Our August Arrival

Our August Arrival is due on 8.28.12.  

Our wish was for our children to be close together, and our hope is that it will make them closer and playmates.  I actually took a pregnancy test on 12.28.11.  I had a feeling that I was expecting over Christmas, but the test confirmed it once we returned to town from Kentucky!  

  

I emailed Dr. Villers the next day to let her know of the news, and of course, to set up my first OB appointment.  I saw Dr. Villers on 1.20.12, and got my first glimpse of Our August Arrival.  Heart beat was strong, and she calculated the due date to be 8.28.12.  August was a little sooner than I thought, but grateful none the less!

We waited to tell family and friends until after our first trimester screening, which we had on 2.25.12.  The way we told our family was we got Tillman a "Big Brother" shirt (I actually, called my dad, JRS, right after the appointment to tell the news).  We did Facetime with Cici, had PapPaw come over for dinner to see Tillman, and we Skyped with Nick's mom (Mimi) and grandmother.  Tillman is on the move these days, so it took a while for them to read his shirt, but when they did, they were very excited to hear that the family would have another baby to love!  For the aunts and uncles, we called our sisters and brother to tell them the news by phone.

Our first trimester screening went really well.  The report stated the occurrence of Downs Syndrome and/or Trisomy 18 and 13 less than 1 in 10,000.  The genetic counselor explained that this is the lowest risk that the blood test reports, and this was wonderful news/ "we are off to a great start."  Our August Arrival was measuring 5 days ahead of the due date, it was noted that the placenta was in the front, cord blood was flowing appropriately, and all organs were functioning.

I finally told work and the world of Facebook on 3.9.12.  I wasn't ready to tell work because I had a few loose ends that I didn't want "oh Meredith's pregnant" to effect.  Of course, they say it doesn't effect anything (legal answer), but I often wonder if it does or not.  I knew that 3.9.12 was the time to say something because folks were starting to notice.  After all, I work at a Children's Hospital.  These folks can point out a pregger a mile away.  I had already had someone point to my tummy, and say "oh, already...another one!"  I was at a reception on 3.6.12, and I could just "feel" people talking about me.  It is a very exciting thing to be pregnant, but not so exciting to have the whispers.
When "the cat was out the bag," folks were saying "I knew it," "I thought so,"I guessed it a few weeks back".....

Our next ultrasound is on 4.10.12(after review of my calendar, it appear the appointment is 4.12.12).  This will be the anatomy scan/ 20 week ultrasound, and we will know for sure what Our August Arrival will be.  At our 2.25.12 ultrasound, the sonographer said that she was 90% sure of the sex, but for the sake of publishing this to the world and being the other 10%, I'll hold off on the gender until we know for sure.  After all, Our August Arrival could become the President one day, and the opposing candidate may read what I wrote and cause a political uproar the day before the election!  Ok, maybe too much TV (or campaign 2012 coverage) for Mrs. Pregnant in the Lowcoutry!

We're very excited to become a family of four.  We've already placed Our August Arrival on the daycare waiting list, figured out maternity leave plans, rearranged and purchased new car seats to accommodate, and purchased a double stroller.  More plans to come, but I think we are going to gear up all other planning after our 4.1012 appointment (which my mom noted was her due date when she had me in 1981)!

Passed!

Meredith,
 You passed your glucose test! Hooray!
M

Margaret S. Villers, MD
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Medical University of South Carolina
 
I got the above email on Friday!  It was nice to hear the good news.  Another update from my appointment is that my "belly growth" is two weeks behind.  Dr. Villers isn't too concerned about it, as Nick and I aren't very large people.  She would like to see me in 3 weeks, and if my "belly growth" is still behind, I'll go for another ultrasound (growth study) to make sure Tillman is growing as he should.

Dr. Villers makes National News...what a cool doc!

As you know by now, I see Dr. Margo Villers at MUSC Women's Health.  One of the things that makes her a wonderful doctor is she does a lot more than sees patients.  Dr. Villers is also involved in research.  This makes me feel really good because I feel like my healthcare provider is constantly learning and is always up-to-date.

Dr. Villers was recently interviewed by MSNBC, and an article about her research made the front page on MSNBC.com! 

Here's the link to the article.  What a cool doc!  It's a great feeling to see my personal physician in the national spotlight!

Morning Sickness (or evening sickness or all day sickness)

Emails from Friday:

Hi Dr Villers,
I got sick for the first time yesterday (came over me all of a sudden while eating lunch...pretty embarrassing), and ever since then, I just haven't felt well. I had to take a lost patient to the ER yesterday that had the symptoms of the norovirus (my nonclinical, paranoid diagnosis). It has made me paranoid...then getting sick today, when I thought I was getting out of the phase of the chance of morning sickness (1st trimester). Any advice or reason I'm got sick?
See you on the 29th for my next appointment!
Meredith

*Note to my readers: I work at MUSC Children's Hospital (the best Children's Hospital in the world in my book!), and since finding out I am pregnant, I tend to have an extra paranoia of getting sick.

