Another Dr. Visit, Another Ultrasound, Another Issue?

If you read back through my posts for Jun's pregnancy with Casen, you will come across a post where Jun had gone in for an ultrasound and everything was going good until they found some kind of unidentifiable mass in his abdomen.  It turned out to be nothing, but still scary none-the-less.  (Off topic, but how strange is that little phrase "none-the-less"?  No one talks like that anymore, so why is it still in our vernacular?)

Well, once again we find ourselves at an ultrasound appointment, where we get one of these little surprises that our little girl has some fluid in her kidneys.  This could mean that the baby has a condition called pyelectasis or hydronephrosis, which basically means that urine is not flowing to the bladder like it should be.  Not good stuff.  Usually, these things tend to clear up on their own, but this would mean that we need to come back soon and have another ultrasound soon to make sure everything is OK.  It helps that our doctor didn't act like this was a HUGE concern.

Great.  I mean, this isn't as bad as the "mass" scare from last time, but still, you never like hearing that something may be amiss with your child.

The good news is that our baby has continued to grow on schedule, which means that our early estimate of a conception date was off by about a week, which we thought might be the case.  So much for being know-it all parents!  This is a huge relief though.  Now let's get this other issue out of the way!

Our ultrasound tech was also able to confirm that we are having a girl, which matches with our blood work that we had done a few weeks ago.  Science! Yeah!

Now to figure out just how I'm going to handle a baby girl!  To say I'm a little freaked out would be an understatement.

Keeping Up With Pinterest Fads; or The Gender Reveal Party

It's crazy how much things can change within just a few short years.  One thing that is "in" now is called the "push present"  This is a gift that the husband is supposed to give to his wife for all the hard work she puts in during the pregnancy and especially during the delivery.  When we had Casen a few years ago, this either wasn't a "thing" yet or I just wasn't aware of it.  Sorry honey, you didn't get one with Casen... maybe I'll do better for you this year...

Another trend that I blame on the rise of Pinterest, the social arts/crafts/shopping/ideas site which lets you look at ideas for everything from refinishing an old army knife handle to maternity photo ideas, is the Gender Reveal Party.

Once again, I wasn't aware of this when Jun was pregnant with Casen.  When we found out the gender, my mom was actually with us in the ultrasound room and immediately afterwords I called my dad to let him know he was going to have a fishing buddy.

The concept is pretty simple, you gather all your friends and family, drink some punch, eat some cake (of course all blue and pink colors), then you "reveal" the gender to everyone at once.  Some ways which I have seen couples do the reveal is opening a box full or blue/pink balloons, or maybe popping an opaque balloon filled with blue/pink confetti.

We chose to go with a cake which would either be filled with blue or pink icing.  When you cut into it and take out the first piece everyone would know the gender.

Isn't it pretty?  Thank to Becky Beagle for the cake.

On the 30th, we had the party at my parent's house and invited all of our family out to witness the reveal.  We had everyone line up on the side of the cake which they thought would be correct.  Before we had my mom cut into it, nearly everyone was on the boy side with the exception of my dad and my sister-in-law Keli.  Wow, everyone is so sure it's going to be a boy.  Would they be correct?

Nope.

That's right, Casen is going to be having a baby sister.  While I'm excited on the prospect of getting to experience raising a boy and a girl, I'm still just a little terrified.  I'm not really sure how to handle a little girl.  Boys are easy.  Cars, trains and dinosaurs.  All things I am familiar with.  Dolls, tutus and tea parties?  Not really up my alley.  I'm sure I'll learn, though.  Wish me luck!

What has been funny, is how Casen has reacted to the news.  I mean, he has no comprehension of what is going to be happening in a few months, but we've taken to asking him if wants a "bubba" or a "sissy" over the last few weeks.  Without fail, it's been "bubba" every time.  We correct him and tell him the coming baby is going to be a "sissy", but he immediately retorts "No, bubba."

Sorry to burst your bubble, kiddo.  Better get used to having a little sister.

Congrats On Finally Doing the Job You Were Paid To Do

Well, we waited the two weeks we were supposed to again.  This time a little less patiently.  You would think that when a place makes a little error like LOSE SOMEONE'S BLOOD they would be a little more accommodating the second time and you know, maybe move us to the front of the line.

Nope.

Back of the line for you folks, just be glad we didn't make us pay you again.

There were were thoughts of taking our complaint up with the company's management, but ultimately we decided to be nice little citizens and wait our turn.

Actually, there was another little hangup which was strange.  At one point toward the end of the waiting period, the doctor's office called us to tell us they had the results. Great, what are they?

"The tests show that there is very very low chance of having any genetic disorders, it seems like that baby is healthy."

Awesome, what a load off of our minds.  One less thing to worry about amongst the thousands of worries expectant parents have every day.  Definitely felt very blessed and lucky.  But, I'm pretty sure there was another piece of information we were looking for...

