it!” Mostly because our anatomy scan is already scheduled for the same day they tried to schedule the MFM. So phew! All that really just let me vent about it one more time, so thanks for listening. But all this is also to say that no matter what, I know that God’s got this. No amount of me trying to take the driver’s seat and will this pregnancy into being healthy and perfect and just what I expect is going to change anything, and I know I have to roll with the punches. The good news is I FEEL good! I’ve been running sooooo slowly to keep my heart rate as low as possible, but my body feels good. I have had ZERO bleeding or cramping, so that makes me hopeful that the ultrasound report was seeing something that isn’t actually a problem. We go back for our anatomy scan March 14 and will know more then. Until then, with no doctor’s orders to back off running, I’m gonna still run smart but no more of this making myself crazy with “can I or can’t I?!” I can, and I’m listening to my body for cues on what needs to be done. So far, it has cued me towards pizza and ice cream, so maybe I won’t listen to EVERYTHING it says 🙂

I’m 16.5 weeks now and hoping to feel some definite movement soon! I think the tech mentioned an anterior placenta, which could muffle movement, but I also think I’ve felt a twinge or two. It’s so tough to tell in the beginning! Could be the icecream…

Stay tuned!