Doing it all wrong

I feel like my posts have been a little too optimistic lately, so time to bring things back down to earth….

Had my weekly appointment with the nurse today.  First things first, there’s still a heartbeat.  Just wanted to get that out of the way.  So that’s good.  BUT there are some things to be concerned about.  Nothing major… yet. 

(1) My platelet count is low.  Not dangerously low, but outside the bounds of normal measurements.  (It’s 140,000 now.  I’ve had my blood taken many times, and it’s always at the bottom range of normal.)  This is not entirely uncommon in pregnancy—approximately 1/10 women will have low platelet counts during pregnancy—usually closer to the end.  It’s called gestational thrombocytopenia.  And as long as my measurements are above around 80,000, they won’t do anything.  Once it goes below that, there could be some issues.  Among other things, if it gets too low, you can have bruising / uncontrolled bleeding.  And they won’t give you an epidural because of risk of complications.  Here’s some general info on it:

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/272867-overview

So bummer, but hopefully not something to be extremely concerned about.

(2) I’m at risk for preeclampsia.  There are many risk factors that I do not have, but the two big ones I do have are advanced maternal age and recurrent pregnancy loss.  Also, it’s been a while since my last pregnancy, which is also a risk factor.  (?)  For now the treatment is just to take a baby aspirin and hope I don’t get it.  Obviously I’m being monitored and I’m aware of the symptoms. 

Here are some articles about preeclampsia and risk factors:

http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1753

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC554027/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4354613/

(3) This is the one that gave me the most grief today.  I was not thinking the past couple of months and I’ve been eating sandwich meat.  (!!)  Once a friend reminded me that you’re not supposed to do that during pregnancy, I stopped.  Instead, at a meeting today, I had a veggie sandwich.  Only I realized after the meeting that I’m not supposed to eat sprouts, either, and that damn thing was full of them.  I spent 10 minutes googling and then completely freaked out and called my OB’s office and asked if I should make myself throw up.  They said no, and just don’t do it again. 

I swear to G, if I lose this miracle pregnancy due to food poisoning I’m never going to forgive myself.  And, in reading about the food risks, I realized I’ve been eating soft cheeses too, which are also no-nos.  ARGHHHHHHH.

(4) As if I didn’t have enough to fret about today, I realized that I need to get my fat ass into maternity pants.  I’ve been wearing dresses and tights, which have been quite forgiving.  But today I wore pants.  I tried to make due with normal pants and the old rubber band around the button.  (I don’t have any maternity pants, and was trying to put off buying them as long as possible.)  That worked first thing in the AM, but by mid-day I was not feeling it.  I was so uncomfortable that I spent a small fortune online shopping for pants.  (It was actually a pretty emotionally draining experience—this is the first time I’ve bought anything relating to baby/pregnancy since my son was born.)  I bought multiple sizes in multiple styles from Gap, Macy’s, Pea in a Pod, and H&M.  (I’ll return most of them.)  Hopefully something gets delivered this week and fits.  By the end of the day I was so stressed and ornery (and I’m pretty certain one of my male co-workers saw my unzipped fly and underwear when we were talking), I left work early and went to the mall and bought a pair of tights to wear tomorrow. 

Deep breath.  Tomorrow is another day.