In a Heartbeat

So yesterday was not a good day for me, to say the least.

It all started at around 6:30am while I was laying in bed, trying to find the motivation to get up and get ready for work. I rolled over onto my side and felt an enormous amount of pressure shift into my pelvic area. At first it was just uncomfortable, but after a while it started to hurt and really bothered my lower back. Trying to ignore it and get on with my morning, I got up, got ready and went to work.

It was once I got to work that the pain really set in - I was literally sitting at my desk all morning, trying not to keel over from the pain. It actually came in waves, during the "down time" the pain was actually manageable. But during the "high time", it was all I could do not to run out of the room screaming.

Around 12 noon, my mom asked if I wanted to go for a ride and get some fresh air - she would pick me up from work and we would go out on my lunch break. I took her up on the offer, but the moment I walked outside to get into her car the worst of the pain began. Luckily I only live less than 2 miles from work, and so I told her that I needed to go home. We went home and woke Bryan up (he had just gone to sleep after working his night shift), they sat with me for half an hour or so until the pain subsided. My mom had an appointment she needed to get to and asked if I wanted a ride back to work, since I was feeling a little better. I decided to suck it up and went back to work.

Of course, shortly after I got back to work was when the pain began again. I tolerated it for as long as I could and then I went down to use the faculty restroom and call my mom again. The bad pain was coming in waves and lasting for about 5 minutes each time, so of course by the time I left the restroom the pain had subsided again. I had students in my room until 3:30ish that day, and somehow I managed to stick it out until then. Afterward, I ran home and crawled into bed.

At this point, I was expecting the worst. I kept flashing back to my miscarriage and relating every little twinge and pain to that experience. I was almost positive that I was loosing this baby too.

I managed to fall asleep, and actually slept through the night. I called in sick the next morning and stayed in bed all of today, up until my ultrasound appointment, which was scheduled for 1pm.

Surprisingly, the pain had subsided since the night before - but I just figured that meant it was over for now and that this ultrasound would once again confirm my worst fears.

We went to our appointment - Bryan tried to remain positive, but I had fallen into a hopeless slump. I was literally expecting the absolute worst news and just couldn't be cheered up.

The ultrasound tech took us back to the room, asked me the basic questions (including information about my previous losses) and I explained to her what I had been going through, emphasizing my feelings that this pregnancy was now over as well. She searched around for a bit and explained to me that my ovary was engorged (due to the medication I was on) and had a couple of sizable cysts on it. She speculated that one of them had ruptured yesterday, and that was the pain I was experiencing. She wanted the doctor to have a look and confirm, but made sense and so I agreed with her.

The next thing that she showed us literally took my breath away - a beautiful little flicker of a heartbeat! I honestly couldn't believe it, even after she said it out loud to us I still couldn't believe it. I didn't even realized that I was holding my breath until she reminded me to breathe. She took some measurements and the baby was actually measuring 1 day a head of my own prediction, with an amazing heartbeat of 126 beats per minute!

Without further adieu... I present to you Baby W

I am still in complete and utter shock - the whole experience was just surreal.

But that's our baby :o)

Now that we've seen the heartbeat, the chances of a miscarriage are lower than 5% now! No less, please continue to send thoughts, prayers and positive vibes for Baby W's continued growth and stickiness!!!