Introducing the Littlest Thacker! (11-19-11)

Wow, baby #4! I fee like I’m moving from the minors to the majors! We, of course are thrilled that we will have a new little baby in our home. I am 20 weeks today and am amazed at how quickly this pregnancy has gone by. I’m due on April 6th which will make this my first spring baby.

Back in September, when I was 10 weeks, I had some serious bleeding. I had gone to see my doctor a couple of days before for a normal check-up and he had tried to pick up the heart beat with the Doppler machine but was unable to. He told me that I should not be concerned because it was still a little early.  With what happened at my doctor’s tied in with the current event, I believed my pregnancy was over. I immediately called the doctor on call (it was a Sunday morning) and when I explained the amount of blood she wasn’t very hopeful. She said I could either wait until the morning for an ultrasound or go to the ER for one. We made arrangements for our kids and took off. Everything took a long time and I just remember feeling so sad. I had just started feeling better and I was getting my energy back, it seemed daunting that I would have to start all over.  With all this sadness came  a complete sense of peace that everything would work out for the best.

After talking with a few nurses, and the doctor we finally were able to go back for the ultrasound. The tech told us that since she wasn’t a doctor she could only take pictures and the doctor would later explain to us what was going on. It was hard to have an ultrasound and not get to watch what was happening. At the very end she said, “I see a baby measuring 11 weeks with a very strong heart beat, do you want to see!” YES! It was such a wonderful sight to see a very active baby with a heart beat. Of course, we still didn’t know what complications there were but at least I was still pregnant!

Later we met with the doctor who said I had a small Subchorionic Hemorrhage (there was a small separation between the uterus and placenta). It’s actually the most common cause of heavy bleeding in your first trimester and mine was on the small side so not too serious. He said that the bleeding might continue for a little while but he didn’t foresee it interfering with my pregnancy. What a miracle!! I did continue to bleed for a month but thankfully that has stopped and everything is going great.

I had another ultrasound at 18 weeks and the baby looks perfect. I was actually measuring very close to my actual due date which is a surprise since usually my babies always measure big. And, it's a……..Baby! We decided to go with a complete surprise with this one. A girl or boy would be fun to add to the mix  and since we are prepared for either, we thought we would make the delivery very exciting!

At this Thanksgiving season, I am so Thankful for each of my kids and how quickly they have come to us. They are growing up incredible fast but the growing has brought so much joy in learning all their personalities and  funny quirks.  We wonder how Charlie and Matthew came from the same parents!