Other News of the Moment

Obviously, we are beyond thrilled that our anatomy scan went so well. Finding out that we have a normal-looking baby, and that he's got some little-boy parts, was wonderful. But... what about all the other crazy things I've been diagnosed with over the past few months? How is that stuff going?

Sub-Chorionic Hemorrhage This is the best news we got: it looks like both SCHs are gone, all gone! The tech hadn't seen me for any of my earlier ultrasounds and didn't even know this had been a problem for me until I told her. Happily, in an hour of moving the wand all over my belly, she saw no evidence of any hemorrhages or placental abruptions. I'd like to give a shout-out to the very first OB I talked to on the night of my big bleed, who said that these things often didn't fully resolve until 18 weeks. At the time that seemed unimaginably far away, but true to form, it did clear up sometime between 15 and 20 weeks!

DVT and Clotting Issues My leg hasn't bothered me since February, even though they insist on checking it at every appointment, and knock on wood I have had nothing to suggest another clot at all. However, when they test my Lovenox levels - which involves making an appointment at the lab exactly 4 hours after I inject myself and then skipping the line of irritated waiting people who didn't know they could make appointments and who then give me the hairy eyeball - they have consistently come up higher than would be optimal. We're adjusting my dose, which right now means that I have to squirt a little Lovenox into the sink and hope that I'm getting something close to 30 mg. I should also mention that the bruises have almost entirely subsided, so injecting myself doesn't make me anywhere near as depressed as it did in the past. We'll keep testing this.

Placenta Previa This could still go either way. The good news is that most of my placenta is now over on the left side of my uterus, which also explains why I haven't been feeling much kicking on that side. If it's now a side placenta, could it keep pulling away from my cervix as my uterus grows, thus resolving the problem? Maybe. Maybe not. Right now it's still covering the cervix entirely, so I'm on the same restrictions for complete placenta previa that I've been on since April. However, I'm considerably more optimistic about it becoming a partial previa or even just a low-lying placenta than I was after April's gloom & doom diagnosis.

Everything else is going pretty much according to plan. My cervix is long and closed, though they didn't bother with an internal ultrasound to measure it precisely; they could see enough transabdominally that they weren't at all worried. With the exception of a few bad moments in May (I think I threw up three times?), my morning sickness has disappeared. I get round ligament pains just about every day, on both sides, but if I sit or lie down for a few minutes they ease up. My belly is growing and I'm keeping up with the cocoa butter in a vain effort to avoid stretch marks - none yet, but I'd be shocked if I avoid them entirely. And our unborn son would like to add to this list: he says, and I quote, "KICK! Kick kick kick! [pause] Kick kick KICK!" I'll leave you to interpret that however you want.