When "the call" came that wasn't supposed to come

We decided to tell our families that we were expecting our first child at Christmas. I would only be 8 weeks along by then, but we felt we simply couldn't let the holiday pass by without sharing the news. It wasn't easy to keep our lips sealed until then, but we knew it would be worth it to see their faces when they opened their "grandparent" gifts. It was a wonderful Christmas present to give!

As 2009 arrived, it should have come with an announcement that it would be the year of "Jane's Blue Cross Blue Shield" because I ended up spending so much time at the darn doctor! We had our first prenatal exam the first week of January when I was 10 weeks. That brought the fun of trying to prepare Matt for his first observed OB/GYN exam! He he he... We heard the heartbeat and the PAP was smeared and we were on our way with our first little picture of this little tiny alien-like bean!

Two or three weeks later I went to the hospital for the routine first-trimester screening where they draw blood and do the Trisomy checks via ultrasound. It was amazing how much that little bean grew and changed in such a short time! No more alien-like appearance, but definitely a little baby profile developing! The ultrasound tech told us that everything looked great in her experience and if anything was wrong, we would get a call. No call would come if the bloodwork came back great.

So almost a week passed and we spent that time telling our friends and coworkers that we were due to have a baby in the middle of August. I was, in fact, in the middle of one of these revealing phone calls during a drive home from work (bluetooth was used, no worries!) when a beep came through. A call from the genetic specialist at the hospital with results from bloodwork...

Turns out some things were GREAT! Pretty much zero, zip, nada, nope chance of having a Trisomy abnormality=phew, awesome, relief, wonderful/why-are-you-calling-then?

One thing turned out potentially awful= Low PAP-A placental proteins. What the F is that? something the placenta creates to aid growth and life for the growing baby it supports. So what the F does that mean? Probably nothing, but possibly everything. Possible pre-term labor, low birth weight, small for gestational age (everything they told us about in "Abnormal Infant and Toddler" in college) and then of course the terms miscarriage and stillborn popped out of this bitch's mouth (she was actually quite kind, but no one delivering those words to me would be a friend!).

There was nothing I could do. Nothing I could eat as a supplement. It was out of my hands entirely.

They gave me two instructions: 1. make an appointment with Maternal/Fetal Medicine and 2. stay calm for the baby...right, no problem...shit.