It's been a while

That's the understatement of the year!  But, it's finally time to talk about the health issues that have been plaguing me for the past few months.  First, we start with the good part - meet our daughter!!

I'm a little over 27 weeks pregnant, and we can't wait to meet this little girl!

The pregnancy has been difficult, both emotionally and physically.  Worried the first 12 weeks that we'd lose her like we did Jordan.  Worried after that, especially up to 17 weeks, that we'd lose her like we did Nathan. Now, there's going to be two parts to this post - the quick part first, for those who don't want to read the gory details.  Then more info below for those who want to know.  If you've known me through our first two pregnancies, you know I'm not afraid to share details.  :)

As soon as I found out we were pregnant again, I found a new OB.  There were two important qualities - awesome, and NOT affiliated with CMC.  I couldn't deal with them again after everything that happened with Nathan.  Thankfully a friend suggested a place, and even though I didn't end up with her OB, I'm incredibly blessed to have gotten the one I did.  She's been amazing.  (If anyone is looking for a new OBGYN, Dr. Lisa Wilson at Providence OBGYN is just fantastic.  Amazing.  I couldn't ask for a better doctor.)

After telling her all about Jordan and Nathan, she decided that they wanted to monitor me very closely to keep an eye out for problems that are common with 2nd trimester losses like Nathan.  I had frequent visits with her as well as with the maternal fetal medicine specialists, frequent ultrasounds, etc.  Everything was going swimmingly until about 19 weeks, when my ultrasound showed some abnormal changes.  It wasn't an emergency, but they didn't want to let it get that way either.  I was scheduled for surgery the next day to try and fix the problem.  The surgery went fantastically, and everything's been holding up really well until this week.  As of Wednesday, things have started to change slightly for the worse.  It's still not an emergency, but very discouraging considering everything has been going very well for the 8 weeks after surgery.  They're going to start monitoring me weekly, at least for the next few weeks.  If all stays as it is now, we'll be doing well.  If things continue to change, we'll discuss what needs to happen to give baby girl the best chance possible.

If you know me at all, you know I'm a worrier.  Believe it or not, aside from a few breakdowns here and there, I've actually been doing mostly well.  A lot of credit goes to my family and the few friends who know listening to me ramble and praying for us.  I'm back to worrying a bit, but I know that God's in charge, and regardless of what happens, it's all in His plan.

So that's what's going on in a nutshell.  If you stop here, you will not be missing anything important.  If you keep going, you will get more details about me than you may want to know.  I feel I have sufficiently warned you.  :)

Here we go.

What they found at 19 weeks was an incompetent cervix.  I had kinda been suspecting it after my OB said it was something that was possible based on how things went with Nathan.  But after a few stellar visits, I wasn't expecting the changes to happen so quickly.  At 17 weeks, my cervix was somewhere between 3.5 and 4.0 cm long, which is completely normal.  At 19 weeks, it was closer to 2.0 cm and was funneled down to that point.  (I know this probably doesn't make sense to those of you who haven't had to deal with cervical issues, and really, you're better off :))  Since the change had happened fairly quickly (in the course of two weeks) and given my history, they decided it would be in my best interest to have what's called a cerclage.  I will not go into detail about what that is.  You can google it.  Just don't look at images or you'll be sorry.  ;)  Let's just say that the point of this procedure is to strengthen the cervix to keep baby cooking longer.  The surgery itself was quick - only about 20 minutes - but I was in the hospital for a few hours because they did a spinal, and it took a few hours for me to be able to walk again.

Every visit since then showed steady cervical lengths of right around 2.0 cm, and a healthy baby.  This week, however, my cervix had shortened to about 1.3 cm, down from 1.9 just last week.  The cerclage is still holding strong and is keeping my cervix closed, but the change in length is concerning.  They're going to start seeing me weekly for the next few weeks to see if the change continues or if everything holds where it is.  My OB says that it's entirely possible that everything will hold as-is and we'll have a full term baby.  However, this recent shortening does make it seem likely that we'll meet her sooner rather than later.

27 weeks is a fairly good place to be.  Survival rate is high, though there is still a chance of long-term complications.  28 weeks would be better.  32 weeks would be even better.  But every single day is a blessing and gets her closer and closer to being OK.  Please be in prayer that she makes it to 36 weeks!  I know it's not too much for God to do.  If she does come early, please just pray that she'll be healthy and won't have to be in the hospital for too long. 

We really appreciate any prayers that we'll make it at least 5 more weeks before we meet our little girl!