I'm sure as most of you that would ever read this by now know, that we are expecting Baby #3 this summer! We are very excited, and kinda shocked, and scared, and excited! Not that this baby is a surprise, we wanted another baby. But we had to work HARD to get our other two babies, including lots of blood tests, trips to the doctor and infertility medication. This pregnancy happened on it's own, with no outside help. I'm 13 weeks and still kinda in shock! Plus, I haven't been sick at all! I was miserable with the girls. I have been extremely tired, and I do have a major aversion to ground meat. And that is all I will say about that because even the thought of it makes me start gagging and dry-heaving! Gross I know! Otherwise, I almost have to remind myself I'm pregnant since the usual misery of pregnancy sickness isn't ailing me this time around!
I went to the Doctor on Tuesday for a routine checkup. I was really anxious to get to the Dr. again because I needed that reassurance that all was well with the baby. You know, since I'm not sick! I took my girls with me to the appointment. I still don't know a lot of people here, and you know how Dr appointments go....sometimes you can wait for hours. And that always stresses me out when I farm my kids out to other people. I bribed (or as some would say, I gave them an incentive) to be extra good for me by telling them they could each have $1 to buy something at the dollar store. Best $2 ever spent!!!
We actually didn't just do the doppler thing to hear the heartbeat, we got to have another ultrasound scan. That was really fun for the girls. I am happy to report that Baby Howard #3 looks more like a baby now than just a blob, and "he" (I'm assuming/hoping this is a boy!) is growing well. He had a good strong heartbeat of 160bpm and was doing little flips for us during the ultrasound. Gracie especially thought that was cool!
We did however, get some bad news---which is why we got to do another scan--so that was a fun perk! When they did all my blood work a few weeks ago, everything came back looking good....except for my antibody count. I'm sure most of you have heart of the autoimmune issue that comes when Mom had a negative blood type, and Dad had positive blood type. It's call RH and if baby's blood gets mixed with Mom's blood and mom had negative blood and baby has positive blood the body thinks something is attacking it so it creates antibodies that can cause problems in future pregnancies. Easy remedy for that is the Rogam shot. It's not a problem these days for the parents to have different blood types because of this.
Well, that is not our problem. Both Bryant and I have positive blood types so we don't have to worry about getting Rogam shots. However, there is another thing in your blood called "Duffy." Don't worry, nobody else has ever heard of it before either! It's super uncommon. Like 1 in 700,000 people have this or something. But (un)lucky for me, I have Duffy. Now, I'm not sure I'm completely explaining this correctly, but this is what I understand anyway. I must be "Duffy Negative" and Bryant must be "Duffy Positive" and probably when I was pregnant with Kate, her "duffy positive" blood got mixed with my "duffy negative" blood and caused antibodies to be created. Very similar to the RH thing. The problem is, there is no easy fix like with RH. They don't have a "Rogam" shot or an "Anti-Duffy" shot to combat the antibodies for this. The issue is the antibodies can cross the placenta and attack babies red blood cells. This can cause the baby to become extremely anemic and can affect oxygen flow though the baby during development. Worst case scenario is the baby will have to receive blood transfusions right after birth.
So, I have been referred to a Perinatal Specialist (High Risk OBGYN) to check this out. I feel extremely blessed because my brother-in-law, Rich, is a High Risk OB in Boise. As soon as I found out about this, I texted Bryant and then I texted Rich. And he is such a good guy, he called me right away to talk to me about it. I really really appreciated that. He didn't seem nearly as concerned about it as my regular OB did, which also made me feel better.
I have an appointment with the Perinatal Specialist next Friday. Bryant is going with me, and Rich said they will do a blood test on Bryant to make sure he has "duffy positive" and they will continue to do blood tests on me once a month to check my levels. If my levels go up higher than what they are now, they will most likely be doing scans of the baby every month or so to make sure all is well still.
That's all I know for now. I hope to know more next Friday. I wish my Mom was closer than she is since we will have to leave our house to get to our early appointment at like 6:45am and I'm not sure what to do with my kids. I could take them with us (but I'd rather not) and they both have school that day. Oh well, I'll figure it out!
Thanks for reading my very very long post after a long LONG time of nothing on here! I hope this wasn't super boring! Now I gotta think of something interesting to blog about for all of you who endured this whole thing!
3 comments:
If it is a boy, you should name him Duffy :). Here's to hoping it's a healthy pregnancy!!
I'm excited for you! That's awesome you haven't been sick. I hope your pregnancy goes well and that this Duffy thing is only a minor annoyance.
I've got neg. blood, but so does Jeff, so I never had to do the Rogam shots. How lucky is that?? I've never heard of the Duffy thing, but it sounds like you're in good hands! How comforting it must be to have a family member to consult with! You looked great the other day, BTW!! :)
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