Dr. Villers' Email:
"You should be past the morning sickness stage. Most morning sickness starts around 7 weeks and ends by 14 weeks. Although some women do have nausea and vomiting that persists longer.
Morning sickness (or evening sickness or all day sickness) usually is self-limited. You feel nauseated and may or may not get sick. But then you may feel ok for the rest of the day. A virus will make you sick constantly all day long. Plus you may have diarrhea and other associated symptoms. Also, other members of the household also may be sick as well. Although you may want your husband to experience morning sickness, it just doesn’t happen (ha ha...Dr. Villers might know me better than I thought!).

If you come in contact with a sick person, you need to wash your hands thoroughly. If you know that someone is sick, you should just avoid being around them if you can. If you get a virus, you should just make sure you stay very hydrated – drink, drink, drink. There is not much else you can do except give the virus time to resolve.

If you have pregnancy nausea, ginger tea can help settle your stomach. Also Vitamin B6 can help with some nausea. Some women find that the acupressure bands that you apply to your wrist for seasickness will also help relieve the symptoms. If that still doesn’t help, there are prescription medications for nausea that are safe for pregnant women. I usually recommend an acid blocker such as Zantac to help with the “sour stomach” feeling. Zantac also works well for women who get that nasty bile taste in the back of their throats (yikes...that sounds ROUGH...I hope I don't experience that!).

I hope this helps answer some of your questions. Your blog looks great!" (oh my!  my doc is reading!! cool huh!)
Margo (aka Dr. Villers)

Dr. Villers, How's My Bloodwork? What Did You Hear about the WPW?

"Everything looks great. Your iron count is wonderful!! You’re doing a great job with the prenatal vitamins.

I asked Dr. Jill Mauldin in Maternal-Fetal Medicine about WPW* (Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome). She said that there is probably a very small risk that your baby would inherit that condition. She said that you should get a fetal echocardiogram at around 22-25 wks of pregnancy to make sure that the baby’s heart looks normal. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. She also said that since the cardiologist (visited Dr. Peura last April to get my heart checked out since I was entertaining pregnancy ) thinks you are healthy that you will probably not have any problems with pregnancy."

Margo (aka Dr. Villers)

Side Note:
WPW* - I was born with WPW.  Throughout my childhood it was a hindrance (never knowing when my heart would start beating really fast, never being able to play sports, and always having minor procedures in an OR because no physician wanted to take the chance on me).
I had an Ablation when I was 19 years old.  I was in college and had exhausted every medication to try to keep it under control.  At the time, I was living by myself, and had an "episode."  My parents got really nervous of me living alone, so two months later I had the procedure.  This month will mark 10 years that I have been symptom free!!
While I have remained symptom free after the Ablation, WPW is something that is on my mind throughout this pregnancy.

WHAT...I'm 9 Weeks Pregnant?

On February 18, 2010, I found out that I was pregnant.  This news was certainly unexpected, and at the time of hearing Dr. Viller's Tech, Tammy, say "the test is positive," and then she showed me this stick with two lines on it.

I immediately came back and said "what does that mean?"  Tammy said "you're pregnant!!"

At first, I didn't know whether to "jump for joy" or cry.  I am not one for surprises (I'm a planner and preparer), and this certainly was a HUGE surprise AND UNplanned.

So, the doctor's orders of putting me on Progesterone to "jump start" a cycle after coming off of birth control was now null and void!  Dr. Viller's tore up the prescription for Progesterone and wrote me up a lab sheet to get lots of blood work done.

After leaving my appointment, I was still just stunned about the news.  All the thoughts of "am I prepared to be a parent," "crap, I'm not on prenatal vitamins," "when did this happen," "how far along am I," "oh my, the glass (bottle) of wine I had last week...the Excedrine, the Sushi, etc." were all going through my head. 

I immediately called my husband on my way back to work to tell him the news.  I think I said "apparently, I'm pregnant!"  He wasn't as shocked.  I think he said something like "well that would explain a lot!" 

We decided not to tell anyone until I got the blood result back (just to make sure the test wasn't a false positive). 

Dr. Villers was great, and emailed me that night to tell me "You are pregnant!! Your pregnancy levels are high enough that we should be able to see a baby on ultrasound. I’m thinking you are at least 6 to 7 weeks pregnant. I'm in the office tomorrow afternoon. Do you want to come over for an u/s?"
Of course, I instantly replied asking to come in.  We had our first ultrasound on February 19, 2010, and we were actually 9 weeks and 3 days along.

*The picture above is a picture of a picture. The u/s photo are from an in-office machine.