Journey to Baby

Hi, ya'll!

As a follow-up to my introductory piece here on Blogger, here's the basics of my reason for being here...

I found out on March 24th that I was pregnant. I kind of suspected I was even before taking a HPT, simply because of how I'd been feeling for almost two weeks. FD (Future Daddy) was gone for most of that time on a work trip and my periods were not always normal or predictable, so even though I was 9 days late at that point, I wasn't really thinking about it.

After the first test, we were both a little stunned. As we like to tell everyone who asks when we are going to have kids, "we aren't trying, but we aren't not trying." We took a second test almost immediately: still positive.

The next day, we visited family for dinner, as we often do on Sundays, and although I wanted to share our good news, FD refused. I was pretty upset about that, and went to bed crying that night - the first time that had happened in quite a long time, and never before because of FD. He had the sense to realize that I was upset and pried out of me what was wrong. I explained that I felt like he was trying to hide something that should be happy. We were married, in a fairly good financial position, loved and wanted children...why should this be something to hide? He explained that he was worried if we told people too soon, something would go wrong. I told him that to have such a thought was horrible, turned my back, and went to sleep as he left for his off-duty job.

The next day, I called the doctor first thing in the morning and made my first appointment. Because of a variety of prior and on-going medical problems, I knew Doc would consider me to be "high risk", so I wanted to get in to see her right away. They booked me an appointment for the following Wednesday, April 4th.

FD called at lunchtime and told me he'd arranged to have his family meet us for dinner at a favorite restaurant so we could share our news and apologized for making me believe that he didn't want to share our good news. We went through with dinner and it went well.

Tuesday was an odd day that week - strange cravings and and a persistent headache coupled with nausea. It passed slowly. I told my coworkers during our weekly staff meeting that a baby was on the way - everyone was excited. Late in the afternoon, I started spotting lightly. The doctor's office was already closed when I called to report this, and the answering service advised me to call back in the morning.

On Wednesday, I called the doctor first thing and got an appointment for that afternoon. Leaving work, I went to my appointment, and it went fairly well. They did a pregnancy test in office and it came back positive. They drew blood to send off to test my HCG and progesterone levels. Doc gave me a full check-up and ended with an US on the brand-new US machine. The US showed a blip that was the very tiny 5w6d baby.

Of course, I expressed my concern over the spotting. Doc reported that my cervix was closed - a sign that I was not having a miscarriage at that time - and told me that some spotting early on could be very normal. Nonetheless, she scheduled me to come back on Friday to re-do HCG and progesterone level tests.

I left feeling far more upbeat than when I'd arrived. Thursday passed uneventfully, healthwise. After an all-day work event, I got to visit NM (New Mommy) in the hospital, where she had just given birth to her first-born the day before. The irony of the timing didn't then and still doesn't escape me. I went home and took a pregnancy test. Still positive.

To be continued...

Hugs,

~FM~