Appointment at Northside - Atlanta Perinatal Consultants

Well before I get into today's excursion, let me tell you about yesterday. I was at work and everything was pretty normal. I didn't feel great but I wasn't throwing up either. After lunch I went to the bathroom and I had some long stringy discharge mixed with blood, so of course I freaked out. I called my doctor and talked to her nurse and told her what was going on. She said that as long as I wasn't bleeding a lot then they weren't too concerned. But she did say that if it got worse then call back and they'd see if they could get me in earlier than Wednesday. So after work I went home and went vertical until 4am this morning when I got up to pee. That being said, getting good sleep was not in the cards obviously. I kept preparing myself for the worst at my appointment today. I was so afraid that we were going to go in there and there wasn't going to be heartbeat or my baby would be gone altogether. Scary stuff the mind wraps itself around...

Anyway, I got up about 9:30 to get ready. We head out to Atlanta at about 11am and got to the hospital a little after noon. We had to go through admissions and they got me in the system and all that good insurance-y stuff. Our appointment was at 1pm. They call us back at around 1:15 (typical...) and we go into the ultrasound room. Then we got to see our precious little baby, WITH A HEARTBEAT! It was 150bpm, the sonographer said that it was excellent and everything looked great. She was having some trouble looking at my left ovary though, so after she did the vaginal probe, she switched to the one for the tummy. Found it with that one. (Thank god cuz the poking around in the nether regions is not the most comfortable thing to sit through.) After the ultrasound we went in to meet the doctor that I'd be seeing.

He wasn't the most warm and friendly guy, but his 2 dozen framed diplomas (from 4 different universities) and other certificates and board organizations more than made up for it. Basically I had to tell him everything from beginning to end about my last pregnancy, family history, life story, etc. He said that he's read through all of my files and notes, and said my cervix looked good on the ultrasound so far. He said that normally people who have incompetent cervix don't contract before losing the baby (which I did). They'll start bleeding and then all of the sudden the water bad will be in their vagina. But if I did in fact have any opening of the cervix then that would have allowed for infection to get in and cause my body to go into premature labor. So he recommended two different routes that we could take and I get to pick which I want to go with.

Option 1: Aggressive - put the stitch in no matter what my cervix looks like at 14 weeks and take it out at 36 weeks.

Pros:

• A lot of women just want to do it and get it over with and not have to worry about it again until time to deliver.
• No chance of missing the problem.

Cons:

• The procedure can be painful.
• Can't change your mind, once it's in, it's in and won't come out until 36 weeks.
• Could cause an infection.
• Sometimes the tissue grows around it, resulting in C-section delivery and then the stitches will have to be surgically removed after delivery. (AKA more hospital time and healing time)

Option 2: Pro-active - continue to monitor my cervix by ultrasound and exams, alternating weeks with the Specialist and my regular OB/GYN. (So basically I'd be seeing a doctor every single week.)

Pros:

• Will only get a stitch if a problem arises and they deem it necessary to go ahead with the procedure.
• I will have a lot of personalized care on a weekly basis (instead of just being stitched up and sent home - "take 2 of these and call me in 28 weeks...")
• I get to see my bean every week!
• If no problems arise then I don't need an unnecessary procedure, and subsequently an unnecessary surgery to remove them.
• They can put a stitch in at any time up until 36 weeks.

Cons:

• If a problem does arise then it may not be caught in time. (Though I will not hesitate to take my hiney into the ER and demand to be seen if something comes up.)
• I'll probably have to pay out the ass for ultrasounds and doctors visits. At least I have good insurance...

So that's the deal... I didn't have to choose today which I wanted to go with. He told us to go home and think about which "plan" was right for us. I have an appointment with him again in 3 weeks, October 7th. He said after I pass the point where the percentage for miscarriage is lower then he can start seeing me regularly, which is 11/12 weeks. So I'll be exactly 11 weeks when I see him again. Though I have an appointment tomorrow with my regular OB/GYN office with my midwife. I'm pretty happy with the way it all went today and the fact that we do have options to meet our needs. I'm pretty sure I'll have another ultrasound tomorrow, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I'm just so happy about seeing that little heartbeat flickering away on the screen. It makes every single thing I have to go through entirely worth it. I will try to calm down and not stress about bad dreams and weird things that my body does. Unless something is seriously out of the ordinary then I am just going to relax and stop thinking that something is wrong. It's hard to do that, but I don't want to put unnecessary stress on my body. I think I need some yoga... If anyone knows of any good pregnancy yoga DVDs please pass the info along. I need to find my Zen, lol.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has been concerned, family and friends. I love you all. As soon as I scan my ultrasound pics in I'll get em posted.