After TEN long weeks of waiting for my follow up ultrasound to recheck my issues… ie.. Complete Placenta Previa and Fluid on the baby’s kidney,  I FINALLY got to go yesterday and get some answers.  

My appointment was at ten and despite my hope that they would be less “backed up” earlier in the morning, I was in for a long wait.  I knew it wasn’t a good sign when the front parking lot was full when I pulled in.  I had waited for 10 whole weeks, but somehow knowing you are about to find something out just makes the last few moments quite anxious and unbearable.

I started off with the customary weighing and blood pressure check.  I was shocked and APPALLED to see that somehow I have gained a whopping FIVE POUNDS in just the last 2+ weeks.   What in the world?  How is that even possible.  I am attributing it somewhat in part to our vacation eating and perhaps my recent gorging on cupcakes.  Can you imagine if I kept this up?  I have 10 weeks left so that means another 25 pounds to pack on.  PLEASE NO!!!  Right now my total jumped to 18 lbs… (per my chart – which I peeked at – my total at 28 weeks was only 13 lbs…)   After the weight debacle, she checked my blood pressure which was low even for me.  90+/52… The nurse even commented…. “Wow, you’re calm.” Apparently, the weight stress hadn’t had time to sink in yet.

Next up was the ultrasound, which at 30 weeks was a bit different that the one at 20 weeks.  Chris never would have made it, b/c it was hard even for me to make out any clear image.  She did print off a few for me to take home, but only a few were decent… She didn’t reveal any info to me, so I was back outside Dr. Peach’s office still in the dark on my fate.  Much to my dismay, the technician walked into his office and shut the door.   My immediate thought was, “Uh, oh.  That can’t be good.” A few minutes later, she came out and told me that he wanted her to do another ultrasound.  Sooo, that meant MORE waiting.  After EONS, I was finally out of the second ultrasound and in Dr. Peach’s office.  In the meantime, however, I managed to let my mind race with all the possible problems there could be requiring a second ultrasound, though I did make a conscious effort NOT to worry.  

So… back to the big reveal!  The COMPLETE placenta previa has MOVED!!!  Whoohoo!  I was and am still shocked that it actually moved… and moved all the way out of the way!    It turns out when the placenta moves, sometimes it leaves blood vessels lying across the cervix which can then rupture during birth… not a good thing.  The second ultrasound was to check for that and thankfully there were none.  :)  So, hopefully, this means NO c-section for me!

I then asked about the kidney issue and he seemed almost surprised and said absently, “Oh I don’t think I asked her to look at that.”  He said we would do another u/s in four weeks to check that, but actually said almost to himself, “I don’t know why we even check that, since we don’t ever do anything about it anyway.” 

Apparently it’s one of those retarded medical things where the standard in utero is different than a newborn.  So a 7 in utero might be abnormal, but at birth a 10 is now abnormal and a 7 is completely fine.  So we wait still on the kidney issue, but hopefully we will fall in the great majority of cases where this indication ends up being nothing of concern.

I don’t know if you can tell or not, but this was a cute one  I thought.  You can see half of the baby’s face looking towards you… See the nose, lips, and chin?

Chubby little toes…