Day 1
Posted: March 18, 2013 Filed under: The Story of a Mother 4 CommentsI had intended to write about my awesome date with Evan, but the past few days just haven’t gone as planned. Evan got sick not long after we got home on Friday, and then June got the bug too in the middle of that night. The weekend was mostly filled with sick, slightly disgusting kids and lots of laundry.
Today was my 20-week ultrasound. The equipment they use has been updated since I had Evan and June – the sonographer said it’s only about 6 weeks old, and it was so fancy! We were able to see a lot more detail. The brain, heart, and most major organs looked good, but the baby was curled up face-down and the sonographer had a hard time getting a good look at several parts. He asked me if I’ve felt bigger or smaller this pregnancy – I mentioned before that I haven’t gained any weight and I don’t look pregnant, so this is much smaller than before. When he measured my fluid levels, he said they were really low. It’s measured in the distance between the placenta and the baby at several places, and at this stage of pregnancy, a healthy level is anywhere between 8 cm and 25 cm. My fluid level was 3.8 cm, which explains why (1) I’ve been small this pregnancy and (2) he had such a hard time seeing things properly (including the gender – so I still don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl).
He talked a little bit about how the doctor would want to monitor my levels, and I should meet with them this week. He stepped out to talk to the doctor and they decided I’d meet with the doctor today and an perinatologist tomorrow morning. It was a little worrisome – okay, a lot worrisome – how quickly they were getting these appointments set up. Jarom and I went home, picked up the kids, had lunch, and I headed back to the doctor’s office while Jarom stayed home from work to watch the kids.
Honestly, I expected that the doctor would say something along the lines of, “This is something that happens, here’s how we fix it, you really shouldn’t worry too much about it.” Instead he gave me a very sensitively phrased explanation of the bad things that can happen with low amniotic fluid levels at this point in pregnancy. He talked about common causes, like ruptured membranes (which is tentatively ruled out, since I’d more than likely have noticed something like that), defective or nonexistent kidneys in the baby (the ultrasound wasn’t completely clear on the kidneys), or an improperly formed placenta that doesn’t provide enough nutrients for the baby. In all of these cases, the scenario was that the baby won’t survive, unless it’s ruptured membranes and I can make it to 24 weeks, at which point I’d be induced and they’d do their best to help the baby.
Another possibility is that today’s low fluid level was a fluke, and things will look fine tomorrow, but he made it clear that’s a best-case scenario and my ongoing small bump and lack of weight gain don’t make it the most likely scenario.
Tomorrow morning I’ll meet with the perinatologist, who can talk about some of the less common causes of low fluids, and who will do another ultrasound. I suppose having some sort of answer or game plan will help me feel better. In the meantime, we’re hoping for the best but preparing ourselves in case we do lose the baby. Jarom has put me on unofficial bedrest for the evening – not dealing with getting the kids to bed was pretty nice! – and I’m drinking oodles of water, just in case that makes a difference. Fingers crossed, I may just get put on bedrest for a while and the fluid level will go up.
I’ll post an update tomorrow.
Evan on Pie
Posted: March 14, 2013 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys Leave a commentIn honor of pi day, Evan talks about pie, dragons, and ninjas!
Drawing
Posted: March 13, 2013 Filed under: Dangerous Book for Boys Leave a commentEvan really likes the idea of rhyming words, but the concept of “rhyme” has somehow escaped him. Last night, though, he came out of his room a few minutes after he’d gone to bed and exclaimed, “Mama, I know the answer! Bump and jump are rhyming words!” I thought that meant he’d figured out what it meant for words to rhyme, but today he asked if head and fire rhymed. Nope, not at all.
Because I’m also trying to teach Evan to read – he’s a little reluctant – I decided to show him that rhyming words end with the same letters as each other, but start with different letters. We got out some paper and I wrote words like cat, bat, rat, there are a million -at words . . . he recognizes enough of the letters that he actually sounded out a few words. Does that count as reading? At any rate, once we were done, he wanted to have some paper to write. He went in the other room and came back a few minutes later, proudly showing me that he made “the letter for June!” Sure enough, it was a backwards J. Who taught him this? Someone should take credit for teaching Evan how to write, because I certainly didn’t do it. On purpose, at least.
Next he drew the light in the living room, and the piano. Then he moved on to using crayons and this gem was the result.
It’s a charming picture of our house on fire and us running outside to escape.
With labels:
Evan asked me how to draw a person, so I showed him a stick figure on a separate piece of paper, and he took off with the idea – even adding eyes and mouths where mine had an empty face. I also showed him a dog but the majority of the drawing is Evan’s own design. As is the subject. He mentioned that the reason the house is on fire is that there’s no fireplace, so we made a fire on the rug. To be fair, we do have a chimney but no fireplace, but making a fire on the rug? I hope this isn’t foreshadowing.
Oh, and this was the first time I’ve ever seen Evan write his name. He did make the V upside down, and added an extra line on the N – for a first attempt, though (that I know of), it’s pretty impressive! He wanted to put it up on the fridge immediately but I did manage to talk him into letting me scan it first. I love this picture.
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 