This post is going to be a long one, so grab some coffee or book mark the page until you have some time because I have a loooot to catch up on and I plan to do the majority of that here!
Right now, I’m 27 weeks pregnant! Every Saturday starts the new week for us and every Saturday, I have to double check how far along I am because I can’t believe that we’re already over halfway and already making our every two week appointment. Which means that we a) know the gender (ahhhh, I can’t wait to share) and b) have already had our list of important ultrasounds and appointments out of the way and so far, so good (more on that later though).
So back to one of the questions I get FREQUENTLY… “Was this baby a surprise!?” and the answer is NOPE. We know how this works and I really don’t think you can be too surprised if you’re not taking percautions, ya know? So when I start feeling my stomach bloat and that almost undeniable “I’m pregnant” feeling (moms, you know what I mean — it’s instinct) I wait as long as I can (usually a couple of days haha)… test and bam! We’re Pregnant! Every single time. lol. So here we are, once again, with the sweetest little thing baking away inside of my belly and we are so excited. Like really excited. Which not that I wasn’t excited before but the other day I took Penelope out for a mama-daughter day and we went shopping, did brunch, all the fun things but on the way home she said “Mom… can we go home fast because I miss Merrick.” Then when we got home, like I always do, I beep out front and Devon will let Merrick (or the kids) outside and she hopped out of her carseat and as he was squealing to see her she kept saying “Big sis is hooooome! Big sis is HOME” and the smile on their faces to see each other melted me. I was straight goo after that. So that solidified that I would have 10 kids if I could (we won’t, ha!) but seeing my kids love each other and get genuinely excited to see one another and not wanting to be too far for too long, makes my heart smile and I know that this third baby, despite the tough times we’ve had this last year, will fit in perfectly and this time next year we’ll be wondering how we ever lived without them…. just like we always do 🙂
DIAGNOSED WITH PLACENTA PREVIA
So going backwards a bit, to our 20 week ultrasound. I was holding my breath this time because if you recall from my pregnancy with Merrick, they found 2 brain cysts (apparently very common) but they also found a bright spot on his heart. This is basically calcium buildup, which isn’t even worrisome but the fact that it closely correlates to down syndrome (kids with the bright spot don’t always have Down syndrome but kids with Down syndrome always have the spot, kinda thing), they had to take all the precautions to figure out if that was the reason he had it. I took a bunch of blood tests, one being the NIPT as a general ruling and although that came back clear, I opted to take two more non-invasive tests and also had a heart doctor take a closer look at Merrick’s heart. The blood tests were everything but an amino (the one where they test your amniotic fluid) and the heart test was to detect birth defects and heart problems such as holes or electrical problems in vitro. Every test came back perfectly healthy and normal but even then, I pretty much remained stressed throughout the remainder of my pregnancy and even asked as soon as he came out if they thought he had Down syndrome. This isn’t an issue by the way, we had prepared if he did have it but by me being so young, it was truthfully such a rarity that it made it shocking to hear because that possibility had never crossed my mind until that one specific ultrasound. This time, of course I was afraid of what they could find but thankfully, after all of the measurements and organ checks, nothing was there. Our baby was/is super healthy and actually, according to the ultrasound, on the small side, which has been the exact opposite of both Penelope and Merrick lol. But at the very end, she made a note on what they did find and that was that I had full on placenta previa. This means that my placenta completely covered the opening of my cervix and because you can’t deliver the placenta before the baby, a c-section would be mandatory. They scheduled me to come back in 8 weeks (which was our appointment today) to recheck everything. At first, I was intimidated. For one, I didn’t even know this was a thing. I had no idea where the placenta attached was a big deal and something they monitor. I just never had to worry about that with any of my other pregnancies. Devon asked me after our appointment if I was upset and at first, I was. I don’t like when I don’t have options and obviously a vaginal birth was optimal for healing and taking care of three kids. But I knew that I’ve remained in optimal health my entire pregnancy and I have an amazing husband alongside an equally amazing family that would be MORE than willing to help with anything that I needed so my mind eased up after weighing everything and realizing that a healthy baby far outweighs anything else. Plus, when I was younger, I had a bladder birth defect (of sorts) where my tubes were attached the wrong way and caused numerous bladder infections when I was really young. High fevers, lethargy…. all of it. So I was cut from hip to hip when I was two in order to correct it ( this is called bladder reflux, if you’re interested). I don’t remember the surgery but I’ve always had a “c-section” type scar from then on and every doctors appointment I’ve had with my OBGYN after having babies, they always ask “Who did your c-section?! It looks great!” without fail lol so I’m used to the scar… The pooch that comes with it… everything. The vanity part didn’t bother me in the slightest… just the surgery aspect with three little people relying on me did.
