July 4, 2015 – I will always remember that specific date for one very happy and good reason:
After seven long and painful years, my husband and I found out that I was pregnant. This is not the first time I have been pregnant, this is technically my 6th. I was so shocked to see a positive, I needed just a little reassurance. My husband was floored. But we were both happy and excited beyond words.
20 days later…
There’s the fetal pole and yolk sac.
And that would be a visual copy of the heartbeat. Baby Greene is 6w5d here with a strong heartbeat of 146bpm.
I cried. I was scared to death. The main worry on my mind: Will I lose this baby, too? But I was already in awe of the little blessing-to-be. I was already in the grip of the tiny, nonexistent fingers. I loved this baby immediately.
I had my first appointment that day with an assistant because my doctor was out of the office that day. We went ahead and did the usual pap smear, drug test, family history, etc. And I was scheduled back in 2 weeks.
Two weeks later…
There’s our little alien peanut baby who decided to give us a little show by bobbing it’s head.
There’s that beautiful heartbeat clocking in at 171bpm at 8w5d.
This has been the furthest point I have reached in pregnancy, but I was still so scared. I prayed constantly, with everything in me, for this baby to survive and be the most blessed miracle of our lives. If it’s possible, I was even deeper in love after the head bob. After talking with the doctor, we’re told we can expect this little guy or girl around March 13, 2016. And since the mama and daddy-to-be are both O+, no rhogam shots for me, thank God.
Bad news is that my pap came back abnormal high grade, which usually means early stage of cervical cancer, I had to come back a week later for a colposcopy. Oh geez, something else to worry about.
One week later…
There’s that beautiful alien peanut again. This time it decided to show us how it napped. Facedown, just like Daddy sleeps! Oh boy, another one! 😁 We also got to see the heartbeat flicker on the screen. Yes, I cried again.
The heartbeat this time is 164bpm at 9w4d. And later on the hubby points out that he sees a creepy little Goofy likeness to the right of the baby. I swear that’s pretty much all I see now when I look at this sonogram.
Good news! After getting soaked in vinegar and having pictures taken of the inside of my hooha, and trying not to throw up because all I could concentrate on is the freaking vinegar smell, I find out that everything is absolutely normal. The only reason my pap was abnormal was because of being pregnant and having a compromised immune system from said pregnancy. Believe it or not, this happens quite frequently, but you should still follow your doctor’s advice because sometimes the outcome is not so great. I still have to get a follow-up pap at my 6 week checkup after delivery to confirm that everything is still copacetic. I’m not too worried about it though.
Ten weeks and one day later… (after some more appointments in between)
Our little acrobat has decided to show us that they prefer laying balled up behind mama’s belly button with legs and arms over their head…and sticking their tongue out for good measure.
My little weirdo that makes me laugh because why not?
And then…
Yup, there’s our beautiful little miracle with a foot wedged firmly above their head, those are toes not a horn, and….they’re flipping us the bird! 😧 😂 Yes, my precious stowaway already has the attitude to rival any teenager. But wait! There’s more!
Drumroll please….Baby Greene is going to be a…..
GIRL! I was thoroughly convinced that SHE would, in fact, be a HE…oops! 😶 I had to ask the ultrasound tech to repeat that she was a girl because I was so shocked!
Baby girl’s heartbeat came through at a very beautiful 164bpm. Mama and daddy-to-be are both a little shell-shocked because we expected boy parts.
Daddy decided to help Mama with the gender reveal…
He made the sign with her name and I added the girl revealing sonogram to go with it. This sign will adorn the wall of her room when she comes.
So exciting, right? Well, uh-oh, it seems my stubborn, acrobatic daughter didn’t reveal all of her vital body parts for inspection during this anatomy scan, so we get to see her again in a month! 😄 Sometimes being stubborn isn’t always a bad thing.
One month later…
There’s her precious little profile, with a foot over her head again. But good news, she’s already decided to gravitate into the head down position and will likely (hopefully) stay that way until birth.
And…
She decided to show us her beautiful little face! 💞 Have I mentioned that I am completely in love with my daughter? Every little glimpse of her makes me so happy and if possible, I fall in love even more.
But news wasn’t so great this time around. Mama has to go see a specialist because Sadie-girl is still being stubborn and wouldn’t let them get a clear scan of everything, but more seriously, we found out that her umbilical cord only has one artery instead of two. This can potentially cause health problems with her kidneys and/or heart.
