Pregnancy Scare Resolution

Hi Internet. Let me begin by admitting that I've been keeping something from you. You see, during my 12 week ultrasound something potentially bad was noted.

They saw that my placenta was circumvallate. That means that it wasn't completely connected to the uterine lining. The doctor talked to us, telling us that this could be a problem but we shouldn't worry about it until our next ultrasound because it often resolves itself. Then, he insisted we NOT Google circumvallate.

And because we went to Tacoma the very next day and visited friends, I was distracted and mostly didn't think about it. That lasted for three whole weeks (the distraction not the staying with friends part). Then my inner researcher took over and I did the unthinkable, I looked it up. It turns out that circumvallate placentas are very rare, like less than 1% of all pregnancies, and are associated with preterm labor, restricted fetal growth, and higher rates of placental abruption, which is seriously not good. I went on to look up academic journal articles, which only confirmed what I had found.

Then I stewed.

I wanted to talk to R about what I had discovered, but I didn't want him to freak out. He's prone to worry already. Also, the doctor had told us that the situation might resolve itself. Why make R worry unnecessarily? So I stayed quiet and tried to ignore what I'd found out.

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and situation resolved! Everything is looking fabulous. The placenta is completely attached and fine. The baby is growing and has actually moved from the 43rd percentile in length to the 53rd (Whoa baby! Wait to grow huge until mommy has you out of there!).

I wanted to write about this because I know other women are being told the same news I was at 12 weeks. It's scary. It's hard not to freak out. There's not a lot of information out there and the chat sites are mainly limited to scared mommies who have just been told that they are circumvallate...no follow ups to ease others' minds.

So mommies, call down. This situation doesn't necessarily spell disaster. Follow your doctor's instructions and know that plenty of women with this diagnosis go on to have beautiful, perfect babies. I'm rooting for you.

With love,
Call Me Jo

That Time I Tried to Write About Something Besides Pregnancy

For the last few days, I have been trying to come up with something to write about that did not concern my expanding belly. I tried to keep track of some of the funnier conversations R and I have because some are hilarious. The world deserves that kind of all out belly laugh. You would think hilarious = memorable, but apparently not to me and my hormone soaked brain.

You guys, nothing seems to stick. I frequently find myself starting to ask a question or make a statement only to pause and end with "Never mind, I forget."

Thus, I am comedically useless to you. Sorry. Am failure.

To compensate, I give you cute pictures of Odin and his blanket:

Isn't he adorable??

Until we got Karma, Odin always had a blanket. He would drag it around like Linus from The Peanuts. Then Karma came and she would lay on his blanket while he drug it across the room; inevitably the squabbling was too much and the blanket had to go. But, somehow, this has happened again (and I love it).

Making a Baby: Week 17...and 18 (aka The Time I Ran Away From the Internet)

So, hi. Um...how's it been going? I guess I should apologize for abandoning you. I didn't really mean to, it's just that I took holiday vacation, and I was busy. Busy doing what? Well, um, you know, hanging out, playing Wii, snuggling on the couch. It sounds a lot less busy when I say it out loud.

R and I synchronized vacation time and it was awesome. So there. It was and I won't deny it.

We had all the nearby family and their respective boyfriends and kids stay over xmas eve. That meant I spent most of xmas eve cooking a big turkey dinner. But the bright side is that R and I were left with an abundance of leftovers to snack on while watching movies and playing video games...which we did a LOT. Also, SUPER BONUS, no one lost their shit or otherwise ruined xmas. It was a holiday miracle.

Let's see, we also went snowshoeing. This pregnant lady is badass, yo. Almost 2 miles wearing snowboarding pants that had to be held up with R's belt because my belly is WAY too big to be confined by the zipper. In addition to my pregnant badassery, there was beautiful nature and stuff.

Snowboard pants fail? Win? I'm not sure but they stayed up.

Proof of beautiful winter scenery:

Baby's first snowshoeing trip.

Then we went snowboarding. As in R went snowboarding (on his new snowboard his wife bought him because he has been working so hard and all this spousal spoiling is about to come to an abrupt end when the baby arrives) and I spent the day on my laptop and kindle from inside the ski lodge. Just me and my electronics and my jealousy. *sigh* No snowboarding this year.

Interesting side note: one of the OBs at the practice I go to gave me the green light to go snowboarding as long as, and I quote, "you're a good enough snowboarder." Then I spent a half hour puzzling over my snowboarding skills and weighing the pros and cons of snowboarding against the life of my unborn child. I ultimately decided life was more valuable than going fast down a mountain of death. Though, obviously, it was a non-issue (see snowboarding pants that had to be held closed by a belt in the paragraph above).

Then, on a crazy, pregnant whim, we went shopping for baby stuff. We hit several consignment shops and a couple crazy, over-priced places and bought the cutest wee little clothes.* Then we found the perfect crib and it happened to be on clearance so we had to buy it. Also, after weeks of comparing pack-n-plays online (we plan to keep the baby in our room at night for several months), we found a totally better one and they were almost sold out so we had to buy that.

*Note: you can get the crazy, over-priced clothes at the consignment shops for an 8th of the price. Seriously, same clothes, worn like two times. But we hit the consignment shops first and weren't sure if we were getting  a good deal until we went to the crazy, over-priced clothes place (I'm looking at you Carters) and were like, holy crap, that's more than my shirts cost! But of course we still bought some things there because they were SO cute. Essentially, we spent the day going AWWWW, look at this! And buying all the things.

**Also note: you may remember that we are trying to go gender neutral with the clothes. This basically means buying green/yellow/orange/gray/brown/red boys clothes because ALL girls clothes are pink or purple, or ruffled, or have bows, or have tiny vaginas sewn on them.

As for pregnancy, it's all going good. You know, there's the round ligament pain and the back pain and the boob pain and growing out of all my clothes...so things are going as expected. OH, except this: R got to feel the baby move on xmas night (week 17)! And almost every day since. I don't know if it's just because I am small or because our baby is practicing jujitsu, but there is plenty of detectable movement weeks earlier than we expected. Some of those little kicks pack a pretty good punch, which is great now because R can feel them, but it does make me flinch when I think what things will be like in another month or two.

And with that, here are two  three weeks worth of pregnant belly pictures. Please remember, I was on vacation, which means that hair styling and makeup are herculean tasks reserved for going to Babys-R-Us.

Week 16

Week 17

And now with even MORE belly!

Week 18