17w5d

So I have been trying to keep busy over the last few days because when I am home I spend too much time thinking and online researching things and getting even more scared about the scan on Wednesday.

I have come to 4 conclusions that can happen:

1. There is either a neural tube defect or abdominal wall defect.  Most of these problems can be either diagnosised or ruled out with the scan, though there is still the possiblity of closed spinal bifidia.

2. The baby has a severe kidney disease that is fatal in the first year without a kidney transplant.  The likelihood of this disease is extreme low though because it is an autosomal recessive trait meaning that both me and dh would have to be carriers and our child has 1/4 chance of having it.  So not very likely that all those things are true.  I guess it is most common in people of Finish decent which neither of us are, though I am 25% Swedish, but I don't think that means anything.  I guess it is common in the Finnish because there isn't much defersity in the country.  Unfortunately this condition can not be seen at all on u/s, only way is waiting until birth or through an amino and then special genetic testing looking for the mutated gene.

3. There is a placenta problem.  This is the most likely out of the top 3, especially since I already had placenta issues big time last pregnancy, so was already high risk for iugr and pre-eclampsia.
If the scan is normal, hopefully this will force my doctor to take my concerns more seriously and watch things more closely - something they should already have been doing because of my last pregnancy.

4. The AFP was falsely elevated because of the bleeding and there is nothing wrong at all.  This is the result I hope is true and the only thing I am trying to hold onto at the moment.


I do have some good news for a change.  I have been taking my pressures every morning for the past 5 days and they have always been normal.  Last pregnancy my 17 week appt was when I first started to get borderline bp issues.  Also I have had no seeing stars issues either with this pregnancy so far.  I can't remember when it started last pregnancy, but do know it was definately by 17 weeks that I had experienced this which was my very first clue something was up (after the bad NT bloodwork greatly increasing my downs risk).  Hopefully this means if I am distended to get PE again it won't happen until later in pregnancy when I can at least safely deliver instead of living with severe PE for months until we got to a point where the baby could survive outside.