Baby Victoria up to Now!!!

Well, not everyone has daily updates as to how Baby Victoria is doing. It has definately been a bumpy ride to say the least!!! From day one actually!

It started by going into the ER at St. Francis Hospital and finding out SURPRISE, we are pregnant!! (that was August 9th, 2008).

The reason I went to the ER to begin with is I woke up in incredible pain on my side and I basically fought through it all day long (slept most the day) and finally around 8pm I told Kevin I couldnt deal any longer, I HAD to go to the doctor!!!

We were in the ER for many many hours and they took lots of blood from me. I thought I was having pain related to my Gastric Bypass but.. nope! One of the tests they ran on me was a pregnancy test (blood) and thats how we found out so early that we were pregnant. A urine test wouldn't have showed up pregnant yet.

After that I started seeing my family doctor and because of my Bipolar and my Gastric Bypass, she thought it might be a good idea I see an actual OB rather then her because I had "other issues" along with pregnancy! So, she found me a doctor and I started going to her. Dr. Noland.

As I started going to Dr. Noland's office she then thought it would be wise of me to see Dr. Blake (a High Risk OB). So I went to see Dr. Blake and she said our baby is small (size/weight/developmental wise!) ANd she wanted to continue seeing us, along with Dr. Noland seeing us as well.

In December, right before Christmas, I went to see Dr. Blake and she said that the blood pressure in the umbilical cord was high and that might be causing the low weight of the baby. And at this point, Victoria was measuring 2 weeks behind schedule size and developmental wise. With the combination of her being small and the blood pressure deal, Dr. Blake said I may want to have an Amnio test done to see if she has any chromosomal deformities, such as Downs Syndrome or (I cant remember the names, something like Tristomy 13 or 17 or something?? I cant remember and cant find it online so I know I"m probably way off!)...

So, we were faced with the decision of having an Amnio done or not. From what I read and was told by Dr. Blake, there is a 1 in 300 or 200 (depends on what you read) chance of a miscarriage. Well, the way we looked at it, if someone said "1 out of 300 people at this party will win a car" the chances are pretty decent we could win a car. So we would go to that party!!! Well.. thinking 1 in 300 is a good chance at something good, means 1 in 300 is also a good chance at something bad happening! We didnt want to chance our daughter's life!

I asked my doctors if we had the amnio, can they "fix her" while she is in me? The answer is NO. IF she has any of the chromosonal problems, it is just for our well knowledge. So we know what we will be facing once she is born. There is absolutely nothing benefitting HER by me having an amnio, its strickly for the docs and us to know ahead of time.

When I asked Dr. Noland, "what would you do" and her answer was "its a personal choice" thats when I told her "NO" to the amnio! Because we didnt want it anyways, but for her to say "personal choice" and not anything about a medical reason for doing it. Yeah.. no thanks, we'll pass!!!

Well, the same day that Dr. Blake told me about the high blood pressure in the umbilical cord and about the amnio, she sent me to have blood work done. She warned me it was a lot of blood but I had no idea!!! 17 vials of blood later I left the doctors office! Wow!!!

So I was faced with the dilema of going on my trip to California or not. The blood work wouldnt be back until after the new year and my flight left on new years day. If they found something wrong, they might have to have me come into the doctors office (if I ended up having an infection or something). They finally told me I should just go on the trip and if I have to come back early then I will. So I did.

I have never wished I had an infection.. but I did wish that. I was hoping I had some infection and they could fix it and then the baby would be okay!

While in California Dr. Blake called and told me my blood test results. She said I had something called... Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APS) www.apsfa.org

She told me that I need to start taking baby aspirins every day. So I have been and ever since I've been taking them, the umbilical cord blood pressure has now gone to normal and the baby has gained weight and is only 1 week behind developmentally wise (and that was in January, not sure how far behind now) but she's definately catching up now! So apparently that blood disorder was causing the stress on the umbilical cord and holding back her needs from me!

SO.. She is now doing really good! She is still "small" she is in the 8th percentile, meaning she is only larger then 8% of fetuses her age. So because she's in the 8th percentile, they are still having me go to the High Risk and the Normal OB.

On February 12th I had an appointment with Dr. Blake and they did fetal monitoring for 20 minutes (listening to hear heart rate).. they were looking for rises in her heart beat.. I guess she "passed" the test, but she didnt respond quick enough for Dr. Blake. So she told me I now need to see her once a week and Dr. Noland once a week!!! (an ultrasound at each appointment).

I also was reminded that Victoria is breech and if she hasnt "Flipped" in the next two weeks, we will be having a serious conversation regarding c-section time!!! EEK!! Not what I wanted to hear!!!

So, I had an appointment yesterday, February 16th with Dr. Noland and over the weekend (I'm pretty sure it was Sunday night, the 15th) Victoria decided to flip! What a good girl! I'm so proud of her!!! People asked me "what was the secret to get her to flip?" thinking I did some exercises or something. I told them "Her daddy and I had a talk with her and explained if she doesnt flip, shes grounded till shes 13 years old!" It worked :) Yeah!!!! And during that appointment she finally let us see between her legs again (no one has been able to verify she is a girl since November, so we wanted to make sure that she is in fact a girl, since in November it was very early and could have mistaken her for a girl! But yes, she's a girl!

Dr. Noland said that Victoria got an 8 outta 8 at her office yesterday, she's doing great, she said the umbilical cord blood pressure was normal, my weight gain is normal (I dont see how!), my blood pressure was normal, her heart rate was around 150 which is great.. so she's doing good! She did tell me that there is nothing wrong with the baby, Dr. Blake is just "overly cautious" and wants a doc to see me twice a week. Which is fine with me!

Its just funny because most people get like two ultrasounds their whole pregnancy. I've had 9 successful ultrasounds so far (I had 2 early on but it was too early to see anything so I dont count those)... I've had so many ultrasounds that I only have two more pages in my little ultrasound photo book I have! HAHA.. Craziness!! But I get to watch her grow so thats kinda cool!!!

Ever since she flipped, I feel her constantly now. I dont know if its her new position or if she also grew or what, but I feel her non-stop! Shes a crazy active girl. Its fun :) Except she keeps me up at night (like I was sleeping anyways) but still!! hahah...

I have an appointment Friday with Dr. Blake, then one with Dr. Noland and one with Dr. Blake for the next weeks prior to birth!

I'm nervous about giving birth. I don't feel prepared at all! I havent been practicing my hypno birthing (I guess I"ll make that another blog at a later time)... yeah..

So that is where we stand right now! Not everyone knew about the Downs Syndrome scare and all that stuff because we didnt want to worry everyone and deal with it all. So we pretty much kept it to us!

Anyways. Hope that catches everyone up!!!