The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It has been an interesting past week for us in the Harris household. It started with me going to YW camp to do crafts with all the girls. That went great and I even was proud of all my walking and lifting to stay in shape during pregnancy.

Then I had a doctor's appointment on Friday that did not go quite as planned. The good: We are indeed having a baby girl (as was confirmed multiple times for us over the weekend), she is healthy and the right size for the 20 week point, all looks good on that front. The bad: the tech notices that baby girls hand is waving around way lower than it should be in my cervix. The ugly: The doctor comes in and confirms that I have an incompetent cervix (a term Chris keeps laughing at. Yes, my cervix is incompetent, honey.) I am told to go straight to the hospital where there will be a doctor waiting to further examine me and decide how bad it is.

The good: My sister had the same thing so I called her right away for some advice and explanations. The bad: The doctor says the membranes that line the cervix and help keep the baby in have slid all the way down to the opening of the cervix and if I had let it go for probably even a few more days, the membranes would have slid out or burst and I would have gone into labor. More good: they caught this in time, baby girl is still in my belly, they say I am a good candidate for a cerclage (stitches to close the top of my cervix and hold the baby in). The ugly: I get to stay in the hospital tilted backwards to let the membranes slide back, I get to experience a spinal (like an epidural but with complete numbing power), I get to be stitched up and put on complete bed rest for at least a week until I have a check up on Friday and they decide how i'm doing.

The good: Everything went really well, I have amazing family members and friends who have been taking great care of me, since they caught this in time I may have some limited mobility soon. The bad, let's face it, and the ugly: My poor students have a sub all week and maybe longer, in fact maybe for the rest of the year, I probably won't be able to take my trip to California this summer like planned, I can no longer try to be active to keep off as much of the oncoming baby weight as possible, I cannot follow through on the big plans I had to organize, clean, and put back together my house including the nursery.

Looking on the bright side: I cannot describe how grateful Chris and I are that we still have this baby girl growing healthy and strong and for the technology around us that saved her. I am forever grateful for a husband who stayed with me the whole time in the hospital and was positive and attentive and very loving. I have family who has offered to jump on a plane to come help me at any time. Especially my mom who has already volunteered herself to organize and paint my nursery and anything else in my house. And for a loving Heavenly Father who answered all our desperate prayers. I will take all the bad and the ugly to meet this girl in late summer. Let's hope this is all the drama she has to offer for a while.