All That I Have Learned....

It has been almost three years since I have been active on this blog. I keep it so close to my heart and I still get letters and emails often from people telling me their personal stories of pain and loss. Writing this blog has helped me cope with painful losses/ miscarriage(s).

I am so thankful that someone out there is reading and my words might be helping in some small way. If this is the case I have accomplished what I set out to do and that was to become a blog resource for you and to remind you that you aren't alone.

I want to share some new information with you that I have learned over the last few years. Some may apply to you and some won't. Skip over it.

I have become pregnant again and am due to deliver just a few days before we celebrate our daughter's 3 birthday. Trust me - it has been an adjustment! (Read GO GIRL! for more information on the journey. My immediate thoughts, to this day are .... what if we lose it?

How will I make it through the first 12 weeks sane - and then the rest of the pregnancy? Those questions do not go away even if you have had a successful birth. Somehow, they were really out of control for the first 12 weeks...of the first and now second pregnancy. I kept waiting for the ball to drop and I was in sheer denial all together. Self preservation, what can I say?

The pregnancy pursued but complications ensued early on - and this is what I want to share with you. I mentioned in an earlier post that you MUST find the best OBGYN possible. I don't care if you have to meet 10 before you find the one you like. THEY are working for you! They have to know you are going to have a laundry list of needs and will be needing a higher level of attention than someone who has not experienced miscarriages, etc. Don't apologize for wanting the best care - you deserve it.

These are the things I would ask for right out of the gate: Tests for any type of blood clots or auto-immune diseases. When you are newly pregnant they can perform a blood test that will give the Doctor's a # to work with: Ask for HCG levels. If the number grows, the pregnancy is viable. If the number drops you will inevitably have a miscarriage. They have tests that they can run to identify all of this.

THINGS TO CHECK RIGHT OUT OF THE GATE!!

• -Check your thyroid
• -Do a CBC and have them watch your blood plateletts (Steriod Treatment)
• -Do a check for blood sugars even if you are early in your pregnancy (Diet, Exercise , Insulin)
• HCG Levels right when you discover you are pregnant
  

MAKE SURE when you find out you are pregnant to check HGC Levels:

HCG, or human chronicle gonadotropin, is a hormone made by the pregnancy that can be detected in the mother's blood or urine even before the woman's missed period. This hormone is what we look for with a "pregnancy test".

HCG is first detectable in the blood as early as 7-8 days after ovulation by very sensitive HCG assays (research assays). In real life, blood pregnancy tests will be positive (> 2 mIU/ml) by 10-11 days after HCG injection or LH surge.

In general, the HCG level will double every 2-3 days in early pregnancy.

85% of normal pregnancies will have the HCG level double every 72 hours.

HCG levels peak at about 8-10 weeks of pregnancy and then decline, remaining at lower levels for the rest of the pregnancy.

There is a large variation in a "normal" HCG level for any given time in pregnancy.

Pregnancies destined to miscarry or to be ectopic (tubal) pregnancies tend to show lower levels (eventually), but often have normal levels initially.

Some normal pregnancies will have quite low levels of HCG - and deliver perfect babies. Caution must be used in making too much of HCG "numbers". Ultrasound findings after 5-6 weeks of pregnancy are much more predictive of pregnancy outcome than are HCG levels.

For women that have had an HCG injection as part of their infertility treatment, the hormone will take about 5-14 days to clear from the woman's system, depending on the dose and the individual woman. This can causes problems with interpretation of pregnancy tests done earlier than 14 days after an HCG injection.

Make sure you talk to your Doctor about the benefits of taking a baby aspirin each day. Talk to your Doc about the benefits of adding progesterone into your regiment for the first 12-16 weeks if not the whole pregnancy. Many women miscarry because they simply don't have enough progesterone to hang on the the pregnancy. THIS IS SUCH AN EASY FIX!!!

Make sure you have access to a Perinatologist. Really important if you are high risk. They will do more ultra-sounds and watch the baby really closely. They will be the eyes and ears above your OBGYN.

Every woman's pregnancy is different. I had no idea that when I go pregnant my body would literally take on all of these odd disorders. Right down to back problems, Pubis Symphonists Dysfunction, Placenta Previa, Autoimmune Thrombocitapenia, Gestational Diabetes, Hypothyroidism, Anemia.

Well, that is enough to ware a person out for sure. There are so many things that can go RIGHT during a pregnancy and so many things that go wrong. Be your best advocate. If you don't know something call your Doctor.

We are do to deliver early, via C-section in July 2009. We are excited and this pregnancy had been tough physically.

I want to thank you for all of your notes, your emails. Please hang in there. Getting pregnant can be brilliant and tough. Having healthy babies is a miracle - one I don't take for granted at all. There are a lot of great resources out there now (way more than when I started writing this blog in 2004.) Take advantage of the information but don't go on information overload.

Email me at ashley@ashersolutions.com I love hearing from you!