These last couple weeks have brought a bump in the road. Not terrible, and at this time so far so good, but a need for me to slow things down. The short story is it turns out I still have a "low lying placenta." We knew at our very first viability scan at seven weeks that the placenta was low, but at that point apparently a lot of them are, and as the baby/uterus grows, the placenta placement moves on up with it. I did have spotting early because of this and at least the physicians weren't surprised. My personal feelings at that time were another matter, but it resolved. Until last week when it started up again and was a new issue. Second trimester bleeding is abnormal - everything says so - to call right away. We went in and quickly the nurse found the bean's little heart beat and all was fine. Then we had even more bleeding, got sent to the ER, where again tests all looked good. This time we had another full US, which showed the placenta to still be "low lying." This pattern of events has bought me some activity restrictions at least until we are 20 weeks along. But again the bean looks good which is the ultimate goal.
So now what? It is nerve racking because every day now I have at least some anxiety over this. We had a great discussion with our OB last week about the whole thing. Basically we won't know for some time yet if the placenta will continue to move up or if it has just implanted low and will stay there. Hence the 20 week mark - which is when we have a detailed scan to look more closely at a number of things including the placenta. We will never know if this implantation is somehow related to my Asherman's and the never quite normal lining, or just dumb luck. It is estimated that 1 in 200 pregnancies have placenta previa - but they won't classify if I have this or to what degree formally until that magic 20 week appointment. In trying to ease my anxiety she said to consider it a good day when there is no spotting, but not to be surprised if there is some. And somehow that actually is helpful. As long as the bean stays well, we'll deal with it.
The hardest part to "no heavy lifting" means I'm not supposed to pick up Lydia. Her favorite game lately has been running to me to pick her up and rescue her from the dinosaur (her daddy) while he chases us around the kitchen. Then there is bedtime, which used to be a snuggle fest while I'd carry her upstairs. Now we've modified things to hold hands and run from the dinosaur or show me how big she is that she can reach the hand railing and walk up to bed herself. Some days I do hope she won't think she's "too big" for me to carry by the time I am able to again! Exercise is its own adjustment - I can walk and do "minor low impact things" but no weights/running which has been my mainstay. I never would have guessed how much sanity those runs gave me until being told I can't do them. Maybe it will help my post-partum workout motivation then?Thankfully my job isn't really anything that qualifies as heavy duty, at least not physically, so no changes there. It is mostly the things you don't think about, a lot of things weigh more than 10 lbs when you aren't supposed to be carrying it. I think I even have to empty out some of my purse!
On the up side the focus of slowing down does make me realize how frantic my days sometimes are, and really don't need to be that way. A month ago I would try to fit something in to every minute of the day, thinking I had to use each moment to be productive. Now if I find I have a 45 minute window, I'll take a nap or relax a bit rather than attempt 3 loads of laundry and vacuum the entire house. And wouldn't you know it - the world is still turning and we are still happy. So here's to hoping I can take remember this lesson when it isn't imposed upon me!
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