Good News!

Brian and I went in this morning for another ultrasound to check my placenta and an appointment with Dr. Reich. Last time I had an ultrasound my placenta was 1.2 cm away from my cervix - still considered low-lying and still a concern with regards to the possibility of future bleeding. A low-lying placenta that close to the cervix would also mean that Henry would have to be delivered via c-section. While a c-section wouldn't be the end of the world, in the last few weeks I've found myself really nervous about the possibility. Major abdominal surgery is no joke and since I've been doing nothing but sitting around for the last six weeks (and with eight more to go), I was getting really concerned about how long it was going to take my body to recover from a c-section. (Truth be told I'm nervous about how long it will take me to recover from a vaginal birth at this point).

Before I went in today I tried to do a little research about how far my placenta would have to be away from my cervix to no longer be considered low-lying. I found numerous places listing anything from 1.5 to 3 cm so I went in with no real idea what number we were even looking for here. We got into the scan and the technician set out immediately to measure the distance. She marked my placenta and then my cervix, drew a line between the two and the computer spit out the distance ... 1.98 cm. Not bad and a definite improvement over the 1.2 it had been but I was a little crestfallen that it wasn't closer to 3. After getting that measurement the tech moved on to check on Henry's growth. He's looking great and measuring right on track (they estimated that he's about 4 1/2 pounds right now) and his heartrate is perfect. He is also head down and I now know for a fact that the thing that keeps stretching out the upper left quadrant of my abdomen is his butt.

We headed up to our appointment with the doctor and after a bit of a wait were finally in to see her. She came in with the films and immediately said: "Good news!" Apparently, in her practice a placenta that is 2 cm away from the cervix is no longer considered low-lying. While I am still (barely) under that number she feels confident that in the next 8 weeks the placenta will move even further away and it will not be low-lying when I deliver. This means two very exciting things: 1. I will most likely get to try for a vaginal birth (which means I can start looking into a doula and get serious about trying for a drug-free birth), 2. I no longer have to be on the strictest bed rest.

She told me that if I felt up to it, that I could try running an errand now and then. That I could drive and leave the house for an hour to an hour and a half at a time. Most patients probably would be happy with that and go on their merry way. But I wanted more. I looked at her and said: "Can I go to work for an hour and a half?" She looked at me like I was crazy but after I explained to her that I was starting to buy books for summer and had numerous rep appointments scheduled (just about one a week from here until my due date) and that those appointments only take me about an hour, she said I could try going back to work for a little bit at a time.

She said that I could try going into the store for an hour a day for the rest of this week and if it goes well then I can try going for an hour twice a day after that. But if I start bleeding again, I'll be back in the hospital until the baby comes. She doesn't want me lifting anything and I'm not to do any exercising. This amount of time at the store was more than I could have hoped for and honestly more than I need or feel comfortable doing at this point (for now I am going to stick to just going in when I have appointments scheduled) but I was so excited to hear that I could go back to the store. There's nothing like being told you can't go to work to make you understand your true feelings about your job. Turns out, I LOVE my job and I was missing the store like crazy.

So, around ten this morning she told me I could go back to the store for a bit. Where was I at 10:30? At the store, of course. I made Brian drive me from the appointment straight to my office. I have an appointment tomorrow and wanted to make sure my office wasn't too much of a disaster area (it was) and plus I was really excited. Everyone at the store was really surprised (and happy) to see me - including my boss who tried to send me home pretty much as soon as I got there. It felt great to be back there and the store looked awesome.

After I cleared off the top of my desk as much as possible, Brian and I headed to a celebratory lunch at Kome and then back home. I immediately crashed and took a two and a half hour nap. Being out and about is exhausting. I am going to be very careful to make sure I'm not overdoing it but being told I don't have to be confined to the house for the next eight weeks feels like nothing short of a miracle.