A Glimpse into Motherhood?

This morning was quite possibly one of the most terrifying mornings of my life. And that is not an exaggerated statement. Craig and I are all moved (well until our house sells.. moved) to Oklahoma. It has seemed pretty seamless to me, and I havent felt very stressed about anything. But I guess maybe through all the preparations of moving and the process of change, I have overdone it some. I woke up this morning and experienced some bleeding. This happened to me in my first trimester, but it was just a tiny bit and it was clear what caused it. This episode, there was not a clear cause, and there was a large amount at one time. And then it was a small amount for several hours afterwards. The large amount really scared me. Scared me enough to call my doctor. I talked with the nurse first thing when the office opened. She told me that she wanted to schedule me for an ultrasound at the hospital as soon as she could. She got me scheduled at noon.. which seemed like eternity. My mind was just racing with possibilities of what could have gone wrong and what we would find during the ultrasound. I was a basket case. After my conversation with the nurse, I think I might have spoken a combined 10 words to either my husband or my mom. But there were lots of tears... I seriously was freaking out. I felt extremely helpless.. and all I wanted to do was help my baby and make it be alright. But, I really knew that I could do nothing at that point to help my baby. It was really a horrible feeling.

I got to Mercy and had to be "Admitted" and then went to wait for the radiology lady to come and get me. They gave me a buzzer/beeper like they give you at a restaurant while you are waiting to be seated. I thought that was a pretty efficient idea. But I was also thinking about my full bladder that they told me I must have to have this ultrasound done, and wondering how long they planned to have a freaking out, full bladdered pregnant woman waiting. Again, it seemed like eternity. But then sweet lady, Jamie, came and pressed in a number and made my beeper buzz. We went back to this room, where I laid on a bed and she made the room really dark. She put that gel stuff on my belly and right away we found the baby! Its heart was beating! Then she proceeded to do a really long, extremely detailed ultrasound. It was so reassuring. We saw the four chambers of the heart beating. We saw the different parts of the brain. We saw the spinal cord. We saw where the umbilical cord is coming out of our baby's stomach. We saw all the bones in its cute little legs and arms. And we were able to count all its finger and toes. Baby Smith was quite animated, which was so cute. At one point I think Baby Smith was dancing, with its arms above its head! And then you could see him/her stretch its cute little legs out! And when we were taking pictures of her/his face, I am pretty sure Baby Smith was smiling! It was absolutely amazing. Jamie asked us, if I can find out the sex, do you guys want to know what it is... "We SURE do!" So as soon as she started trying to get to the baby's bottom to get a close up, Baby Smith started doing flips all the way up my stomach. He/She started down really low and Jamie was having to chase him/her all the way up to my belly button! So needless to say, we didnt get to find out what it is today. But there were no signs today of another little part. But who knows. :) Our baby's heart was beating 154 beats per minute today. I told Jamie, that in our first ultrasound our baby's heart was beating 174 beats per minute. She said that was completely normal, that pretty early on in the pregnancy, its heart beats faster! And that anywhere between 120 and 180 is considered normal. AND, according to the ultrasound today, I am 15 1/2 weeks along (according to my first ultrasound, I will be 15 weeks tomorrow). So the due date according to today's ultrasound was February 26th!

So, all in all, our baby is healthy and happy! And they have no idea why I was bleeding (my placenta looked good, my cervix was fine), so I am just going to take it easy and pray that our baby just keeps on growing and being healthy!!