I thought I had gotten all good news from the OB today: no new things to worry about. The last 18 weeks have been crazy. Every time I came by to get a check up or progress report I learned new words.
Subchorionic hemorrhage
Choroid plexus cyst
Trisomy 18
Placental lake
To put it simply, all of these words suck.
A subchorionic hemorrhage is a kind of like a blood clot between the placenta and uterus which can be reabsorbed without any complications to the pregnancy. Sometimes you don't even see any symptoms of it except in an ultrasound. Of course, that wasn't my story. I got to have the gory, bloody hemorrhage. It looked like a murder scene: Mrs Peacock in the bathroom with the lead pipe. This happened at week 8. The hemorrhage is finally gone. All of it. FINALLY!
Around week 18 we discovered a choroid plexus cyst in baby's brain. Basically, a little extra cerebrospinal fluid built up in his brain. It happens in about 1 in 100 babies and goes away on its own. It's nothing to worry about when there are no other developmental problems. Luckily, our baby has no other symptoms and so we can consider this a normal abnormality. Normal abnormality. I'm sure my former English professor would consider that a "wonderful paradox."
Trisomy 18 is a chromosomal defect that can sometimes be identified when a choroid plexus cyst is present. It's scary. And fatal. It is one of the somethings to worry about when other developmental problems are discovered. Our baby boy shows no markers of this defect. We got this relieving news two days before Christmas.
A placental lake is a blood pool found in the placenta. I guess it's not as serious as it sounds. But, seriously, how are you not supposed to worry when you find out there's a "lake" in your placenta?
Except for the trisomy/cyst connection, none of these things have anything to do with each other. Except that I've had all of them in this one pregnancy.
So when the provider at my appointment today told me that my hemorrhage was gone, the cyst had resolved itself, the echocardiogram we had (just in case) came back completely normal, and my placental lake was less than half its original size, I was relieved.
Then she shocked me again.
Even my weight gain is on track. She said I can gain ten more pounds and still be within a healthy gain. I thought this was wonderful news. And then I thought about it.
Crap.
This baby still has six or seven more pounds to gain.
I know, plenty of people have babies that are six or seven pounds after cooking for nine months. I don't. My last two babies have been over nine pounds each.
This means that I'm not on track to stay within a healthy weight gain. I'm on track to have a healthy, chubby baby and several weeks of "talks" from my provider over my strategies of controlling my weight gain.
"Choose healthier options." I do. I have plenty of dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Do you know why? Because of antioxidants. And because no one else in the house will eat it.
"Try to go walking more." Because this is possible to do. I'm carrying around a million more pounds than usual so my feet, knees and hips never hurt and make it hard to want to do anything but sit still.
"Drink more water." Mmm, water. My favorite thing about ingesting food or beverage is the taste. If only water had some. (Not counting unfiltered Arizona water that tastes like barf.)
And so my optimism has taken a hit. All good news about the baby. And only a month or so left before the lectures begin. I'll just nod and smile. And I'll do my best to have a little more salad, a little more walking, and a little less chocolate. Even if it is dark chocolate.
