November 22nd, 2024

I was trucking along right through the second trimester so well! I mean, I still am!! Buuut I was in the hospital twice this week, haha. I was hanging out with my mom like a month (or more) ago and she noticed a big bruise on the back of my leg. I was like “Oh? That’s weird!” and then a month later… the bruise was still there and it began to hurt so badly. I also noticed a bruise on my other leg in the same spot that was hurting, but not as badly.

I let my midwives know and they said it was probably varicose veins. Everything lined up with that, so I tried compression leggings (which help!) but the midwives also wanted to talk to me about the original bruise spot and how it was painful to the touch and felt hot… they recommended I go to the emergency room to be checked for a blood clot.

I was really not wanting to pay a visit to the ER! It just felt inconvenient and so unlikely that I had a blood clot. They gave my the choice to monitor things at home or go to the ER. Jimmy kept pushing for me to go get checked, so I did. He was like “I’d like you to not die from a blood clot please.” lol. I spent a few hours in the emergency room and the doctors there were kind of baffled. They didn’t find a blood clot (yay!) but weren’t sure the bruised areas were varicose veins. The bruises were hot to the touch and they would have guessed I had an infection, but the two bruises were on the same spot on each leg, which wouldn’t really point to an infection. It was just weird. The doctor said he honestly didn’t know what it was. He prescribed me a pain relief cream (that I can take until 30 weeks… I’m 26 weeks now) and sent me on my way.

I was glad to have ruled out a blood clot, but it’s weird to not really know what the bruises are? Honestly.. I think they’re varicose veins, but who knows!

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My second hospital visit was to the hematologist. It was my six month follow up for my last iron infusion. So, backing up, I was at the hematologist in June for an iron infusion because my ferritin level was a 3 ng/mL (a normal ferritin level should be in the 100s). They gave me a new-to-me iron: dextran. It was supposed to boost my body for about six months.

I got pregnant in June (literally right after that infusion!) and surprise… my hemoglobin, hematocrit, red blood cells, and ferritin have all dropped since then. The infusion had my ferritin up to 156 ng/mL and now it’s at 28 ng/mL just a few months later.

The hematologist predicted all my levels will continue to drop as I go through the rest of the pregnancy and postpartum, so I’ll be back at the hospital a few times for more iron infusions. She wanted to do one that day, but the office didn’t know I was pregnant and had ordered iron dextran from the hospital pharmacy (not safe for pregnancy) versus iron sucrose (safe during pregnancy) for the infusion and would have had to call my insurance to approve the change, order the iron from the hospital pharmacy, and then take a few hours for the infusion and I was not too thrilled about spending the day in the hospital (after being in the hospital just days before, lol) while Jimmy was with the kids and missing work so I declined it and told them I’d come back for the infusions after Thanksgiving.

This will be my third “iron baby” as I had to have infusions during Sadie and Mordecai’s pregnancies, too. And no, I still don’t know why this happens!

I’m not excited about coordinating hours at the hospital for these infusions and having care for Sadie and Mordecai and squeezing that all in my schedule with homeschooling and Etsy… but I’ll make the best of it! I’m so thankful to be able to receive these infusions and get great care and I’d do anything to keep this baby healthy.

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I’ve continued to get body comments as I go through the pregnancy and those are not my favorite, ha. The most recent ones have been:

• Hey bubble belly! (Not horrible…!)
• You look like a candy cane! (I was wearing a striped shirt)
• You’re getting BIG (Ok… that was just rude)
• I feel like you popped since the last time I saw you (the last time this person saw me was days before..)

Let’s talk about good things, though!! We’re almost to the third trimester. It’s going by so quickly (at the moment, haha). We still haven’t painted the girls room or bought a crib, but we have ideas about what we want and that alone makes me feel a little more prepared.

I love feeling her kick! Sadie does, too. We’ll be sitting on the couch reading her Bible while we do homeschool and she just rests her hand on my belly and waits for kicks. I can’t wait to see how the three kids are together!

Aside from the varicose veins/bruises and low iron levels, I actually feel really great! It still hasn’t hit me that there’s a person who will, Lord Willing, join us in a handful of months and be a major part of our family. Ahh!! So exciting 😊

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So upcoming things: at my next prenatal appointment, I’ll be doing the gestational diabetes test and having basic bloodwork and a few iron infusions during the month of December! Should be busy and fun and crazy and I am so thankful to God for our little girl 🎀

Past Updates
Our Family is Growing!
Finding Out About Baby #3
First Ultrasound
First Prenatal Appointment
Telling Sadie
Finding Out the Gender
Starting the Second Trimester
Halfway, The Anatomy Scan, and All The Emotions