"And...", Jun tried to lead her on.

"'And' what?"

"We were supposed to get the baby's gender with this test."

"Hmmm... it doesn't say here."

Well, to cut this long conversation down, they had only received partial results.  Add this to the frustration pile.  Why not just wait a few more days and send out the whole thing.  I guess we found out the most important information so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Finally, after several more days of waiting, we had the result we were looking for.

We're having a......

Nope!

You're just going to have to wait until our gender reveal party like everyone else!

How Does Someone Just Lose Your Blood? Or, How Our Lives Almost Became A Dean Koontz Book

Have you ever been to see the doctor when you had to have blood work done?  It's usually a pretty straight forward process.  You sit in a chair, they wipe the inside of your arm with some alcohol, a small prick, squeeze your hand into a fist, (try not to pass out, in my case...) and it's over in a jiffy.  Your blood looks thick and gross in those little tubes, but the magical fairy takes those little tubes to be analyzed at some lab and results come a few days later.

That's how it usually works...

For this pregnancy, we had an option open to us that apparently wasn't available three years ago.  Well, maybe it was available, but not for the purposes that we wanted it for.  One of the tests you can have performed on you early in your pregnancy is a screening for genetic defects, specifically for things like down syndrome.  It's called Cell-Free Fetal DNA testing, and is actually a pretty clever in how it works.

The bases for the test is that when blood from the mother circulates to the placenta, some of the baby's blood gets into the mother's bloodstream as well.  By simply taking a blood sample from the mom after a certain number of weeks, BOOM you have baby blood too.  Obviously the first thing the doctors look for is chromosomal anomalies such as Down Syndrome (which would show up in some of the blood cells and not others, i.e. the mother's).  Another thing that they can look for is the presence of a "Y" chromosome floating around in any of the blood cells which would indicate a male baby (since mama doesn't have a Y).

Pretty neat process but it seems like something Average Joe could think up in the shower.

Since this was a non-mandatory test (seeing as we are still not considered "high risk") we still had to pay for it, but getting to know the gender like 10 weeks earlier than with an unltrasound?  We were on board.  We scheduled an appointment, Jun got her blood drawn and we began the 2-week wait to find out our results.

We were told that it might be sooner earlier than two weeks, but sure enough after waiting the entire designated period, we placed a call to our doctor's office, who assured us that they hadn't heard anything.  

Ok, Well, I guess we'll just go right to the source.  We got a name of a representative of the company doing the test and after going back and forth with her we found out that the never did our test, although they did have a record of receiving Jun's blood sample.  

"Well why didn't you test it?"

"Um.....

...

...

...

...we lost your blood sample."

"What?"

"We got your sample, but we can't find it."

How does an organization (Pun?  I'm not sure.) go about losing this sort of thing?  I mean, it's basically what they do.  Presumably you need some sort of degree to work at a place like this, but maybe they accept people with degrees earned by mail in the Caymen Islands.

Then a thought more sinister set in.... what if the blood wasn't lost, it was stolen.  What if Jun's blood contained a cure for an illness that would be extremely profitable.  What if they are doing weird genetic experiments?  What if there is a clone of Jun out there right now?  Will I have to get both of them an anniversary gift?  I spoke to my dad and he agreed that this is how a good techno/horror/thriller novel gets started.  I guess only time will tell...

Mr. Koontz, be sure to cut me in on a share of the royalties when your book with this premise becomes a #1 Bestseller.

Anyway, we have another appointment to draw blood tomorrow and wait ANOTHER two weeks.  Hopefully they don't "lose" this sample.

A Trip to the Beach; or, How to Have Fun with Dark Clouds Hanging Over Your Head

Every other year, my family takes group vacation to Destin, Florida.  We rent a big beach house, take turns cooking dinner and generally just relax and enjoy ourselves for a week.

It's kind of hard to enjoy yourself with the threat of a miscarriage hanging over your head like storm clouds.  Just two days earlier, we had gotten the news that our baby might not be developing like it should, which could mean that Jun would miscarry sometime in the near future if that was the case.  We were prepared to have to cut our trip short if we needed to in order to get Jun to a doctor.  Now we faced the dilemma, do we tell everyone in our family about the pregnancy?  What if everything was not OK with the baby?  Eventually, we decided that we would tell them, so everyone would know why Jun was taking it easy, and not lifting things, and generally going slow.  It also couldn't hurt to have some extra prayers at this stage either.

Not long after we found out we were pregnant, Jun and I started talking about how we would tell our families.  Of course or parents knew the same day we found out, but it's always fun to tell the extended family.  For Casen, it worked out really well that we told everyone on Thanksgiving when we asked my dad to say he was thankful for "all eleven" of us (which would have included the baby).  I didn't take long for everyone to do a quick headcount of the table and see that there were only ten of us sitting there and make the connection.

