First Glimpse of the Rainbow…

Finally, after wishing the past week away with anxiety, having bad dreams, and being convinced there was just going to be an empty sac on the scan, we had our first ante-natal appointment.

Due to high blood pressure in my previous pregnancy with Guy and then his stillbirth, we have been put into specialist clinics.  I guess the only ‘upside’ to stillbirth is that you become classed as high risk.  This means you get closer monitoring and more scans.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have chosen to go straight under the care of Manchester hospital.  Due to them being a national research centre, they have so many specialist consultants, clinics and expertise.  We know we will get the extra monitoring and support we need to hopefully have a successful pregnancy.

So today’s appointment was attending the MAVIS clinic (Manchester Antenatal Vascular Service). This clinic is for women who have know high blood pressure before pregnancy or women who have developed high blood pressure in previous pregnancies.  It is important to monitor and control high blood pressure, as this can cause serious complications such as pre-eclampsia. This can subsequently can be life threatening to mum and baby.

During the last three weeks of my pregnancy with Guy my blood pressure was through the roof!  I was under close observation for pre-eclampsia, even having to check my urine at home for protein in-between appointments.  It was pretty scary.

Since my post natal follow up in February I have been taking blood pressure tablets to try and control this before the next pregnancy.  Now we’re into the next pregnancy, I will likely attend the MAVIS clinic every few weeks to monitor my blood pressure and review my medication. Hopefully I may even get to stop taking it.

First Glimpse…

We saw a lovely doctor called Emma (who we already knew from attending the Placenta Clinic with Guy), and a little later another doctor called Jenny.  It’s really nice to see familiar faces.  We really like that we don’t have to explain our history, as they have all our notes and take the time to familiarise themselves with them before they see you.  Small things, but that attention to detail makes a huge difference and really personalises your care.

Emma knew we would be anxious, and quickly made a point of giving us a cheeky first look scan.  From previous pregnancies I know that for those first trimester scans they like you to have a full bladder, as it helps push the uterus up so baby can be seen more easily.  Well I went prepared with a very full bladder!

These clinics are up on the 5th floor in the Tommy’s research Centre.  The consultation rooms are kitted out with very high spec scanning machines.  I really like the set up.  There’s a tv monitor at the foot of the bed connected to the scanner so that you can see what is going on.  It takes away that anxious wait for the person doing the scan to turn the screen around, and you get to watch the whole scan rather than just see a few seconds.

Our eyes were fixed on that monitor! We saw the pregnancy sac and were pretty much squinting to try and find a little flicker of a heartbeat.  Then there it was!  As soon as I saw it I had to blurt out; “There’s a flicker! It is a flicker?” Emma confirmed she could see it too, but wanted to do an internal scan to get a better image.  It might be invasive, but I really don’t care anymore.  I was grateful to get to have a big wee and see our little rainbow again.

Strange Anatomy…

The internal scan wasn’t so simple though.  You could really tell how wonky my womb is!

(Just to give a little background on this: My mum only has half a womb (know as a unicornuate womb).  I suspected that I had too due to hormone spots only coming up on one side of my chin.  Weird I know.  I told our consultant at my last hospital when we found out Guy was small, as I thought this could contribute to his size.  He dismissed the idea completely and just said it wouldn’t be possible to have a baby with half a womb.  Well it is, my mum had two!  So there! *blows raspberry*.  When we went to Manchester, I told our consultant there and he agreed straight away.  He said he thought it was weird how he was struggling to get scan images on one side, and that would be why.  Another reason why I love this hospital, they listen to you.)

So yeah, my wonky womb.  Emma tried her best to get that little sac into the centre of the screen.  Baby must be implanted to the top and my womb is leaning to one side.  She did manage to get another look, but as I’m only around 7.5 weeks, baby is too small and it is too early to date the pregnancy.  We were just relieved to see that there was something in there, and that little heartbeat flickering away.

Safe to say that little sneak peak has eased some anxiety and made me believe I’m actually pregnant.

What’s next?

We have our booking in appointment in a couple of weeks, and then the week after we go back to the MAVIS clinic for another check up.  It won’t be long before we get to see our little rainbow again.

Grow little rainbow, grow!