I had a great visit to the perintologist yesterday. Aside from the fact that I'm having twins, I have various issues with the pregnancy this time around that required me visiting a "high risk" doctor. As with my last several pregnancies I have gestational diabetes. Uncontrolled, this can be very serious but I've had good practice controlling it in the past and expect I'll be able to do so again. I also have a thyroid issue that is new - my bloodwork shows me to be hyperthyroid. It's not definite but probably that I developoed this issue before I was pregnant. So far, it hasn't been difficult to control with medication. I'm strep B+, anemic and have had a couple infections as well - all easy enough to monitor and deal with, just a lot to keep an eye on. And lastly, the issue that surprised us the most, we have a blood compatibility issue. It's almost bizarre to find out about this after 4 children, but apparently Scott is a carrier for a very rare blood antigen called "big E". Only 2 percent of the population have this antigen. At some point I've been exposed to this antigen and my blood has developed antibodies to it. In general this isn't a huge deal, but it is now that I'm pregnant again. There is a 50% chance (for each baby) that they inherited the "big E" antigen from Scott. If either of them has it, then there is some risk that my immune system will attack their blood - via these antibodies I've developed. It's very, very serious and can cause anemia in the babies and ultimately can result in stillbirth. We've been praying a lot about this one. Basically, what we do is simply monitor the level of antibodies in my blood each month and watch for them to rise. So far they've gone down slightly and stayed low. That is a very good sign!
So - given all the issues I have this time around, my OB referred me to a perintologist for review. Yesterday I had 2 1/2 hours of ultrasound time while they checked over the babies. They looked at all their organs, checked the blood flow through each ventricle of their hearts, did echocardiograms on their hearts, measured their length and weight and even looked over all their facial features for signs of cleft palette or other anomolies. It was great to see them moving around and doing so well and the good news is that everything looked perfect! It was a huge relief for me and I left the appointment very excited about meeting our babies in a few weeks.
Here are some pictures:
I love seeing the U/S pictures and that you are blogging again. I look forward to following your pregnancy from afar and will be thinking about you guys! :)
-Amy
Posted by: HappyGoMommy! | September 25, 2009 at 12:36 PM