Dropping off

Five months it has been since I last graced the "pages" of my dearly beloved blog. And here I find myself nearly into my third trimester of my third pregnancy. Here I find myself realizing that so much has happened in the last five months that it would be completely impossible for me to put it all into words. Perhaps I'll give it a shot... or at least some of it. We're not running a reality show for goodness' sake.

Sometime at the beginning of February we found out that I was expecting our third child. Quite exciting to be sure, as we had been trying for a year. That may not seem unusual to some, but to us it was quite different from our previous experiences. Within a couple of weeks came the usual morning sickness, fatigue, blah blah blah. I don't think that's news to any mama's out there. But then something else started to happen. At 8 weeks came the bleeding. Never had I experienced this with my other two pregnancies and I was extremely frightened. This was accompanied by severe cramping and pain in my lower abdomen. Naturally, we headed to the hospital (because these things can never happen during the day. They have to happen in the dead of night of course!)

An ultrasound showed that baby was fine, such a little peanut he was at that time (we had no idea it was a boy). But obviously not everything was quite right. So began our adventurous journey with more than ten ultrasounds and three doctors pulling us through this wagon ride of anxiety! I kept hearing "Goodness, I will just breathe so much easier once we get you to 26 weeks!" Thanks Doc... not making me feel superb here, but now I have a goal in mind. 26 weeks here we come!

I have to admit that seeing my boy on ultrasound so many times has helped me to get to know him so well I feel. Oh, but I'm forgetting to tell you what was going on. Silly me. My placenta seems to want to detach from my uterus. There was a large hemorrhage that was threatening abruption, and part of it had torn partially from the wall. This came with several other placenta "lakes" as they are called, small pockets of blood throughout the placenta. Extremely painful for me! Man oh man!!!

But my little guy is a fighter! I knew it from the very beginning. This kid was not giving up. And while I was (and am) very thankful for that I have to admit that sometimes I was in so much pain that I just thought, "what if it just ended. Right now. Would I be sorry?" And of course I would have been. There is no doubt about that.

I felt his first kicks at 9 weeks. Yes 9. And I knew that he was a boy. I just knew it. At 13 weeks we had an ultrasound that very much confirmed my suspicion. By that time he was doing all sorts of tricks inside of my belly. By about 20 weeks Jordan and the girls could watch and feel has he moved, kicked, and squirmed. It is still one of their favorite pastimes.

Today I am more than 26 weeks along, and so we are all "breathing easy". The hemorrhage has turned into a sizable but much less dangerous clot. I now have two other clots as well. But for right now, things are going well. There is a chance that my placenta could tear away because of those clots, as the baby gets bigger. But we're just taking it one day at a time. I have a strong feeling that this kid will hang on to the end.

By the way... his name is Joseph.