Life Happened

It's been a while since my last post.  The reason, more or less, is that life happened.  In more than one way:

The resolution to the scariness described in my last post took about a week to happen.  I had to go back in to my OB's office for a repeat hCG level, and while I was there I demanded to have a face-to-face with a nurse to explain exactly what was going on.  A large part of the scare was caused by the first nurse (who called) refusing to stray from what the radiologist's report said on the sonogram, which was "cannot rule out the possibility of a psuedogestational sac / ectopic pregnancy."  Which is a far cry from "probably has an ectopic pregnancy."  The second nurse (who I like very much as a competent and caring healthcare provider), said an ectopic pregnancy was very remotely possible, but so unlikely that I shouldn't waste energy worrying about it.

However, her news still wasn't good, and seemed to be confirmed when we got my next hCG back.  Likely, she said, I was looking at a blighted ovum - an egg that develops some embryonic tissues (which produce the hCG), but not the rest of the embryo.

I did get one more sonogram scheduled, since my hCG was rising (though not even close to the "doubling every other day" rule of thumb for healthy early embryonic growth).  And everything was there.  A perfect little gestational sac with a perfect little curl of an embryo inside.  Including a perfect little heartbeat.  It even measured to be spot-on with my calculated date of ovulation.

I don't know why things happened the way they did.  The second ultrasonographer said that it's not unusual to see nothing at six weeks' gestation.  But that never felt like a very satisfactory answer - it's really hard for me to see how something with so many published statistics on size, even at five and four weeks, could have been missed with such a thorough transvaginal (in other words, more accurate and higher-resolution than transabdominal) sonogram on such a good ultrasound machine.  Whatever the reason, this was truly an answer to prayer.

I am now thirty-four weeks along.

It's going to be another little girl.