Second Trimester Update and Genetic Testing

Hey all,

So this pregnancy is flying by, I can’t believe I am halfway, like WHAT?! The last few weeks have been much more manageable than my first trimester: most nausea is gone (praise the Lord) and my appetite is better. I do feel way too full in the evenings and usually eat about half of what I normally would for dinner. This has made it hard anytime we go out to eat, because I want to eat but then when I eat too much totally regret it. I’m just happy to be wanting food again, mostly tacos! We got Nana Taco catered to church for a meeting a few weeks ago, and I was super nervous about eating it because last time I had a good taco it wasn’t the same and made me super nauseated, but this was DELISH. Yay for the tacos! I also am so ready for my bump to be bigger than my chest, because right now the ratio of growth is not equal *eye roll* and have had some of my weekly chemo patients say that they wondered if I was pregnant not because of a bump but because of my ever-growing boobs *double eye roll*. Otherwise I’ve been doing really good staying on track with my daily exercise. While I haven’t been jogging as much as I’d like to, I have still been walking the mile to and the mile from my car every day at work and trying to get a good workout in on the weekends when I feel up to it. Trying to keep me and baby moving and grooving! 

In my first blog about this pregnancy I said that I was going to tackle the topic of why Madi and I as a pro-life couple decided to do genetic testing. There are a few reasons why we chose to do it and overall we both agree that we were happy that we did. Again everyone’s opinions are different on this and no one is “right” or “wrong” for doing it or not doing it. These were just our personal reasons for choosing to do so.

1) Madis family history isnt well known

Most of you who know us well know that Madi’s dad passed away when we were sixteen from a heart attack. Madis grandpa passed away three years ago from chronic heart failure. Madis dad was an only child and his grandma passed away when his dad was young from breast cancer. There aren’t people left to ask, “did you all have a history of xyz?” This is the initial reason why we decided to go for genetic testing. 

2) I am a chronic worrier. 

I struggle with anxiety and worry on the daily about lots of things, and have really been working on that for the past few years. But to me knowing and being able to plan helps me deal with things. If we were to find out our baby has Down syndrome for example, it wouldn’t change our minds about keeping the pregnancy, but it would help me plan what my life with work and in general would look like after baby came. Would I really want to go back full time? Would I pursue another job? If I could know ahead of time I would rather that than at the birth. Obviously things at the birth can still happen but as much information prior to me is helpful. Some people are the opposite though and that’s okay too!

3) We found out some surprising things. 

So throughout this process we found out that I am a carrier for Spinal Muscular Atrophy or SMA. We learned that SMA is the number one genetic cause of infant death. And second overall cause of infant only to SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). This genetic disorder causes quick paralyzation to the baby and by the time they are a few months old they cannot move almost at all. Typically in like 90% of cases the infant doesn’t live past 18 months. THERE IS NO TREATMENT FOR THIS. If they do survive it is similar to a life with ALS. This disorder is autosomal recessive, meaning that the mom and dad both have to be carriers for the baby to have the disorder. And if mom and dad are both carriers, there is a 25% chance the baby will be fine, a 25% chance the baby will have the disorder (can be confirmed by amniocentesis) and a 50% chance the baby just will be a carrier with no symptoms or signs of the disease (like me). If just one parent is a carrier, there is just a 50% chance the child will or will not be a carrier but will not have the disease. This scared the crap out of me. No one in my family knew that this apparently stemmed from somewhere in our family line. Obviously a lot of people are impacted by this, so that is why people started testing for it, and this test wasn’t done back when our parents had kids. We were so thankful to find out that Madi is not a carrier. But this whole situation greatly impacted our appreciation for genetic testing. Honestly if we both were carriers, we wouldn’t have aborted, but it would have made me probably change what I was going to do as far as working when the baby was born. We also probably would not have had any more children ourselves, and just have adopted only instead (something that we want to do anyways one day). It was eye opening to me and made me realize, wow this disorder wouldn’t make me change my mind about having or not having this baby, but it really would have been helpful to know if I was a carrier BEFORE we started trying so we both could have been tested and it would have saved a lot of stress in the early months of this pregnancy. Also, how many of y’all know about SMA? As a healthcare provider I had never even heard much about it at all and neither had the doctors I work with so that is crazy to me how many people it impacts yet it is not talked about that much! I felt like I should have been better informed beforehand about this by my providers because I feel like many people say “are you 35+ or do you have a history of xyz? No? Okay you don’t need genetic testing beforehand” which I know some of it has to do with what insurance covers but I would have loved to know about this possibility that kills so many babies beforehand! 

These are just some things that lead us to choose why we chose genetic testing and how it didn’t make our choice about keeping the baby any different. We are still pro-life and still believe that God created this baby for a reason, but for me planning and knowing is just helpful. For those of you who have been pregnant with the option of doing genetic testing, had you heard of SMA before your pregnancy? Did you chose to do or not do genetic testing? I would love to hear thoughts! I’ll keep you all posted in another few weeks on my progess after our big gender reveal! Even though our anatomy scan is done, we are waiting to find out until our gender reveal party the first weekend in November! Two of my friends at church due around the same time as me are both having boys so I can’t wait to find out what ours will be too!! What’s everyone’s guess?! 

Thanks for keeping up with us,

- Olivia :) 

#BookWorm: Legend by Marie Lu

Hello fellow readers,

So another book that I finished on my time away in June was Legend by Marie Lu. This book was another apocalyptic series that came out a few years ago. I didn't get on this one as quickly as others like it because I had read so many other similar series that I didn't feel like reading another one at the time that it  came out. However, I am kind of glad I waited because it made me appreciate the story more. This story is about a young girl named June who is working in school towards a job in the government of the Republic (split from the rest of the country called the Colonies), like her big brother Metias. There is also the mysterious Day is under the radar of the government and therefore his family thinks he is dead, he now goes by this surname to keep his identity a secret. He uses his "invisibility" to the world to help his family and keep them safe during the terrible times of plague and disease. Day starts to notice that only certain people are contracting this disease and wonders if the government is just hiding the cure or causing the disease themselves. All of a sudden after a brief encounter in a dark alley, June's brother, Metias, is found dead with a knife to the chest. The only person last seen with him is the invisible Day. June decides to go into the world of Day on a mission from the Republic and try to find out why he killed her brother without her own identity being revealed to Day, but she finds out more than the reason of why her brother died, and it changes her life forever.

I found this book really good and actually am reading the second one currently. The whole post-apocalypse theme reminded me a lot of Maze Runner or Hunger Games but with a plot that held its own and made me want to read more. I am incredibly surprised that this has not been made into a movie series yet, but feel like once the hype dies down from Maze Runner it may be adapted. Overall I would give this an 8/10. Not incredible and the best thing ever, but good enough to want me to keep going through the series. Have any of you all read this book? I feel like most people I talk to have not. I finished up a few other books like What Alice Forgot and the Handmaid's Tale which I will be typing up a review for in the next few weeks or so. Baby brain has made it hard for me to get stuff done when I get home! I have been still trying to read as much as possible, because I know once baby comes my free reading time will be pretty limited! Also sometime in the last few months I hit 50,000+ reads, so thanks everyone for reading my stuff! So crazy to think that on average people click on my blog about twenty three times per day! Which for most popular blogs is nothing, but for me is totally crazy to think that many people actually want to read my stuff.

Thanks for reading with me,

- Olivia :)