Miscarriage #3 As I was getting on the bus to go back to school from our chorus concert at the mall that Thursday afternoon, the on call nurse called to say my hcg had not only not doubled, but it had gone down. I was devastated. Fortunately after getting back to school, my principal let me go home so I could regroup. I couldn't believe I was losing another pregnancy. The on call nurse said I should stop taking the progesterone so I could miscarry naturally this time since it was so early. I started the process on Christmas Eve. We saw Dr. McAdams today to talk about the next step. He said this would be when he would normally do all the different blood tests that I did after the last miscarriage. Then he told us about a chromosome test both Jerrod and I could have done to see if one or both of us have an abnormality that is causing the miscarriages. The problem with the test is that if it's positive, there's no treatment. He also said it's kind of an all or nothing problem, meaning if we test positive, I either miscarry or I have as healthy a pregnancy as anyone else. We opted not to do it. The next step is to send us with all the blood tests from the last miscarriage to a specialist to see if he has a diffferent approach or sees something different in the blood tests, meaning maybe I should do the baby aspirin and progesterone even before obtaining a positive pregnancy test. A few pieces of good news: all three miscarriages could be just bad luck, and we could still have a healthy pregnancy; we HAVE had a successful pregnancy; we have been conceiving pretty easily......
2007-12-18 (3 weeks)
Third Time's a Charm? Well, I'm trying to be excited, relaxed, and faithful. We are pregnant again. This is now our third pregnancy in ten months. We seem to be really good at getting pregnant, which was not so much the case with Annabelle. Now the problem is keeping the pregnancy. I'm praying this is going to be a healthy pregnancy ending with a healthy baby around the end of August. I so badly want Annabelle to be able to be a big sister. I took a home test Saturday (well, actually two), and they were both positive. Dr. McAdams had done a bunch of blood tests (19 different tubes!) after my last miscarriage to see if he could find a cause. He said he didn't expect to find anything and that both miscarraiges could have just been bad luck, not an indication that there were problems. Sure enough the blood tests came back mostly normal. There were a couple that were borderline positive for some type of blood clotting issue so he told me to take a baby aspirin every day once I got pregnant again so as soon as I saw the positive test, Annabelle and I high-tailed it to Wal-Greens to get the aspirin. My next job was to get a blood test to confirm pregnancy and check my progesterone level. I did that yesterday after school and got the results today. My hcg was 79, and my progesterone was 14. Dr. McAdams likes the progesterone level to be over 17 so I'm on the progesterone suppositories again. Since I didn't have to take progesterone with Annabelle's pregnancy and I did with the two pregnancies I lost, it makes me nervous, but I'm praying a lot for faith and a successful pregnancy. I go back tomorrow to do the same blood test to make sure my hcg level doubles, and my progesterone increases. I think tomorrow I'll be four weeks. After my last miscarriage, Dr. McAdams said to help my peace of mind, we could do weekly ultrasounds starting at six weeks through my first trimester since neither miscarriage showed any signs of anything being wrong. If he still does this and my bloodwork from tomorrow looks good, I'm hoping they can do the ultrasound Monday, January 7. It's my last day of Christmas Break so I wouldn't have to take time off from school. It's not that I mind taking the time off. I just don't want to have to explain to anyone why I'm gone. I'm a terrible liar, and I've decided I don't want to tell anyone this time until I'm through my first trimester or showing so much that it's obvious, whichever comes first. Jerrod, of course, is willing to do whatever I want. I'm so lucky to have such a great husband. Again, I'm trying to take this in stride and be happy and calm.....no excess home pregnancy testing, no obsessing with researching the internet. I'm trying to just focus on staying healthy, following and trusting the dr.'s orders, and getting ready for Christmas.
2007-09-17 (0 weeks)
Miscarriage
Even though I've had blood tests and an ultrasound, today was my first official dr. appt. While I've been feeling pregnant this time and have had no sign of a miscarriage, we've lost this baby too. The dr. had said all my preliminary info. looked great, but just to reassure me, he did an ultrasound in the office and didn't see a heartbeat and measured the baby at less than 6 weeks. They'll call tomorrow to schedule a d and c for Wednesday or Thursday. I'm not sure what we'll do from here. I can't imagine going through this again, so right now I don't even know if I want to try again. Of course Jerrod will do whatever I want. I always wonder how we got so lucky with Annabelle being so perfect, and maybe it's because she's meant to be our only one....
2007-08-30 (0 weeks)
Great News! I had my ultrasound today, and it was great! I'd gone in feeling pretty good about things because I "feel" pregnant this time. I was hoping to see a fetal pole and heart rate over 90. Last time (the pregnancy I miscarried), my ultrasound was done at 6 weeks, 2 days, and they couldn't see anything through a regular ultrasound, so they had to do an internal one. Then they saw a flicker they said was the heartbeat, but they couldn't get a rate. This time, they could see everything through a regular ultrasound. I'm 6 weeks, 3 days, and they saw a fetal pole and got a heart rate of 143! Jerrod even said he could see a difference between the flicker last time and the heartbeat this time. We told Annabelle tonight, since this news puts my chances of carrying to term over 95%. She is very excited and wants to hug and kiss the baby all the time. The hard part for her will be the waiting. My due date is April 21 so that's perfect timing for getting my kids ready for the CRT in April! What a cooperative baby! I wonder if this is any indication to his/her disposition?