This time, as soon as we got to our beach house, we changed Casen into a shirt that we had made up which said "Big Brother" across the chest and let him run around until someone noticed it.  We thought he may run around for awhile before someone noticed (seriously, how often do you read a toddler's shirt?), but a scream from my sister Becky a few minutes later meant that she had figured it out.  Of course her scream would also draw everyone in the house to her room as they thought someone was hurt.

We told everyone the story of the early/late ovulation story and explained that we were telling them early in case the worst were to happen.  Everyone understood, and said they'd be praying for our little baby.

With that done, we went about our vacation.  We swam in the ocean, we ate delicious seafood meals, we built sandcastles, we watched fireworks shoot over Destin Harbour from a boat.  But most importantly of all, we made it back home still a family of four.

Back to the Doctor; Visit #1 of Many

Today, I found myself back in a very familiar place.  Jun's ob-gyn's office.  Seems like we were just here even though it was more than two years ago.  The last time we were here together, one of the nurses asked us unexpectedly if we wanted to have Casen that day.  One of the more nerve-wracking questions I've ever been asked, and luckily for me, one that Jun answered so I didn't have to.

This time, I hoped that there would be much less drama... I was almost right.

Seeing that we had had a positive pregnancy test, it meant that we were at least about four weeks along when we took the test, and about six weeks when we got in for a doctors appointment.  So that is what we were expecting to hear when we had out first sonogram (because we're so smart...).  Once again, we were able to get our favorite sonogram technician, Joy, to show us the first pictures of our baby.

She used her tools on the imaging machine, measuring this and that, making notes, and showing us our baby's heartbeat, which we were happy to see was normal. The she asked us,

"How far along are you?"

"About 6 weeks," we confidently replied.

"Well, the measurements I've taken show the baby is younger than that."

She quizzed us over the date of Jun's last period and all the other pertinent questions, and basically came to the conclusion that the baby was behind on his/her growth with the information we gave.  Uh oh.  That doesn't sound good.

After Jun got cleaned up from the sonogram, we were moved to a another room to wait on the doctor.  While we waited, we discussed everything we knew and tried to make sure we were correct with our facts.  Finally, Dr. Kolar came in to see us.  She had a big smile on her face like she always does, happy to see Jun again and excited to see that we were going to have another baby...

Then she looked at the sonogram results... I can remember her letting out a audible "Hmmmm...."

She quizzed us again on dates of periods and the like and we told her the same as we told Joy.  Jun even had a handy app on her phone where she kept track of all this data since we were trying to get pregnant.

Dr. Kolar then asked us about what day we thought the baby was conceived, and since you can track literally EVERYTHING in that app, we had a pretty good idea what day it was.  That day lined up perfectly with when the app said Jun would be ovulating, which made since because, well, we were pregnant.  That is what the app said, and we got the app from the internet, and everything on the internet is true, right?

So, being the smart doctor that she is, she asked, "Is there any other days the baby could have been conceived?"

Jun looked again at her handy-dandy app, and sure enough there was another possibility a week later than the date we thought it would be, but that didn't make sense because Jun would have already ovulated by then, and since the app said... you get the picture.

Dr. Kolar then went on to explain that it's possible that Jun ovulated late in her cycle... which would mean that we got pregnant a week later than we thought we did.  Things started to fall into place, but there was still some uncertainty.  We couldn't know that the later conception date was correct.  We left with two possible outcomes.  Either the baby wasn't developing at the proper rate.... or he/she was really younger than he/she was letting on.  We're really hoping for the second one.

Here we go again....

Well, as the title says, here we go again!  Once again, we find ourselves expecting another addition to our family, this time in late February.  Once again, the magic book worked!  It's amazing what a little science can tell you.  We woke up in the morning, and found that we had the requisite number of high basal temperatures again, so we took a pregnancy test, and we were happy to see that we were once again pregnant.  We took a few more just to be sure, but in the end we were convinced that it was true.

So now, the waiting begins.  I remember that the first pregnancy dragged on  and on.  It seemed like each week took forever.  Maybe that's just because we were nervous and really giddy with anticipation over what it would be like to be parents.  Will this time be the same?  I guess only time will tell.

What about the gender? Is Casen going to have a little "bubba" or "sissy"?  Does he care either way?  I suppose it's going to be difficult for him to even comprehend what is happening as Jun's belly continues to grow.  I mean, we can tell him all day that there is a baby in mama's tummy, but he probably won't understand until we bring the baby home.  As much of a new adventure this will be for Jun and myself, I can't imagine what will be going through his little mind when we bring the baby home and it stays.  Hopefully he won't be too jealous...

I'm definitely excited about adding to our family, and I'm excited to get to keep you all updated again as well.