So this pregnancy is bringing up lots of questions. You are an inquisitive people. I like that about you.

The most asked questions are about the shots, specifically why I have to move them around and if Mike can give them to me. I have to move them around because of a few reasons. The first is the pain factor. It would definitely start to hurt to keep injecting the same spot over and over. But because I’m injecting a blood thinner, the tissue in the area can break down and not absorb the medicine as well. Mike CAN give them to me, but so far he hasn’t. I fully admit that it’s a control thing. I like having something about this pregnancy that I feel like I can control, as silly as it sounds. Plus, if he gave me a shot and it hurt, I’d probably get mad and blame him instead of the needle.

We DO plan on finding out the gender of the baby. Because I’m having weekly ultrasounds, I know we might find out the sex sooner rather than later. And believe me, I’m anxious. I started asking Dr. Risky if she could see anything when I was only seven weeks. I’m her favorite patient, for reals.

There is a tentative delivery date already, since I have to have a c-section. Why do I have to have a c-section? A couple reasons. Because my emergency c-section with Madeline was a classical cut, the integrity of my uterus has been compromised. It’s too risky to attempt a vaginal birth. I’m OK with that. The second is that having an “end date” makes it easier to wean me off the blood thinners. It has to be timed perfectly since, ya know, blood thinners plus surgery equals crazy bleeding. You’re probably thinking, “what if you go into pre-term labor again, Heather? Then what happens with the blood thinners?” Well, if that happens AND the labor can’t be stopped, I would have to be put under for the delivery. And I’d like to avoid being the last to know how my baby is doing if at all possible. So let’s keep our fingers crossed I don’t have a pre-term delivery, OK?  I am really hesitant to share the delivery date at this point. I feel like if I write it, I’ll jinx it. It’s my paranoia about having another pre-term labor. As the date gets closer I will probably feel better about telling this information.

No. The baby’s real name is NOT Binky. Binky will be the baby’s nickname until he or she is born, but it’s NOT the name that will be going on the birth certificate. When my mom was pregnant with my brother and me, my parents didn’t know our genders. So they referred to us as Binky and Spudnik. The nicknames came from one of my mom’s coworkers (she would ONLY talk to my mom’s belly, never to my mom). Because of this, when I was pregnant with Madeline we started calling her Spud. That morphed into Sweet Potato after she was born (one of her bazillion pet names). So this baby’s nickname was chosen long before he/she came into our lives.

I have one small complication thus far that is so minor it hardly warrants mentioning. I have a low-lying placenta. Dr. Risky spent about five minutes really studying it and its position inside my uterus. It’s not placenta previa, meaning it isn’t covering my cervix, but it’s position did cause Dr. Risky to give me a talk about my activity level. I need to be careful about what I do – no high-impact stuff, no lifting, no over-exerting myself. So you know, I have Dr’s orders to lay on my couch as much as I want. I’ve had no bleeding, which is a common problem with low-lying placentas, and they often move into a better position during the course of the pregnancy. I hadn’t given the placenta a second thought until I took my tumble in front of Mike and Katie on Saturday night. Mike might have shrieked, “YOUR PLACENTA!!!” which probably confused everyone within earshot. But so far it’s all good.

We’re hoping to avoid bed rest. As of now, there is no reason to think I’ll have to be on it (except for that placenta thing, but again, not really worried about that), so it’s not a part of the plan. Of course, that could change, but Dr. Risky’s goal is for me to have as normal a pregnancy as possible. It remains to be seen if my body is capable of haing what is considered a “normal” pregnancy, but we are determined to try.

Hopefully I answered every one’s questions. If not, please feel free to ask more and I’ll do my best to answer them another time, when the “morning” sickness isn’t forcing me to abruptly end my blog post.