Prayers, please...

On Friday I had a "routine" check-up at my OB's office. I was supposed to see my actual doctor on Thursday, but he was going to be out of the office both Thursday and Friday, so I saw the nurse practitioner. Since Kevin had been gone so much from work due to our vacation, I told him he didn't need to come since it would probably be in-and-out since I normally don't have to wait long to see the nurse practitioner. Plus, we had just had our sonogram a week before, so I felt good that everything was fine. This was the first time in either pregnancy that Kevin has not been with me at an appointment. It was also the first time that Caleb had ever come with me. He normally stays with my mom, but again I thought we would be in-and-out. Needless to say, it did not turn out how I expected.

Caleb cried as soon as we got into the exam room (maybe he associates exam tables with the pain of shots or maybe he thought the medical aid was hurting me by taking my blood pressure???). Then the sweet nurse practitioner listened for the baby's heartbeat using the Doppler. She left it on there much longer than my doctor normally does. She then proceeded to tell me that she heard an irregular heartbeat. My heart dropped.

I immediately started crying. Caleb's on-and-off crying didn't help. I couldn't think of any questions to ask, I just kept thinking, "This is the only appointment Kevin hasn't been with me...I need him here!" My muddled memory recalls her saying that I needed to see the high-risk specialist in town to do some additional testing, and that most of the time it is nothing...they just want to be cautious and thorough. Beyond on that, I don't remember much of what she said. When I got to the elevator 15 minutes later, I embarrassingly admit that was the first time I thought about praying about it.

Since there is apparently only 1 high-risk specialist in town, she is extremely difficult to get into. Before an appointment can even be made, she had to review my entire chart. Then it is usually another 2-3 weeks before she can see you. My doctor's nurse called me a couple times on Monday to update me on the status. She then called again yesterday to let me know that an appointment had been scheduled for THIS Thursday...as in 2 days from then!!! I was thrilled...that in and of itself was an answered prayer. With 2-3 weeks, I would have for sure gotten it stuck in my head the worst possible scenario was what we were facing (I've told you before, I am a worrier).

So tomorrow we go to see the high-risk specialist to have an echo-cardiogram on the baby (it's supposedly just like a sonogram where they look more intensely at the heart). I have debated whether to post this on my blog, but I finally realized that we need all the prayers we can get right now! My dad as well as my OB's nurses have tried to reassure me that some irregularity can be normal in pregnancy, but of course I will feel much better once we know for sure.

All of this long-winded story is ultimately just to ask you to PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR BABY! Thank you!