WE’RE EXPECTING OUR FOURTH
Oops! I just realized we never officially shared on the blog that we are expecting our fourth. I guess that is kind of normal the more kids you have. Is this officially fourth child problems? We shared back in December over on Instagram and Facebook with a little video clip we filmed. Our Christmas card we mailed out to friends and family had the first hint of news to everyone with an ultrasound photo and we signed the card with all our names and baby.
The messages and video clips we received in response were some of the best. We loved getting to surprise everyone. We were surprised too with the news. When you’re told by medical professionals several times over that you cannot have kids on your own anymore and our 3rd ended up having to be an IUI baby, this was the biggest surprise ever for us. We are so excited and thankful, but still totally shocked. I don’t think it will truly set in until this little one is in our arms. Which is soon, but also too long from now. We made the decision to not share an official due date with anyone again. It brought so much more calmness to our last pregnancy.
HARDEST PREGNANCY YET
I thought a pandemic baby with the added complications of a pulmonary embolism and blood thinners was hard. I was told so many times that baby number 3 is the wild card. This one is definitely our wild card. At one of our first ultrasound, we were told that I have complete placenta previa. If you don’t know what that is, it’s when the placenta is enterily in the way of the cervix blocking baby’s exit at the bottom of the uterus. This put the pregnancy immediately into the high-risk category, add in blood thinners and it makes things even more interesting.
With complete placenta previa, you are already at risk of bleeding. Needing blood thinners that risk increases even more. It’s not a matter of if I would be dealing with bleeding during the pregnancy, it was a matter of when and how much. Thankfully I only had to go to the hospital once to be monitored. I was told there was a small possibility of my placenta moving out of the way. We recently got the good news that it has in fact moved entirely out of the way. That is a huge answer to prayer.
I’ve been feeling the worst out of any of the pregnancies this time round. I was even put on meds to help with the nausea, which just barely takes the edge off. By evening I have hardly any energy and find myself crawling into bed shortly after our girls are tucked in for the night. My food aversions have been numerous, but it’s also been texture aversions this time. I won’t even realize it’s an issue with texture until I try to eat something I thought I was craving. Anyone else deal with texture issues during pregnancy?
KEEPING US ON OUR TOES
Due to the high risk factor, it was decided by the specialists I’ve been seeing since I was diagnosed with the pulmonary embolism during my last pregnancy, to change the dosage of blood thinners to simply maintain things and to try and limit and possibly further bleeding risks. I had a full bilateraly scan of both of my legs to get a base line of any possible blood clot risks. Those came back all clear.
Baby continues to keep us on our toes though, despite the good news of the placenta being out of the way and what would have meant a c-section, we now have a breech baby on our hands. We’re continuing to be hopeful that baby will move into the perfect position for birth on their own. Though, we are going to chiro to try and encourage baby to move. I’ll be discussing further plans with the doctor as I know with turning a baby before delivery its possibly for them to go right back. Hoping to come up with a game plan. I’m also really hoping to avoid another OP (sunnyside up) birth and being ripped a new one. No thank you, I really don’t want to deal with a second degree tear again. We’re hoping and praying for a vaginal birth, no tearing, but we are also at a place of acceptance that this could all be so far out of our hands that we are okay if a c-section is needed. It’s kind of this odd, in limbo, place to be.
