Nothing is ever easy!

Nothing is ever easy! (25 weeks 1 day)
May 20, 2009

Paul and I learned last week that nothing is ever easy, and pregnancy certainly follows this rule. Not that Paul and I have ever thought having a child was easy. We are the perfect examples of how NOT EASY it is. We tried for 6 years to have a baby with two miscarriages and failed fertility treatments. When we finally did get pregnant with Jacob because of a blood disorder that the doctors found out I have I was on aspirin throughout the pregnancy only to find out once Jacob was born that Paul and I also have a condition called "ABO Incompatibility". This is where the baby has a different blood type than me, resulting in my body creating antigens against the babies blood. Imagine if you went in for a blood transfusion and they gave you the wrong blood type....your body would treat it as a threat and try and rid itself of the foreign blood. Luckily the placenta stops most of my anitigens from getting to the baby and causing serious problems, but some antigens get through. Some problems that can arise from an "ABO Incompatibility" are mild to severe jaundice and mild anemia. 95% of the time these problems do not occur until after the birth of the child. However in very rare cases (less than 5%) the anemia can occur while the baby is still in utero. With Jacob we were lucky and he only suffered mild-medium jaundice and was in the NICU for 5 days.

This week we got a doppler test of the babies cerebral artery in its brain (I was told they use this artery because it is the largest, not because it is the brain itself). If the results of this doppler test are above 1.5 then that is an indication that the baby is becoming anemic in utero. Our baby came back with a score of 1.3. We were told that this is fine as long as it doesn't go above 1.5 and that we need to understand that the score although mathmatically very close to 1.5 will need to go through all of the increments (1.31, 1.32, 1.33, etc...) before it gets to 1.5 so we will probably be OK since I am at 25 weeks. If the baby gets to the 1.5 level at or after 34 weeks the baby will just be delivered early and if a transfusion is needed then it will be given then. If the 1.5 is achieved before 34 weeks then an intrauterine transfusion will need to take place and we will have to travel to the University of Maryland to have this procedure done.

So needless to say I have EVERYONE I know praying that this will not happen and that the baby will stay well below the 1.5 score. We go back again on the 29th for another scan. The doctor did say that if this score was going to rise that it will consistantly rise throughout the next 10 weeks so if the score is still a 1.3 on the 29th we don't have anything to worry about because it more than likely will not rise enough for concern before the baby would be full term and can be delivered.

So whether you know me or not, or are religious or not, please pray for the new baby and a safe and FULL TERM healthy pregnancy!! We have been through enough and are ready for an easy pregnancy.