After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

As a teenager, I was fond of the GI Joe television series. At the end of each episode, there was a little public service announcement that usually ended with some recently enlightened child announcing "now I know", which would prompt the on screen hero to respond "and knowing is half the battle."

In our case, knowing isn't just half the battle, it is almost the entire battle. Annie's pregnancy with Macy went about as smooth as you could ask for, as if we were following a Hollywood script with directions on which way to turn next. Up until a week ago, we thought this second pregnancy was following the same set of stage directions. Due to Annie being considered "ancient" in the baby-making world, we have been seeing a perinatal doctor in addition to her OB. As soon as you are in this magical "high risk" category, you get extra care and attention. During our 4th and most recent sonogram appointment, they discovered something they weren't very happy about. This became quite clear when they asked Annie to step back into the office for her third sonogram of our visit.

After this third scan, the doctor sat down with us and explained what had them concerned. Remember that I attended Law School and not Medical School, so I'm not certain that I'm explaining things 100% accurately, but I'll do my best. Before I continue, please refer back to the title of this post, about how "knowing" is the key, because for us, the discovery drastically changes things for the better. There is no real medical answer for why this happens, but in rare circumstances the placenta bifurcates or splits into two. In the best case scenario, the second placenta isn't attached to either the baby or the primary placenta, which would mean that it just needs to be removed after the birth; but alas that isn't the case with Annie. The second placenta contains blood vessels that connect to the baby and essentially still play a role in the feeding of our littlest little one. To complicate matters, this vessel is currently placed in a location that is really undesirable, which is why knowing about it will make all the difference.

The good news is that we now know the situation and have not one but two doctors actively monitoring things. Not knowing about this condition prior to going into labor would bring about a situation that I can't even bring myself to type. However, once it has been diagnosed, the situation changes drastically. It seems that the stars have aligned for us and the extra attention allowed for this early diagnoses. While it is still early, both doctors agree that we should follow the standard course of action, which unfortunately means a scheduled C-section during week 35. Depending upon how quickly our little one progresses over the next few months will determine whether she needs to visit the NICU and for how long. If she does have to make an appearance, we are thankful that it will be at Broward General (BG), where they have a Level 3 NICU, the highest classification you can get. You might remember some of Macy's best friends, the twins, also visited with the NICU nurses at BG and are doing extremely wonderful.

Long story short, we are certainly anxious about things but are still very optimistic.

So "now you know....."

I like to think that I'm unflappable, but I proved myself wrong the other day. Ever since Macy's first photo, taken just moments after she was born, people have been telling us that she looks just like me. Initially I just took them at their word, because I couldn't see it. As the months passed, I still didn't see myself in her, but I started to feel that she did look a little like some of my baby pictures.

I no longer have any doubt.

A few weeks back, we joined Macy as she attended one of her friend's first birthday party and during the party, I snapped a few photos of her. I know..big shock there. As I was organizing these photos the other day, I opened up one that literally made me stop what I was doing and I found myself just staring at the screen. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. ME!

I'm not sure exactly what it was about the photograph, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was looking at a picture from MY childhood and not hers. When I finally stopped staring at the screen in amazement, I ran out to the hallway to find one particular photo that I knew was hanging on our wall.

I have since opened up both images on my dual monitors and studied them, side-by-side and I am still amazed at how even I can now see that there is just one face in both images. I won't tell you which one is me and which one is her, but I'm guessing you'll figure it out.

                      (click on the image to enlarge it)

A few weeks ago we brought back the Baby-Food Guide and this week we are bringing back another fan favorite...The Progression of Baby Sznitken.

This time the progression video is slightly different and has a new musical selection. I won't tell you what else is different, so you'll just have to go watch the video yourself to find out. Just in case you don't remember how to get to "The Progression" there is a link to it right between "Friends of Macy" and "The Tenth of June" links (under the polka dot ribbon)