20 Week Ultrasound

So we are offically halfway there-phew! Today we had our 20 week ultrasound with the Perinatologist at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. I really liked the doctor we met with. He was really easy to talk with and seemed to understand how stressful and anxious this pregnancy is. He said everything on the ultrasound looked great, he spent a lot of time looking at her heart and all her body parts and organs and such and didn't find anything that seemed concerning. We talked about one of my blood tests that had come back positive. Its called MTHFR (is short for some super long word that I can't say-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase). Anyway, this is a chromosomal mutation that apparently is really common (like 40% of the population has this) and there are varying degrees of severity. One can have one copy or two copies of the mutation and there is an A mutation and a C mutation that those copies can be (this is all my understanding and may be very primitive but hopefully its fairly accurate). I have only one copy of the mutation and its the A mutation. The C mutation is the one that makes doctors more concerned as well as having 2 copies (so that is good I guess that I don't have those). Basically MTHFR can affect the way your body absorbs folic acid and uses it in your blood. It can lead to clotting problems, low birth weight, possible issues with the placenta not function well because of the clotting (which then leads to low birth weight). Anyway, I never showed signs of blood clots and there were none in the placenta or umbilical cord with Hope. She was a normal weight and length for a newborn so all in all they really don't think MTHFR had anything to do with this but of course we don't know what happened so everything is on the table. The treatment for MTHFR is super simple, 4 mg of folic acid + a baby aspirin daily, so the doctor said I could take that if I wanted since it wouldn't hurt but who knows if it really will help either since that may not be a problem at all. I have already been taking extra folic acid since my regular doctor said it wouldn't hurt while we were waiting to find out what the high risk doctor thought. I will go back to see the Perinatologst in 2 months and than I will see them once a month until we have the baby. Just having extra eyes and ears watching (especially when they are a specialist) is really nice and reassuring.

I was getting kind of nervous about this appointment since its always nerve racking to see a new doctor plus my neighbor recently lost her 4th child (this was her 3rd lose, she lost twin girls at birth and has one living son) and she found out about losing this last baby at her 20 week ultrasound. Everyday there is a reminder that I need to be grateful for what I have and for the children that I have (no matter how long it is I get to keep them-at least in this life). Jarod and I use our doppler almost everyday and that is such a precious time to just let the anxiety fall away for a few minutes. I struggle everyday to remind myself to just deal with this moment, this day. When I think about the future I start to panic and the anxiety can get out of control (luckily I feel that I have done much better handling my anxiety than I did earlier this year-which has surprised me).

Jarod is doing great with his landscaping job. His stamina has improved and they have been working on some different jobsites that have been a little easier than the one he started on. Some days they work more than 12 hours to get a job done so sometimes we hardly see each other but we are so glad he has a job for now. He is still continuing to look for a different job that can be more permanent and is more pertinent to his education so we are crossing our fingers.