Time Flies...

I can hardly believe that it has been over a year since I last posted on my blog! But, I am not going to feel guilty or beat myself up over it. I started this blog in a different season of my life and it has served it's purpose many times. That being said, I have been spending a lot of time on the computer lately and thought I would post an update.

I am currently 31 weeks pregnant with another boy, Carter. We are still deciding on a middle name. I like Andrew for a middle name. Andrew likes Nelson (his grandmother's maiden name). While I don't particularly have anything against Nelson, I just really like the idea of naming a son after Andrew. Time will tell what we decide.

While this pregnancy started out to be fairly uneventful, that has not lasted. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and for something to go wrong. That is probably the wrong attitude to have, but it was how I felt. I was diagnosed early with placenta previa, where the placenta is too low. However, that really was not that concerning at first and Carter was growing and doing fine. It was just something to watch. I was told to take it easy and report any bleeding that might occur. While I did have a little spotting a couple of times, it was nothing big and went away within a few days. During those times, I did ride the emotional roller-coaster pretty heavily. I was always convinced that this was my last pregnancy and that I was not going through this again. However, as more time would pass and nothing bigger happened, that decision seemed less sure in my mind.

This time, however, that decision is planted firmly in our hearts and minds. A couple of weeks ago, when we had started our weekly ultrasound appointments, Dr Jones told me that they think I have placenta accreta. (For those of my readers...if there are any left...that don't like medical information, skip on a couple of paragraphs.) This is where the placenta has imbedded too deeply into the uterus. Normally it just imbeds in the lining of the uterus, but with accreta, it goes into the muscular wall. In really bad cases, it can go all the way through the uterus and into the bladder...fun!

So what does that really mean? Normally, the placenta dislodges on its own after the baby is born and is delivered with no problem. However, with placenta accreta, it does not do this, so the doctor has to go in and manually try to remove it. This can lead to hemorrhaging and sometimes, the only way to stop the bleeding and save the mother's life is to do an emergency hysterectomy.

Most of the time, doctors do not know about this condition before birth, so it truly is an emergency situation. However, the blessing in my case is that we do know ahead of time, so Andrew and I can prepare ourselves for what may happen and the doctors can plan how they want to perform the surgery and can be ready for the complications.

So, this has changed my circumstances considerably. Instead of doing the c-section a couple of weeks early, they are planning to give me steroid shots to help develop Carter's lungs at 35 weeks and then delivering a few days later...July 12~ one month early. The will be doing the surgery in the main OR instead of the labor and delivery OR and are planning on doing a hysterectomy. They will have blood on hand (which by the way I am looking for donors...I'm B+) because they think I will probably need to get around 4 units even in the best of situations. They are planning on doing a traditional vertical incision and taking Carter from the top since the placenta is so low. Then they will see if they need to do the hysterectomy. I will be awake for the delivery and Andrew will be there. However, if they decide they need to do the hysterectomy, they will kick Andrew out with Carter and knock me out.

Carter is doing great through all of this. At last measurement a couple of weeks ago, he was in the 80th percentile in weight estimates and he has been doing all of his tricks that he is suppose to do~ moving, fetal breathing, heart rate acceleration, etc. When I talked to my pediatrician about delivering at 35 weeks and what I should expect, he had great news. He said that it is very likely that Carter will be able to go directly to the regular nursery instead of the NICU since he is trending on the larger size and will have the benefit of the steroid shots to assist with lung developments. It is really only the rest of the delivery that is up in the air! :/

Well, that is my current status in a nutshell. I will try to keep things updated as they change.

Oh...and did I mention that this condition only occurs in 1 out of every 2500 pregnancies?! That's right folks! I defy the odds! I really should buy a lottery ticket.

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