First OB Appointment/Prayer Request

August 15, 2012

This morning I had my very first OB appointment in Wichita Falls. I am using Dr. Winfrey at The Women's Clinic, but she is out on maternity leave until the end of this month, so I saw the nurse practitioner.

The first thing they did was take me back for another ultrasound (Yay, I never get tired of seeing our baby). The little one has grown quite a lot in just one week. Today I was able to see tiny little arms and legs. Also, baby Ermis was squirming and wiggling around all over the place. It was absolutely precious! I've never seen that until today. The sonogram technician measured the CRL (crown to rump length), and baby was measuring exactly on track at 9 weeks 6 days. Next she spotted the heartbeat and it was beating at 165 bpm, perfect!

Next the technician looked for my ovaries so that she could measure the cysts that have formed from the IVF medications. While looking around, she spotted one thing that is kind of scary. She found a subchorionic hemorrhage, which is basically a buildup of blood between the placenta and uterine wall. She warned me that the hemorrhage may cause bleeding and wanted me to be aware so I didn't totally freak out thinking it is a miscarriage. In most cases, the hemorrhage will resolve on its own by either bleeding out or reabsorbing into my body. I'm definitely praying for the latter. In some cases the hemorrhage can actually cause miscarriage (from what I've researched), but my caregivers did not seem concerned about that at all. They told me if I began to bleed that they will do another sonogram to ease my worries. The hemorrhage also increases chances of preterm labor and placental abruption, but that is rare. Even so, I ask anyone who follows my blog to be in prayer that this hemorrhage will reabsorb and be gone by my next appointment so I don't have to worry about it anymore.

After the ultrasound, I met with the nurse practitioner to go over all the do's and don'ts of pregnancy. I already knew the majority of this information since I've been seeing a specialist, but I know it's routine. They performed all the routine lab work, pap, and breast exam. I've had almost all of the lab testing done before now also, but I know they want to do it for their own records.

All in all, my first appointment was great. I love how detailed my caregivers were to set my mind at ease. They really did their best to keep me from being scared. I go back in a few weeks (September 6) for the nuchal translucency test for Down's Syndrome, Trisomy 18, etc... I will have another sonogram, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the baby again and seeing that my hemorrhage has healed. I will be in prayer that everything continues progressing normally and we have no issues come up. Here's a picture of baby Ermis from today: