28 weeks, 3 days

We made it to our first goal of 28 weeks. Cheer us on to 32 weeks now!

I had a rather rough past couple of weeks....

Our MFM appointment didn't go as well as we hoped. We were inspired by our last ventricle measurements, but this past week, her ventricles increased again to more than they've ever measured. I cannot remember both measurments, but they were in the high 20's.... It was very disappointing news to hear. Although we're still happy with the fact that her little hands and feet (and legs, and elbows, and anything else she can poke me with) move like crazy. We're hoping the damage done wasn't far enough along to prevent her from ever walking. Of course, we've got a long way to go before we'll know...

I'm doing my best to behave myself and follow the rules of bed rest, but apparently my regular OB can disregard this as though it's no big deal. My first hurdle was the fact that they refused to do my one hour glucose test along with my regular four week appointment, which meant I had to make another trip out the next week, just to have that done. Then on Friday, they called me to let me know my glucose was 139 and their cut off is 135. So now I had to go in AGAIN for the third time in three weeks (all the while still making my trips to Riverside every week, which take about 5-6 hours total by the time they're complete.) As I researched, I found that most doctor's offices have a cut off of 140 and that's the general guideline, but instead I have to go take the three hour glucose test.

Yesterday, my mom took me bright and early to the lab and we were there from 7:30am to almost 12pm. Getting stuck four times and drinking the nasty sugar drink wasn't even the worst of it. It was FREEZING in the lobby where they expected me to sit for the entire four hours (again, can we say "BED REST"?). I actually had to ask for a blanket because I was shivering. Add in the nausea from drinking the yucky thing, the headache from not eating, and the back and hip ache from being on bed rest for 5 weeks now, I was not a happy camper. I was even more agitated when the woman doing my tests basically questioned as to why I was even doing it since the cut off they have is 140. GRRRR. As of now I'm still awaiting the results. Luckily, a friend of my mom's works there and came out to see us, and ended up getting us an exam room to wait in so I could lay down. It was seriously a mess....

I guess what's frustrating the most out of this is wondering what the heck could possibly go right in this pregnancy, because so far my enjoyable moments are outweighed by all of the crap we've had to go through. I try not to let it get to me, but at what point is enough considered enough? Of course, this leads me to my next dilemma...

My husband and I had the serious discussion awhile back that we will not be having any more biological children. It's been too hard of a journey and the numbers are just not in our favor. As much as I'd love to have a normal pregnancy to know what it's like, it's not a chance I'm willing to take. If I wasn't so good at statistics, we might think differently, but I can run the numbers:

• 1 in 1500 babies have spina bifida (.06%)
• My bloodwork showed a 1 in 465 chance of spina bifida (.21%)
• The chances of having another child with spina bifida.... 4%

If I'm in those percentages that aren't even whole numbers, 4% seems huge to me.  Not a risk worth taking, especially with my possible complications as well due to the surgery. So we want to adopt. I know Callie isn't even here yet, and it seems silly to be thinking about, but I want her to have a sister to grow up with.... And adoptions can take a long time. I just don't want Callie to be too old to appreciate a little sister. It's the question of when do we get started on the adoption process, because one website even says it can take up to six years to complete an adoption... But our luck, we would apply and ours would happen so quick that we wouldn't be ready.  Ugh, nothing can be simple, can it?

Sorry for the randomness of this post, too many things to think about when you've got all this time on your hands. Above is her profile and a 3D pic of her face, well, what she'll let us see.... And yeah, that's her hand AND her foot by her head lol.