I'm Here and Doing Well

Thank you all for the concern and personal messages of why I have been MIA. I promise all is well! I was sick for almost a week, and I am sure you can all understand that when you are sick, you don't feel like doing much of anything, including blog. THEN, the more things started to build up, the more overwhelmed I started to feel when I thought of all I had to update you on and write about. Here is a list of the topics I have to write about:
1. My finished kitchen
2. Rosalynn's Birthday and Easter Celebration
3. My 11 week check up with Pumpkin
4. The results of the 3rd Old Wives tales, new plan for sex/name reveal, and baby names
5. The passing and funeral of Father Thomas (my priest of 15 years and who married Foster and me)
6. The Women of Faith Conference and meeting Angie Smith! (Probably going to be 2 posts so it is not so long!!)

Yeah, so as you can see, it is quite an overwhelming list, and you can see why I have been at a loss for words. I made this list here in order to let you see what you get to look forward to, and also so I can remember everything!! I am going o post in no particular order, so today I m going to post about my 11 week check-up, because I am sure you are all wondering how Pumpkin is doing.

On the 28th I had an appointment. I figured I would use this opportunity to talk to Dr. C about the awful flu/cold I had been suffering through for a week. I went into the office, and Foster took the day off. Originally, he wasn't going to go, but we had a funeral to attend that afternoon, so he took the whole day off and accompanied me. I have had pretty low stress so far, however, every night before an appointment I start to get nervous. I was sooooo nervous about whether he would be able to hear the heartbeat on the doppler. I figured he would try to locate it since I didn't have an u/s scheduled for that day and I was terrified that it would take forever to find the heartbeat, which would in turn cause me to get really nervous/upset.

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. As soon as I laid down on the exam table, Dr. C asked how I was doing, "Nervous," I responded. He got up, walked over, and grabbed the u/s wand.

"Let's just put your mind at ease," he placed it on my stomach, and right away we saw Pumpkin and his/her little heartbeat right away. Have I told you how much I LOVE this man? Well, at least until he started talking after my physical exam. I was asking him for an excuse from weapons qualification. IWQ (Individual Weapons Qualification) happens once a year. Last time, I spent over 3 hours on my stomach shooting my M-16, and the next day, I started bleeding from a SCH (subchorionic hemorrhage). Needless to say, I am nervous about doing it again, and this time I will be further along. With Rosalynn, I was 11 weeks. With Pumpkin, I will be about 17 weeks. According to the Army, you can do IWQ till 20 weeks. Honestly, I can't even lay on my stomach in bed anymore, what makes them think I can lay on the dirt ground? I think they should allow the mother to determine if she is able to lay on her stomach for 3 hours. Every woman and every pregnancy is different, so to make such a generalization of 20 weeks is unacceptable in my eyes.

Dr. C agreed to write me an excuse, and he said he would help me with anything I wanted, BUT he said that there is no way of knowing if IWQ was to blame, "Unfortunately, we will never know what truly caused all the problems. As doctors, we have to be careful at speculating. I could ask 'did you do a lot of grocery shopping and pushing carts in your last pregnancy?' and  because I asked, women will think 'Oh No! that is it! That is what caused the problems!' when in fact there is no real way of us knowing. There are so many women who do EVERYTHING wrong, smoke, drink, drugs, and go on to have healthy, living babies. Then there are the women like you who did everything right, and still lose their baby. It isn't fair, I know, but I see it happen all the time."

"But I should still stay away from things like painting and hair dye and stuff until the 2nd trimester right?"

"Not necessarily. There is no real research that says these things are harmful, just ventilate well."

"DOCTOR!!! Don't give Foster any ideas!!!" I exclaimed as I saw the light go off in Foster's head! He went from being my favorite doctor, to being on my hit list!  I have been telling Foster I couldn't help with the floors and the painting because of all the fumes, Dr. C was blowing my cover.

I know he meant well, and wanted to stifle some of my fears and I trust him, but I will still be cautious, it makes me feel better, that I am doing everything I can to bring Pumpkin home safely.

He continued on with my physical exam, and took the blood for the trisomy disorders, and then made my next appointment for my NT scan for May 9th. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures this time, but I guarantee there will be tons from the NT scan! Can't wait!