Special Attention

I have a "special attention" pregnancy, not to be confused with high risk. If you call me high risk, I'll probably kick you in the shin.  I've been closely monitored by my team of doctors this entire pregnancy. When I was 21, I was diagnosed with Lupus. I had the symptoms since I was about 15, but my pediatrician was too worried about STD's to take the time to listen. When I was 23/24 I switched insurances and started going to a different doctor. He wanted to run his own tests on me to see exactly what was going on. Turns out, I didn't have lupus. He diagnosed me with Sjogrens. When I found out I was pregnant I had just switched insurances the month before and had to find an entire new set of doctor's. I went in to get my pregnancy confirmed and  when the doctor saw I had been diagnosed with Sjogrens she set me up to go to the hospital and meet with the Maternal Fetal Medicine team. MrC and I went in and had a long meeting with the director of MFM about how they were going to handle my pregnancy. They ordered an EKG, an eye test (that I never did because I got confused about opthamologists versus optometrists and then I didn't know which insurance to use and eventually so much time had passed and she didn't bring it up again so I said forget it), and made me collect my urine for 24 hours so they could test it (that was so gross!) All of my tests came back in the clear. Their main concern has been with BabyC's heart. Sometimes the fetus can have a heart block which leads to a slow heart beat which can be fatal. Because of this from weeks 15-25 I've had to go get a weekly ultrasound where they check BabyC's heart. Starting at week 25, I go every other week. I'm currently at week 23 and there haven't been ANY issues and I know there won't be (well one week they could tell I forgot I wasn't supposed to have caffeine and I had 5 glasses of iced tea the day before my appointment. BabyC was off the freaking hook for two days, but it definitely wasn't a slow heart beat. Oops!)

 

The other thing the doctor was worried about was me having a Sjogrens flare up. I very, very rarely have any issues concerning Sjogren's I'm actually convinced the doctor's made this all up, but that's not the point. It can affect a lot of different parts of your body but the only issues I've ever really had are swollen painful joints (knees and toes for me) and fatigue. If I'm tired, I just go to sleep (even at work) and if my joints are swollen I whine for 30 seconds, then pray, then sit my too busy behind down so my body can recover. I was prescribed medication a few years ago but the only times I ever took it was when I knew I was going to be doing a lot of walking for multiple days. It's really not that bad, so I just deal with it. The doctor said that if I started having flare ups, they would need to put me on steroids so I won't pass any antibodies to the baby. She told me that toughing it out was not an option as long as the baby is in me. That's something I really don't want to have to do, so we prayed about it and kept it moving. Another thing that all the doctor's are insistent upon, that I don't like, is that I have to deliver at 38 weeks. I tried to manipulate them and put them against each other to get to go longer- but those ladies won't budge! They all said the same thing "once we get you to full term, we want to just get the baby out alive and healthy." In my mind I'm determined to make it to at least 39 weeks since these heffas with their fancy book learning and knowledge don't want to let me. They didn't say I have to have a c-section, but on the day I'm scheduled to deliver, they will give me medicine to induce labor if I haven't started. I'm already going to have a talk with Jesus and BabyC so we can kick start this labor on our own and not have to deal with unnecessary medication. The day before I'm scheduled to go in though I'm going to pamper the heck out of myself. Manicure, pedicure, get my sister to do my hair, and get a wax because I'm hoping the pain will jump start labor (If I have the baby during my wax appointment, can I get my insurance to cover it????)

 

 I don't really tell too many people what's going on because I don't have time for people that add their worry and doubt to a situation. My faith has this covered. I told a few of my friends when the doctor's were first running their tests. Every single one of the friends I told immediately grabbed my shoulder and my belly and prayed for peace and health. I was so grateful for that, because in the very beginning, I was a little overwhelmed. I even had a twitter friend that would email me encouragement. A totally unplanned pregnancy along with all this extra stuff was a lot to process. It took me a few weeks of praying and talking to faith filled people before I got myself together, but now it's nothing but excitement. I always knew I would enjoy pregnancy and I'm glad this experience has been so pleasant. I get to look at BabyC wiggle and squirm evey week and it's so much fun that I'm glad I have over dramatic doctors that insisted upon all this monitoring.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to share after Jameil wondered why the heck I was tweeting from doctor's offices 2 days in a row. Once a week at the hospital, once a month at the OB/GYN. BabyC weighs 1 pound and I'm up 8 pounds. We're almost in the third trimester!