Pregnancy: 7w - A scare...

I'll update later with my weekly, but I need to share this story from yesterday.

DH and I were *supposed* to have an appointment and ultrasound next Friday at 8 weeks, but a situation came up yesterday that pushed it up to immediately.

I started bleeding yesterday afternoon, just around lunchtime. I freaked out considering it was dark red and was a LOT, a sign of miscarriage, so I called Special Beginnings and tried to schedule an appointment for today. Fortunately, they were able to get me in at 3:30. I emailed awesome attorney-boss to let him know I was going home, it was an emergency, and I might not be at work tomorrow. I had told him I was pregnant on Tuesday, so I'm pretty sure he had an idea as to what might be wrong.

Just barely made it to my car before I started crying. I called DH and asked him to come home and told him why, and he came home immediately. He had been crying, too, fearing the worst. :| The bleeding had slowed by then.

When 3:30 finally came around, we went to SB and talked to a midwife. She was straightforward but gentle, saying it may be a miscarriage but may also be a number of other things, so she wanted to do a blood test for hCG levels (and Rhogam, to determine if I was positive or negative -- still have to see how that goes) and to have an ultrasound done at Anne Arundel Medical Center. I didn't cry once during the blood draw. ;)

DH was actually a dream there. He got along really well with the midwife, and we ended up making it a really lighthearted time. I'm so glad he was there, even though my midwife DID offer her sympathies when she learned that DH is an engineer. LOLOL

Anyway, so after the blood draw, they were fortunately able to get me an appointment right away at AAMC, so we went straight over and had the ultrasound done. What they were looking for: If there was a heartbeat, the pregnancy was still viable; if not, SB would do another blood test within 48 hours to see if my hCG levels were rising properly, and if not, it's likely a miscarriage. (I wanted a heartbeat not only so it was viable, but so I didn't need another blood test! I won't lie!)

She tried a regular ultrasound first, but couldn't see anything but a little mass in the middle of my uterus. You could see my big bladder, though. :P So she switched to transvaginal, and she poked around just a little bit before coming across that little mass.

... and there it was, a beautiful, strong heartbeat, 139bpm. <3 I also measured yesterday at 7w, so I'm only a day off. :) DH and I both cried when the heartbeat came up, and the technician congratulated us. We were SO scared, and to see that heartbeat... our chance went from 50/50 for a miscarriage to 90% viability. MUCH better odds. I'll have to post a picture later!

Anyway... I just wanted to let y'all know. Everything is going well, we had a scare, but we were brought closer because of it. It was so reassuring to see that everything is pretty much fine.

Still have to hear back from the midwife to see what caused the bleeding. It could be anything, but my research is pointing to subchorionic bleeding. We'll see what the midwife says.

We can breathe a little easier now, but we probably won't relax until we're at, like, 40 weeks and the baby's on its way here. :P