And Then There Was One (Complication)

Up until now, my Maternal-Fetal Medicine appointments have fit into one of two categories:

1.) Establishing that my existing complications are still going on
2.) Finding that a complication might be resolving, but discovering a new one

I am thrilled to announce that last week, I discovered that there was a third category:

3.) Learning that my complications have continued to resolve, not finding any others, and getting bumped down closer and closer to "normal pregnant woman" status!

Seriously, the visit couldn't have gone better. My placenta previa, which we already knew had technically resolved by a small amount thanks to a scan at 21 weeks after my last bleed, has moved farther and farther away from my cervix. It was barely 1 cm away at 21 weeks and at 26 weeks it was between 1.5-2 cm depending on how they measured it. The doctors said that they expect it will keep moving (though they were careful to make sure that I understood it's not the placenta that moves, it's the uterus that grows, and as the uterus grows the placenta stays put so it keeps "moving" farther away. Got it, guys. Trust me, I've looked up how placentas work by now!) Oh, and my cervix is holding strong at 3.7 cm.

The other good news is that there continues to be no new bleeding, either that I've noticed or internally. So the sub-chorionic hemorrhages from my first trimester appear to be well and truly gone (oh please, please, please let that be the case!) Perhaps the 21-week bleed was the last hurrah? Man, if I had known that, I would have thrown a party to celebrate rather than lying on the couch all weekend in terror!

So for those of you keeping track at home, we've now gone from three potentially disastrous complications to one. That one is, of course, the Lovenox I'm still taking after my deep vein thrombosis very early in the pregnancy - and it won't go away because I will be at risk for additional clots and need to stay on blood thinners right through 6 weeks after delivery. But with this in mind, my MFM doctor recommended that we change my labor and delivery plan slightly from "induce no later than 38 weeks" to "induce no later than 40 weeks." I now feel like less of a fraud when people ask my my due date and I respond "October 18th!" Inwardly, for the past few months I've been cringing inside as I said it, knowing that the babe was medically indicated to come out no later than Oct. 4th, and quite possibly earlier than that. Now he has a shot at truly, genuinely, just-as-nature-intended making it to term. I hope he does, even if it means I need to wait a bit longer to meet him!

Of course, all of this "you're a normal pregnant woman and can possibly anticipate a normal delivery" has me a bit freaked out. Which brings me to my next topic... CHILDBIRTH CLASS. I'll save that for another post, but highlights include forgetting to bring our pillows, learning to give a massage under dim lights in a room full of strangers, and me getting all high and mighty about patient consent. Fun!