The Kirk's - Boys-R-Us!

Big News Alert!


We're Expecting Kirk Baby #3 In December!!

We are both very excited!  Well I guess I should say all four of us are excited, although it's a safe bet that Pierce is completely clueless to the impending upheaval, but Kaiden for sure is pumped!!  He has been referring to the baby in there as Tinker Bell since the day we told him & we are hoping his prediction is correct!!  This Momma needs a little estrogen in this testosterone fest!!!

Stats:
Well I'm turning the corner on the second trimester, which is wonderful, I hope!  We are due towards the end of December but since it will be another scheduled c-section it will not be a Christmas Day (eve or day after) baby, but somewhere near there!
So far the baby is doing great!  We passed all the blood work screens/panels, have heard the baby's heart beat on several occassions and got GREAT results from the N/T scan!

But (And It's A BIG FREAKING BUT!!)
I have been dealing with (diagnosed with) SCH - that's Subchorionic Hematoma/Hemorrhage  - basically it means that I am dealing with unpredictable bleeding.  Yeah, it's as fun as it sounds!!  I passed a small clot one Thursday around 9 weeks - luckily got immediately in to the office, they were able to get me back to ultra sound and the baby was fine and there was no distinguishable source for the bleed.
One week later, while sitting with the boys on the porch I felt a gush, and got to spend the remainder of the night and next morning convincing myself everything would be fine regardless of the scary red blood and again I was lucky to both hear and see my beautiful baby in there doing just fine.  The doctors believed that this was a clot formed from when either the sack was digging into place after fertilization OR when the placenta attached.  But they said it was not under the placenta - which is good & that it was not threatening the baby - again GREAT news & that I was just going to have to deal with the remainder of the blood & clots passing.  I am sure this is TOO MUCH INFO - but when you're pregnant brown (or orange, wine color, grey or black) blood & clots are good (well relatively speaking of course, no bleeding would be the preference!!) - bright red & wet = NOT GOOD!  So they sent me on my way told me what to watch for & I was reassured to see exactly that for the next 3 or so weeks.

However, this past Sunday, while making the boys breakfast I went to the restroom - a common occurrence for ANY pregnant woman - but this time (again TMI) I saw a new rather large red clot floating - not a reassuring sight!  But I tried not to freak out too much, not yet anyway, and went back to finishing breakfast.  However very shortly thereafter it was hard to ignore the bleeding which was now bright red & literally gushing out of me - I know, I know - but there is only one way to describe SCH's. . . . so luckily my Mom was available to take me to the ER - where a doctor from my OB practice was on-call &a they were fabulous and got me right back to a room & just as quickly over to the ultra sound technician.  She was immediately able to show me my healthy baby swimming & flipping around, completely oblivious to my personal hell I'd been in since earlier that morning & she was able to identify that this was a new bleed - that the previous bleed had cleared up & this one was NO WHERE near where the baby was implanted or where the placenta was attached - which are both wonderful things.  After several dozen measurements & pictures were taken for the doctor to review we were brought back to the room, shortly thereafter we were released and I was on strict bedrest until the red bleeding had stopped & then back to modified bed rest until two weeks after the last time any material (blood or clots) are passed - I'm still waiting for that to happen!

The New Norm
SO - here I sit a week after one of the most terrifying days of any pregnancy, and so far so good.  I'm still dealing with passing reminants of the last episode but hoping and praying multiple times a day everyday, that the was the last I will have to deal with this.  They say that most of these SCH's tend to clear up by 20 weeks (come on the next 6 weeks!!) and I am praying mine will follow suite!
I am now going on my fifth (yes 5th) week of modified bed rest which with an active 3.5 & 2 year old is NEXT to impossible!!  Among other things I am not supposed to pick my children up (I interpret this as do not hold them, I mean how is a 2 year old supposed to get in his crib?!) I am not to carry a full laundry basket, push a vacuum, sweep or mop (I know, I know you are thinking this sounds like a dream, but after about one week it is a NIGHTMARE!!) and am supposed to keep my feet up as much as possible and drink just shy of a barrel full of water every single day!!  But if this is what I have to do to keep the baby healthy and safe, then well this is what I have to do!

A Dear Friend
As you can imagine bedrest & a clean house do NOT go hand in hand - and although Dave does help, he is also gone to work 12 hours a day and men & women have different styles & definitions of clean - I'll just leave it at that!  But just as I was starting to have an anxiety attack over the fact that there were dust bunnies under the coffee tables & the floors needed mopping my friend Vickie & her mother came over and whipped my first floor into shape!  This is where we spend most all of our time so you can imagine what 5 weeks of neglect look like. . . . that is until my little cleaning fairies came in and made it sparkle and shine!  I'm just gonna say that if you are the friends you keep - then these two are KEEPERS!!  AND it doesn't hurt they both share a slight OCD on cleanliness - they had the laundry finished (I got to fold!), the refrigerator cleaned out, the counters & cabinets wiped off, the floors swept and mopped & the powder room scrubbed in under three hours!!  Not to mention they brought me and the boys fresh homemade sausage biscuits & fixed us lunch before they left!  I was Queen for the day!!

As Promised. . . The Pictures!!

I realize that seeing the baby in the black and white cloudiness is somewhat of an art, and it is SO much easier if you are there in person watching the baby move around in real life when they save the screen as a picture, but I will do my best to help you see Tinker Bell in each of the ultra sound scans!

Here's Tinker Bell at 8 weeks - still not too human looking.

This is one week later after my first small clot/bleed.
Tinker Bell is 9 weeks.

This is the following week after first gushing bleed.
Tinker Bell is around 10 weeks
If you look close at the top right corner of the sac there is a dark spot, I believe that is the bleed

These are images from my N/T scan almost 2 weeks later.  Tinker Bell is 12 weeks.
The top two pictures are profile pictures, it's kinda hard to tell from these pictures but the profile is ADORABLE!
The bottom left is a hand with thumb extended, (thumbs up Mom!) and the bottom right is the side view of entire baby - on left of  the slide baby has hands up by face then you see torso, the bottom and legs bent up into the right top corner.

And although they took tons of pictures at the ER after the biggest (and scariest) bleed, they kept them all in my digital medical file - which I was hoping I could access from home- but no dice!  So my next ultra sound will be at the end of July when we go for the big anatomy scan.  I am of course excited to see the baby again, obviously can't wait to learn the sex, but most importantly I am thrilled to be doing this scan with  my Perinatologist, who uses a 2nd degree ultra sound machine, which gives us more detail so we will be able to thoroughly examine the baby's heart, it's four chambers and their respective septums and valves and check out the diaphragm.  Knowledge is power you know and although I am a huge fan of surprises - that (referring to Pierce's diagnosis on birthday) is one surprise I could live the rest of my life without EVER doing again!!