Two agonizing weeks later…
First, she’s still a girl. 😶
And once again, she found a way to be stubborn, we didn’t get one single glimpse of her face or profile. This is her spine up towards the top and the back of her head at bottom right. She kept her back to us the whole time during the ultrasound, but she’s definitely given us some interesting sonograms for the photo album so far! 😆
My kid, the comedienne always cracking me up, finally got every bit and piece of her checked over. While the tech was checking out her heart, she asked me to flip over to my left side so she could see the full heart. As I flipped over, that little jokester decided to have some fun with the tech and flipped over too, so she couldn’t see the other side. She and my husband got to watch her flip over on the screen while I was flipping over myself. 😂 Seriously, my kid cracks me up and will hear this story several times well into the future! Don’t worry though, when I flipped back over on my back, she stayed put long enough to give the ultrasound tech a break and see what she needed to see of her heart.
The good news was that her heart and kidneys are absolutely perfect and are developing exactly as they should. The specialist was very positive about her being perfectly fine when she’s born, but did warn that things could change anytime. If, at any time, our girl is having any difficulty of any kind, I will be induced or if really serious, have an emergency c-section.
As of right now, I am 28w2d along. It took until I was into my second trimester before I allowed myself to get attached to her. It was when I first felt her move at 15 weeks, before I knew she was a girl. That first movement was just…incredible. I had physical confirmation from within that my baby was doing well and I was lost to this wondrous feeling of life growing inside of me…finally. I found out that I was pregnant a month before my 31st birthday and it’s been the greatest birthday present I could have ever hoped for!
I have to go back to the specialist on January 29th for a follow-up ultrasound just to make sure my girl is still healthy and doing well. Meanwhile, my two week appointments have started with my regular OB until I reach 36 weeks when they’ll move to weekly appointments until I deliver. I go back on January 8th for the first one when I will be 30w5d. And two weeks after that, they’re going to start monitoring Sadie-girl with ultrasounds at every visit until delivery to keep an eye on her umbilical cord, heart and kidneys.
To say that this pregnancy has been nerve wracking is a bit redundant. But despite everything, it has been relatively easy for me. During the first trimester I only got sick a few times, it was mainly just awful nausea. I fully realize and appreciate the fact that I could have been much worse in that respect. The round ligament pain has been bad at times, but nothing I couldn’t grit my teeth and push through it. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and have to control it with medicine to try and combat pre-eclampsia. And really bad heartburn that I have a prescription for to help ease it. But she’s worth anything.
What has made everything so wonderful and easy to bear is my husband. He’s been over the moon from the very beginning. He was a little sad that he doesn’t get his boy, this time anyway, but has gotten over it and is very excited about his daughter coming. Well before her ears were even developed, he started talking to her, singing to her and just generally playing with her. Sadie loves it and now that she’s getting bigger and stronger (1lb. 13oz. at the last ultrasound!), she even plays back. When I rub my belly and she’s awake, she’ll punch my hands or just sweetly and gently press her tiny hands against mine. When she’s playing with her daddy, he’ll gently press just to the side of where she is and she’ll punch his hand in return. Or if he’s not careful, like the other night, he’ll gently lay his head on or near her head to talk to her and she’ll punch. She punched his forehead the other night and I laughed until tears were streaming because it just shocked him so much! 😂😂😂😂 Just a couple of weeks ago, he got to watch her roll over and when she did, she pressed her hand through my stomach where he clearly saw it. I think he’s amazed more each passing second when things like that happen, even more when I have to convince him that it doesn’t hurt at all. I’m sure that the next 11.5 weeks will produce some painful moments, but for now I just enjoy every movement she makes. Even at bedtime, when he snuggles up to us and places a protective hand over her and my belly and she thinks that it’s playtime and punches away at his hand while we drift off to sleep.
These are the precious moments that I never thought I would have. My daughter makes me laugh and love her more than I ever imagined or knew it was possible to with a little human being I’ve never technically met. I’ve always heard about instant, life-altering love at first sight with your new baby, but I have already experienced this and she’s not even here yet. Who would think that several positive home pregnancy tests could lead to such a profound love and knowing that above all, anything good I have done in my life pales in comparison to this tiny little womb swimmer?
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