fears

I spent some time reading through previous posts on this blog last night, reminiscing about my experience being pregnant with Marshall and I realized I documented so much more last time around.  All the little details were there for me to revisit.  Obviously life is a little more crazy now as a resident and mother than it was as a medical student but I did think I should jot down a few more points besides just the photos of the growing bump.

This pregnancy has flown by so far.  I can't believe we're almost half-way.  So much about this pregnancy has been easier and I feel like I'm much easier going this go round than last time... Despite that, now that I know so much more about fetal development and what can go wrong, I'm much more worried this time about our growing baby.  I'm anxious to have our fetal echocardiogram and level II ultrasound later next month, which will be done at 26 weeks to check the baby for any heart defects, specifically, since I had a congenital heart defect.  Our children have a 3-5% chance, roughly, of inheriting this from me.  Rotating through the Genetics clinic this month isn't helping my nervousness, as I'm taking care of children with a whole host of rare metabolic and dysmorphic conditions.  I'm sure it won't get any easier next month when I go to the PICU and start taking care of very critically ill children everyday.  I'm just so grateful for my typically developing, perfectly healthy, beautiful and amazingly smart little boy Marshall.

Here's the super cool Mother's Day gift Marshall and Jordan gave to me tonight (it finally arrived after being lost in the mail). It's a canvas print of us by the "horsey fountain" on the Plaza. It's so beautiful!

 Here I am at 19 weeks:

I've gained 9 lbs so far (eek!) and my blood pressure is still good.  I'm trying to get in some exercise everyday and I've actually gone for a run on 9 out of the last 11 days!  I didn't run at all during my pregnancy with Marshall and that made getting back into it pretty tough, so I'm glad that I'm able to find time on this lighter rotation to keep up the habit.  Plus, it should make the labor and recovery easier.