On the St. Patrick's Day weekend this year we were staying at the Deerfoot Inn, so we could show our house without having to bundle up two infants and a dog at a moments notice. I began to have a sense of super smell and was quite tired, taking afternoon naps with my babies. On March 18th I was headed out of town with the babies (for a week of more house showings), and I decided to take a test before I left. Surprise to me that the IC test (which was way expired) seemed to possibly have a second line. I took a FRER test just to be clear, which most definitely had a second line! I went about my week but took a few more tests.
For those who may be wondering, yes and no. A pregnancy was planned, but we'd imagined more along the lines of 2014 or 2015. But this surprise is pretty awesome. At the end of the week when we got back home I asked Phil to help unload the truck for us, and immediately got out our new house plans. When he came downstairs the babies were holding our tests and this is what he found.
I saw my wonderful family doctor (whom will be missed as she moved back to Australia end of April) a few days later and she requested a dating ultrasound for us. In the meantime I ended up going to the ER at 6 weeks because I suddenly lost half of my vision in both eyes. It came back within the hour but it was quite scary. They did an MRI and gave me fluids through an IV. Ouch. Turns out I'm healthy and it might've been a pregnancy hormone migraine.
April 18th we went to Pureform for an ultrasound and were told we were 8w3d along. Here's a picture of our littlest Smeltz with a HR of 169. (Just to compare, at 8w2d Hayden's HR was 167 & Claire's was 172)
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| 8w3d, April 18 |
We had waited last time, until the first trimester was complete. This time my belly got bigger faster, I was exhausted and I also figured I was going to need help from family to pack up our house and whatnot in May, so we decided to tell our family earlier and hope for the best. We mailed out these birthday invitations late April.
We got a call from the Low Risk Maternity clinic at the end of April and had our initial intake appointment with a nurse on May 3rd. There, the nurses asked me a gazillion questions for an hour. Then May 10th we met with one of the rotating doctors from the office. (There are about ten different ones and you get who ever is on call the day of delivery. Similar to our previous OBs office.)
We called and told my Grandma the good news. She was so very excited to be a Great-Grandma when Claire & Hayden were born. She carries their photos everywhere and tells everyone she's a Great-Grandma. I've no doubt she's just as excited now.
Our next ultrasound was on May 13th (the day after Mother's Day) for our NT scan. Little baby looked great, measuring at 12w1d and still had a HR of 169.
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| 12w1d, May 13 |
May 17th I went to the ER because of a scare. Once the doctors checked us out they found the baby to be flipping around and healthy, with a HR of 153. I had a low BP (98/65) so got another IV. (Oh joy..) Really I was just relieved to know everything was okay. I'd now like to stay out of hospitals until November.
We are planning to go to the new South Campus Hospital, which opens its brand spanking new maternity ward in the fall. With any luck it'll be opening on time, and come November that's where we will be.
I'm sure it's going to be crazy having three kids under the age of two, but a lot of fun.
