News, News, Wonderful News

To begin with, I want to say a great big thank you to everyone for the supportive e-mails, phone calls, comments, and texts.   I really believe that each of you held me up with your good thoughts, well wishes, and prayers.  I also believe that a little miracle might have occurred because of the united effort.

Due to a mix up, my blood work was basically placed in the bottom of the stack and not finished until after my doctor's office had closed on Wednesday.  Because of this, the nurse called me as soon as the doctor's office opened today.   The lab results did not provide any decisive answers, really only adding to the ambiguity and confusion surrounding the bleeding.  The best answer seemed to continue with the regular 48 hour blood tests.  However, after discussing everything with my doctor (whom I love), they determined it would be best if I come in for an ultrasound today.

After some considerable maneuvering of different children to different households, we drove to the doctor's office.

The ultrasound tech attempted a regular ultrasound first, but being unable to see anything but some blood pooling (to be explained), she tried the other way.  (I'm avoiding creepy stalker search terms by not using certain terms.  Please follow suit.)

As soon as the probe was stuck up, ahem, there, she found the amniotic sac.  Nestled inside was the yolk sac, a good indicator that the pregnancy was progressing as it should.  Since she could not detect the embryo, but could find the yolk sac, she estimated that my pregnancy is 4 weeks along, nearly 3 weeks behind the original estimation.

I just want to point out here that I was right and they were wrong.  So there.

The blood, she explained, was the result of an abruption.  This means there is a slight tear of the embryo from the uterine wall, most likely the result of the uterine wall sluffing. The sudden gush of blood I experienced on Monday was due to that tear when a small part of the embryonic sac and the uterine wall tore away from each other.  This is very common in early pregnancy and has a small chance of progressing into a miscarriage.  Since there is a chance, the doctor has asked that I come in for a follow-up ultrasound next Thursday to continue charting the progress.**

In the meantime, I am now on pelvic rest.  No anatomy lessons with my husband and no lifting of anything greater in weight than a gallon of milk until my next appointment.  The lifting I could do, but the lessons?  Darn it.

To summarize.

1. I am only 4 weeks along, which explains the absence of pregnancy symptoms.

2. The bleeding came because of a slight abruption between the embryonic sac and the uterine wall, something that is very common this early on in pregnancy.

3. The doctor and nurse will continue to monitor my progress by doing a  follow-up ultrasound next week.

This appointment cleared up most of my pregnancy anxiety.  I'm hoping the nightmares and panic attacks will subside and I will now start interacting with my children and blogging again. I am grateful that my doctor and his nurse are taking such great care of me and this baby.

**This may not be entirely accurate, but Ben and I summarized what the nurse and ultrasound tech explained to us in a manner that made sense to us.