Livin' on a Prayer

Every time I think about having finally hit the 20 week mark, I think "Wow! We're half-way there!" And then inevitably, Bon Jovi pops into my head :)

But seriously, I feel like this is my theme song right now. My life, and the life of this precious unborn baby, is being sustained only by God's mighty hand, and allot of prayer from family & friends - and even total strangers! We are literally living day to day, praying.

And today's 20w doctor's appointment proved to just reinforce the need for more prayer.

I have really been looking forward to this appointment - for so many reasons - but mostly because I knew that I would finally get to see my IP's again :) I haven't seen daddy since our 9w u/s, and its been about 6 weeks since I've seen mommy. So on top of the fact that today would be our 20w u/s, I knew I was going to get to visit and laugh and hang-out with the baby's parents for a bit.

Our u/s went well - baby girl B didn't disappoint - she moved and wriggled and looked as tho she was sucking her thumb. She gave us a good shot of her little girl parts confirming what we already thought we knew, and then played hide & seek with the u/s technician for a bit, covering her face every time we tried to get a good picture of her. Heart rate was 133, and her measurements were right on target for her age. She is healthy :)

But after spending allot of time oohing and aahing, we got down to business and headed south to see where the placenta was. And guess what we found? Its pretty much where we left it the last time! It may have moved up slightly, but there is still a web of blood vessels covering my cervix, which means we are still dealing with placenta previa. And at 20w are now staring down the barrel of "high risk" and probably a c-section.

Because M&A were there with me, we all had the chance to chat with Dr. R about the situation and were given the good, the bad & the very very ugly odds. While its still possible that the placenta will move, its likely it won't. This means that if I manage to miss-out on any bleeding & spotting episodes along the way (and so far, so good!), around 28w we will begin steroid shots to help Baby B mature a bit faster. Around 30w (I believe) we'll begin weekly progesterone shots (different than what I've already used for the IVF process), and if we can keep her baking until somewhere between 31 & 35 weeks, Baby girl B will make an appearance via c-section sooner than we had anticipated. Dr. R said we can't really pinpoint exactly when he'd deliver her since he really bases his decision on what the u/s shows maturity-wise, but we are all crossing our fingers that we can get to, at least, December before we see her sweet little face.

Prayers would be much appreciated as I am now facing several new bits of news that none of us had anticipated at the beginning of this journey. Of course, I will do whatever it takes to keep her baking for as long as we can, but it is painfully obvious that I have absolutely NO CONTROL over this situation. I am completely as His mercy and am being forced to trust that He will work everything out for the benefit of my family, and M&A's family. This precious baby girl that I carry is a true miracle baby, and a blessing & a gift. Let's just hope we don't have to unwrap her until Christmas - or afterward :)

*I took a pic of the u/s photo with my iPhone, thus the lousy quality.