The purpose of the doctor's appointment on Tuesday had been to discuss a fetal reduction.
Let's just hope that's the last of the irony for December.
During my last visit at the infertility clinic, the doc basically told us to run, not walk, to a Maternal Fetal Specialist after he found the third sea monkey. Apparently he thought we needed to get the whole fetal reduction thing straightened out, tout de suite. Well, after waiting two weeks for the first appointment they had, Mark and I had pretty much made up our minds to take our chances with the triplets.
So on Tuesday, we just wanted to get the reduction talk out of the way and get started with our pre-natal care. We had to watch an absolutely horrible video on fetal reduction (Mark alternately called the narrating doctor "Vlad" and "Dr. Death"). This was then followed by an interminably long ultrasound where the technician kept pushing, prodding and generally trying to flatten my uterus out with the ultrasound thingie. At one point the consulting doc walked in, briefly introduced himself, and then started talking to the tech about the sea monkeys. Allusion was made to a missing FH (fetal heartbeat), so Mark and I instantly knew that we'd lost one of the sea monkeys. (It was also the reason why the ultrasound was taking so long; the tech was trying to get all the measurements, etc. without letting on that something was wrong.)
After the ultrasound we were quickly shuttled in to see the doc who was incredibly relieved that we had figured things out on our own and that we were seemingly okay with what had happened. The choice had been made for us by natural selection / nature / fate, and he no longer needed to convince us as to which way he felt it would be best for us to go. He suggested that this might be a case of vanishing twin / multiple syndrome. He told us that the rest of the sea monkeys were doing just fine and that I had nothing to worry about.
He then had us follow up with the Nurse Midwife in charge of the practice who got the ball rolling for me to have my first pre-natal. After donating 9 tubes of blood, a very full jar of urine (in case you didn't know, pregnant women need to pee all the fucking time) and answering more personal questions about my past than I was comfortable with (notably about the scars on my arms and my previous hospitalizations for depression), I walked out with the AMA(?) ACOOG handbook on pregnancy, some of my most pressing questions answered and two follow up appointments. I also have an official estimated due date now -- it's July 1, 2007. And, I'm further along than I've been thinking I was. As of today I'm 12 weeks along. I'll be starting my second trimester on New Year's day.
This Tuesday I have my Nuchal Translucency screening and next Wednesday I finally have my first official pre-natal appointment.
Now that the shock of it is all over, I can truthfully say that I'm feeling fine, though Mark and I are bummed to varying degrees. We had just started wrapping our heads around the thought of being parents of triplets, of actually figuring out how we could make it work. I think I'm less upset, though, truth be told, I'm more than a little scared of losing the other two despite the doctor's reassurances.
So, that's what happened at the appointment. I disappeared for the rest of the week because my company was doing some high profile year end releases and I wound up being crazy busy -- too busy to get my head together enough to even write "Thank You" so I asked Mark to do it.
But I have to pause here and say it. Thank you everyone for your wonderful words and comments. I saw them all even though I wasn't posting. Again, I can't express my gratitude or how fortunate I feel I am having so many folks that care. Thank you.
Since this is a post on filling folks in, I'll let you know that I had a decent share of highs and lows following the appointment.
High - I got an INCREDIBLY generous and PHAT bonus from my job plus a small salary increase for next year. Mind you, when I was hired I was told that I wouldn't be getting a raise at all because of the position I was taking so my year-end compensation was a HUGE surprise.
Low - On Thursday I had to get up at 3:30 AM and go to work on 4 hours of sleep. Our boss had everyone that came in early -- he pulled the same duty -- go home at noon but I wound up being sick for the rest of the day. I wound up sleeping all day Thursday and feeling very off.
Low - I called in sick on Friday because I was still feeling sick and had some light spotting. I hadn't had any spotting AT ALL throughout the pregnancy so when I saw it -- the teeniest of specks -- I freaked out. I decided to play it safe and stay at home. Later in the day, there was a little bit more so I called the Nurse Midwife and she conferred with a doctor. Both of them told me that given my circumstances this was completely normal and that I shouldn't worry. They went over more serious symptoms I should look out for and was told to call 24/7, even if I felt stupid about it. They also told me to get plenty of rest, so I put myself on modified bed rest. Thankfully there's been no more spotting since I called them.
High - While on modified bedrest, I finished the knitting on Shedir (craptastic pic in sidebar under "In Need of Blocking or Finishing" -- I only have 2 ends to weave in!) and the first of the two fronts on the Lace and Cable Capelet:
High - We decorated our hallway for Christmas for the first time since we've been together.
Yes, it's understated but it makes me giddily happy.
We can't have a tree this year because of the evil cattens and while Mark would have been happy with a wreath, I kept on thinking that you couldn't put presents under a wreath. Besides, I didn't want to vaccuum up after it for the next three weeks. But I've been wanting to go all out and decorate at Christmas for years now so I bought stockings for me and Mark and got a wreath and star. We couldn't figure out if we wanted to center it to the wall or the hallway arch so we opted for the wall. I think it looks less off-center this way, at least in real life. In the pic it looks kinda dumb. But, like I said, it's a start and it makes me incredibly happy.
