A Baby! Health Update

I wrote (6?) posts I, so make sure you keep reading if you don't want to miss anything.

On Tuesday, I was finally able to go to the doctor for the first time, thanks to our insurance starting so late. Anyway, it was a very looong appointment, thanks to the blood work they had to do and the history of my health--they had lots of questions about my pregnancy with Kara. Anyway, thanks to the bleeding and clotting issues I had, along with the HELLP syndrome and the seizure, they have classified me as "very high risk," and they are making me go to a high-risk specialist and I won't be able to go to the midwife (which I pretty much knew anyway). I will also have appointments more often to make sure everything is ok. Ironically, they aren't as concerned about the HELLP syndrome as they are the bleeding and clotting issue I had (they called it DIC?) The midwife said that the HELLP syndrome, while bad, is easier to catch and "cure" than the DIC because they just have to deliver the baby and keep my blood levels normal, in theory. The nice thing she told me is that this time, unlike my experience with Kara, if I or the doctors suspect that even the tiniest thing is going wrong, they will get me right in and make sure nothing happens. Their goal is to get me at least past 36 weeks, and then if they can get me to 38 weeks, I will deliver at the hospital near us. Otherwise, she said if they can't get me to 38 weeks, they will make me deliver at their hospital in Denver that is more equipped to deal with risky deliveries.

Anyway, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, we got to see the baby for the first time! My due date according to the midwife is September 1st, but she said I will get a more accurate due date on the 19th when I go in for the long ultrasound appointment. I haven't really felt that attached to my pregnancy up to this point, but when I actually saw the baby on the screen and it looked like a baby, I felt like this was actually real and I felt happy and excited about being pregnant. I've been happy about being pregnant, but hadn't really felt excited up until then. Just a few days ago, I started feeling the baby move and kick, but so far, this baby isn't as active as Kara was. The baby is active right after dinner and just a little bit after I go to bed, plus periodically throughout the day, but for the most part, the baby's pretty relaxed and calm. I'm starting to have terrible heartburn, so I hope that means I have another baby with a ton of hair!

Here's the U/S picture. It looks so much like some U/S pictures we have of Kara! Their profiles look almost identical, plus, it looks like this baby is going to have chubby cheeks too (it looks that way to me, anyway). I'll post more U/S pictures when I go back in two weeks.

Kara calls the baby "Little Cookie" thanks to Nana's influence.