Sunday, June 26, 2011

Our expectations have been changed...please pray with us

We found out shortly after our miscarriage in early March, that we were blessed with another pregnancy.  We were overjoyed and excited that God had blessed us with another baby!! Because Little Peanut's birth was so amazing and extraordinary, giving birth with a midwife in the water, was beyond a miracle, we were excited to do it again.  So needless to say, we gave ourselves an expectation that this new pregnancy would go as smoothly as hers did.   We were set on having a lovely home birth with a local midwife in the water.  We had our ultrasound last friday to determine the gender of the baby.  As I was counting down the weeks and days to this ultrasound, I never imagined what we were about to find out.  Our expectations of this pregnancy, labor, and delivery have definitely changed drastically.  The doctor was doing the routine 20 week ultrasound and everything seemed cool until he got to the placenta.  He was slightly concerned and spent a lot of the time looking at and measuring my placenta and cervix.  I had no clue what he was doing.  As I was watching he typed "Placenta Previa"  onto the screen and began to tell us what it meant.  Of course, he had to tell us the worse case scenario right off the bat, so I was a little in shock.  My pregnancy isn't just a normal low-risk pregnancy anymore.  So my understanding thus far of Placenta Previa, is that the placenta has implanted and grew over the opening of the cervix.  The cervix is the opening to the  the birth canal.  The risk here is that if the placenta does not move as the pregnancy progresses, when I start to dilate the placenta will start to bleed and the baby and I will start to loose blood. ( In my understanding, in this situation, there is a 90% chance it will move away from the cervix, but no guarantee.) So the worst case scenario is that the baby will be delivered  via C-section pre-term.  This may not seem that alarming to some, however; as I stated earlier; I was hoping, dreaming, and praying for a home birth with a local midwife delivering in the water.  We will not find out for some time (possibly as long as 12 weeks) what is going to happen regarding our delivery.  As of right now, we are seeing our midwife next week and will discuss risk factors, statistics regarding placenta previa, and where to go from here.  The best case scenario is that the placenta moves on its own and we will have a home-birth.  Either way, the doctor said that we will be okay with the medical advances these days. If you would like to read more about placenta previa, click here. So in wirting this post,  I am asking you to join us in prayer for our pregnancy, labor, and delivery. 


Lord, we need your daily grace and peace, so we ask You for your generous supply of grace and peace for this pregnancy and placenta previa situation, I pray that we respond to the results in a God honoring manner. Lord, in the midst of this struggle, work in us the joy of the Holy Spirit, so much so that people will wonder how we can respond in such a manner.  We pray for direction and wisdom for the decisions to be made regarding this pregnancy. We hand our pregnancy and our baby to you.  We thank you and praise you for your unfailing love.  Amen.

1 thissalonians 1:1c; 6

Thank you for your support and prayers.  And FYI, we could not find out the gender as the baby wasn't cooperating. 

‎1 peter 4:12-13 dear friends, do not be surprised as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the suffering of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.