When Grandma Comes Over..

.. and it snows outside in May - we have to do other things besides playing outside. We were blessed to have my Mother come over for a few days last week! The kids LOVED having Grandma at their disposal and it was a great treat for me to have my Mom around (and she of course helped a TON with getting my house back in some order since I have to be careful how much I do). I got some great pictures of special memories :)

Cutting my garden fresh rhubarb for some crisp

Tasting some of that delicous rhubarb (I have to laugh every time I see this picture! The thing is she kept on wanting to eat more)

Grandpa on the phone, wishing he could be there with us especially for some fresh strawberry rhubarb crisp!Helping mom mix the topping for the crisp
My two silly monkeys :)

Yes, he LOVES making coffee (me and my husband don't drink it) so it's a treat to make some for company :)

LOTS of cuddles for Grandma and bedtime stories :)

Complicated **updated with results - pregnancy details**

Isn't it interesting how things all seem to happen at once? Like instead of one bad or good thing happening, several good or bad things happen at once. For our family, health - the one thing we seem to take for granted seems to be that thing. Not necessarily good or bad in such simple terms - but more complicated. For example, my husband's diagnoses with a lifetime blood disorder, and now things seem to be getting complicated with my pregnancy. I don't know a lot of details right now, it's mostly speculation and educated guessing. My Dr. moved up my 20week ultrasound from the 31st of May to Tuesday (like in two days). He mentioned that he is suspect that I may have a low lying placenta. Now since my Dr. isn't a ultrasound technician, he wants an 'experts' opinion. From the information that he has mentioned, and the research I have done there are two things that I am thinking they will be looking at, if I have a low lying placenta and if I have placental abruption. Low lying placenta can be really common in earlier pregnancy and can 'fix itself' by 30-some weeks (the uterus grows upwards and can 'pull' the placenta upward). The complication with low lying placenta is that if it doesn't change by itself, cesarean is more than likely (depending how far the placenta is covering the cervix) because of the complications, including hemorrhaging.

With placental abruption the placenta starts pulling away from the uterus and can cause bleeding/spotting and later on in pregnancy there is a definite concern for sudden hemorrhaging which can be life threatening to baby and mother if not caught/treated in time. Very often, depending on the severity of the abruption, baby is taken early to lessen the chance of hemorrhaging. If this is the diagnoses, there is also concern for baby's health - baby can sustain defects if blood flow from the placenta is not what it needs to be and baby is deprived of the oxygen it needs.

It all sounds a little scary. At the same time I am trying to educate myself as much as possible (I always have felt that education is power) so that I try to make the best choices possible for me and my baby. From what I have researched, I feel that it is highly possible that I have a bit of both problems. My Dr. has seen what he thinks is bleeding by or sort of behind the placenta and I believe that is the biggest reason for the sooner ultrasound. I am so glad to have a Dr. that: 1. has an ultrasound machine (because without it, I probably would have gone undiagnosed because I don't exhibit the symptoms that are typical - bleeding) 2. that he is cautious and I know he won't jeopardize either me or my child.

So how are we dealing with this? Not too bad, initially it was pretty emotional (I was unprepared for complications - we've never had to deal with a complicated pregnancy before) but like I mentioned, it helped to do some research - get educated about possibilities instead of letting my mind run wild! Also it really helps to know that in everything, God is in control! Through the good and the bad He cares and knows all things - many prayers are being sent up! (I will try to update this post with a picture and I will update information later this week after my appointments)

Good news!! God is good!! The ultrasound was good, no bleeding found. Technically, no low lying placenta (the Dr. explained how black and white it is diagnosed, if the placenta is 1.9cm from the cervix it is low lying, if it's 2.0cm from the cervix it is NOT considered low lying). Triple screen - no results yet (after a week) so Dr. figures it is fine because they usually fax results immediately if they find something, otherwise they mail it (which takes time!). So we are going from all sorts of possible complications to relatively 'normal' pregnancy (unless something happens otherwise). Some may say, look at all your worrying for nothing - I rather choose to look at this as a lot of lessons learned about trusting God, prayer is powerful, and really God is in control (I mean when there are things that you can't control, it's better to trust Someone that really is!) Thank-you to all who prayed for us!!

Hemo- What?

It's called Hemochromatosis. Ever heard of it? I hadn't heard of it until a few months ago. My brother-in-law found out he had it and therefore the whole family needed to get tested, especially after finding out that my Mother-in-law had it too. So I finally got my husband to go in and get tested too - lo and behold he has it too (which we were not really surprised about once reading symptoms). So what is it?

Hemochromatosis - (in this case as it is hereditary) is a genetic metabolic disorder that results in iron overload; the body absorbs and retains too much dietary iron. This excess iron can affect many organ systems including: heart, liver, pancreas and joints to name a few. There is no cure for this but a simple procedure can maintain it as long as it is caught before irreversible damage is done to the organs affected. All they need to do is take your blood once or twice a week for 12 weeks until the iron levels are maintained as 'normal'. After that it's a few check ups a year to make sure iron levels are not too high.

The difficult thing about hemochromatosis is that the symptoms can be misleading - it mimics symptoms of other problems like: you have joint pain and you think arthritis, you have mood swings you think depression, you have heart pain/irregularities you think heart disease or something similar. If you are interested in a list of symptoms, check out the Canadian Hemochromatosis Society. The interesting thing about this is 1 in 9 Canadians carries the gene for Hemochromatosis and until recently physicians were taught that this was an extremely rare disorder!

In a way, I'm kind of glad that my husband got diagnosed because now he can get help for the symptoms he's been dealing with for the last 3 or 4 years!

Wordless Wednesday: 'K'

I'm Back :)

We got home last night at midnight... after 10 hours of driving :) It is really nice to be home again although we had a wonderful holiday! I thought I would at least update a little for those of you that are following me. Since my last Dr. appointment I have really been trying to take it easy but as those of you with small kids can imagine, it's pretty hard sometimes! It has definately helped having my husband around more so I can ask him to help the kids if they need to be lifted up or things like that. I have been starting to feel the baby move a little here and there (maybe once a day or so). It's my absolute favorite part :) By the end of the week I'm hoping to have a better update with some pictures, so this will have to do for now.