Fast forward to todays appointment and everything is all cleared up! My once total previa has gone away completely and as of right now, a c-section isn’t on the radar. I’m thankful but not holding my breath because TRUST ME. With all three pregnancies, I’ve faced the c-section route one way or another…. Penelope was breech until 37 weeks. Yup. My sweet girl wouldn’t flip for a n y t h i n g. I had weekly appointments to check her position and finally, after having my Chiro do the Webster Maneuver, she flipped into position. On her own time, just the same way she is today. At delivery with Merrick, he was in position but remained sunny-side up. When I was dilated completely and ready to push, his head kept being pulled backwards through the canal and after having the doctor have me push for a while and then deciding to push him ALL THE WAY BACK UP for me to sit with a peanut ball between my legs for 2 hours, he finally re-positioned his neck which once again allowed me to continue to deliver without c-section. Then we have this baby.. starting the c-section talk all over again haha I’ve learned that my babies like to throw this my way so I’ve become sort of accustomed to having that as a possibility from the start…it’s almost not shocking anymore, just expected haha.
GENDER + NAME
Another questions I get a lot “Do you know the gender!?” And YES! We do 🙂 We also have a name and it’s very original and we constantly get “Oh wow, I’ve never heard that one before” from people when we mention it. Whether they like it or not is a different story but it has a story for us and I can’t wait to share it but for now, I want to hold on to it a little but longer because it is special to us and I think we’ve finally come to a decision on a middle name which makes it seem more official but until we are 100% sure about that, I don’t know if we’ll share but hey, we have about 3 months or so left and that will fly so people will know sooner than later 🙂 That’s super annoying and celeb-like, I know, I KNOW. But like I said, it has more meaning than anything else and despite me blogging about everything, I tend to hold the more personal things close to my heart and this just happened to be one of them… for now, anyway.
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT
I get this question with every single pregnancy! I think all women have it but I just get that intuitive feeling that I’m pregnant. It’s nothing that happens (or doesn’t) since I always find out at about 3 weeks or so but it’s just a gut feeling. Like I said, I cringe when people say it’s a surprise because really, at our age, how can it be!? YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSES THIS. At least we do lol I mean, I get that people that take all the precautions and still get pregnant. I know that happens but when you’re just winging it… I don’t think it’s really that surprising. And that’s okay! I absolutely hate surprises anyway so knowing what to expect is something I love. But what I love more than finding out I’m pregnant, is sharing with Devon. Haha. He was sitting beside me when we found out with Penelope. I couldn’t dare do it alone! Merrick, I totally lied and said that I wasn’t pregnant and then while he was at work day, I put one pink and one blue balloon in the oven and with a hamburger bun. He got home and I told him to close his eyes and open the oven to tell me if what I was cooking smelled good. He did. Sat there for a second trying to figure out why he was smelling, well, nothing and then opened his eyes to balloons hitting him in the face and totally shocked since I had already convinced him I wasn’t pregnant. *I have a video that I might share one day!
Then…. there’s baby no.3. Oh, poor little number three because at this point, I was out of ideas. I knew I was pregnant, took a test and sure enough, I was right. Two lines.
I had made an appointment that day to take our dog to the vet and Devon was meeting me there and although I had planned to do something… I didn’t know what. But right there, after the doctor came in to take Chandler, our dog, to the back to get a shot and it was just us two… I looked over at him and whispered, “Oh guess what! I’m pregnant!” I wish I had recorded that… maybe I could ask the vet office for the video since they monitor each room haha but we both laughed and our dog came back in the room and that was that. He was so excited he couldn’t wait to get out of there to talk about it (and to talk about the way I told him) but that’s how that went down.
Then, when I had the NIPT again this time, they called me to confirm the gender and I got off the phone and sent Devon a text on what the third baby was going to be haha. No fireworks or cards, just a simple text “It’s a _____!” As he should, he still gives me a hard time about it but I can’t know anything — especially this — and not share it right away with him. To my defense, we did the SneakPeek Test, and it had the same result and we actually found out together when I got the email a couple of weeks before haha but I guess because it wasn’t done by a doctor and could have been a contaminated result, we never really went out of our way to do anything with that info until it was confirmed by the NIPT!
I think that’s all the catching up I can do right now… We’re already on our bi-weekly appointments which means we have about 6 appointments left before this little babe makes it’s appearance and I honestly can’t believe it. It’s gone by so, SO fast. Years aren’t long anymore and neither is a pregnancy. I remember counting minutes when I was pregnant with Penelope and now I wish time would slow down because we aren’t sure if this is our last or not. Three feels good. Three feels right but at the same time, I still feel like I could do it one more time. I might 😉 Come back next year to see what happens haha
I’ve also been asked A LOT about my workout schedule this pregnancy and I’m going to do a post as well as a first trimester post sometime next week! But for now, I wanted to update everyone on what was happening lately because I felt that finding out you have placenta previa can be scary and unexpected and I wanted to share my experience on it as well as some of the more popular questions I’ve been asked as of late!
xx, tbp
