Thirteen Weeks

Today we hit the thirteen week milestone. This is the last week of the first trimester, and according to the doctor I may be getting some of my energy back soon! This post brings both good news and some could be bad news. The good news is that I had my doctor's appointment on Monday. The doctor was extremely happy with all the results of my blood work (with the exception of one test which I will mention later). He said everything that should be positive, was positive. And everything that should have been negative, was negative. And all my counts, and levels were great! In addition to that he was happy that I was able to lose ten pounds over the previous four weeks. He has given me the go ahead to try and lose weight through my pregnancy as long as I do it by eating right and exercise (no sketchy fad diets, anorexia, bulimia, or diet pills). I've had a really hard time getting enough protein, because I seem to have a slight aversion to meat. There are times when I am able to tolerate it, so I try as much as I can to get what I need (and what the baby needs). But mostly I have been craving fruits & veggies... so it's pretty been my Subway "Veggie Delite" sandwich, yogurt, and fruit smoothies. I find myself getting full very quickly, which is kind of nice except that I become hungry more often. I feel like this pregnancy is training my body to eat smaller, healthier more frequent meals. I know that kinds of eating schedule will be good for a long term weight loss attempt after delivery.

The news that could potentially be bad is that the one thing that came back on my blood work is that I am whats called a "symptomless carrier" of the cystic fibrosis gene. For caucasians, one in twenty-nine carry this gene. In order for there to be any danger to the baby, both parents have to be a carrier of the gene. The odds of Sean having that gene is only about three percent, but it still is something that worries me. Sean had his blood drawn last week, and we should have his results back on Monday- so please pray that it comes back okay. If he does have the gene, there would be a twenty-five percent chance that the baby could have the actual disease. There is no known cure for cystic fibrosis. The average life span of someone with cystic fibrosis is only thirty-one years! Not to mention that those thirty-one years can be filled with a lot of pain and suffering for the child and many expensive medical bills for the parents. They usually recommend amniocentesis in cases where both patients have tested positive as a carrier of the gene, because they can determine if the child will have cystic fibrosis and then the parents can either prepare themselves or choose to terminate the pregnancy. Sean and I have decided against amniocentesis, because it increases the risk of a miscarriage- and we do not believe in terminating the pregnancy regardless of any problems with the baby. We are hoping and praying that his test will come back negative and that we have nothing to worry about, but it can be scary to think about.

We are told we should be able to hear the heartbeat at the next doctors appointment, when I am at sixteen weeks. And one week after that, we have an appointment scheduled at a 3D ultrasound studio to determine the gender of our baby! Using that type of ultrasound, they can usually tell at sixteen weeks so we should be able to find out! I will keep you all posted...