Week 11

I went dark for awhile because I was just too tired and to sickly to write. This was a big week. On Monday, we had the much anticipated--and feared--CVS. And while I don't plan on having another child after this one, when I left the hospital Monday, I thought to myself: I would never do this again.
But then Tuesday night I got a call that the baby was healthy and it's such a huge relief, that maybe I would. Dunno. It is, as advertised, fairly quick. The longest part of the whole thing is the very detailed, but fascinating ultrasound, where they measure everything and check for vital organs, show you how the blood flow is going, the brain formation, etc. Really cool. The second longest part wasn't as cool, waiting for the doctor to whisk in and perform the procedure. You have to have a full bladder, and so lying there without the ultrasound to entertain you can be really uncomfortable. Especially as my husband, who is an exceptional co-pilot, had to run out and feed the meter during our wait. So I laid there, flat on my back, and tried to think of everything except that fact that I desperately had to pee.
When the team shows up, it's the ultrasound tech, her supervisor, the superstar doc and her medical intern. The doctor looked like she was about to go clubbing, she was the size and shape of Rachel Zoe, with a tight, kind of punky black shirt [the back of the arms were cut out], skinny jeans, and some kind of shoe that sounded like clogs when she walked. [I couldn't see the shoes.] She had long, layered hair and heavy black eye make-up. It was a bit unnerving until she looked at our baby in the ultrasound and smiled and said, "Cute!" I want to mention now that everyone who looked at the ultrasound said "Cute", all independent of each other. I can't, for the life of me, see how one ultrasound is cuter than another, half the time I don't even know what we're looking at. But these people must. Or maybe it's their stock ice breaker.
So then, after deciding they are going to go in through the abdomen, they swab me down with rubbing alcohol, then betadine solution. Then, she gave me a shot of local anasthesia, which hurt pretty bad and stung for a few seconds, but I never felt the second, really long needle go in. Well, not until it got down to the placenta. It's weird, because you can watch everything on the monitor, and while it's reassuring to see that the needle is quite far away from the baby, but that the baby seems relatively unfazed. But at the same time, it is very close and I kept having this feeling that I was disturbing the baby's natural environment. And then the doc is like, ok, you're going to feel a sharp cramp, and I did, and that's what was the most uncomfortable. After the needle gets where it needs to be, she "aspirates' the tissue, which is the longest 20 seconds I've gone through. Basically, the needle is stirred all around and that just feels icky and invasive and filled me with more regret.
But then it was all over. Everyone wished us well and left. And, like I mentioned earlier, they called us just a little over 24 hours later to tell us everything was fine.
I was starving afterwards, but very crampy, which they said would happen. Jeff treated me to a burger at Shake Shack and then we drove home and I laid down. I felt tired, but it was hard to sleep because of the cramping and the soreness. In addition to the cramps, I also felt like I had done about 1000 sit ups. Four days later, I'm still feeling a little sore, even though the cramps subsided the following day.
I've been extra conservative this week as far as lifting, straining, etc. And things seem good. No spotting, bleeding or anything scary. Just tired, which is nothing new so far this trimester. Today I feel the most normal as far as "normal" is these days. Still have serious heartburn and reflux, nausea and fatigue. But, I'm hoping that in a few weeks some of this will ease and I can get out and about more. Feel like I've spent most of this summer in bed.