… the walrus said,
to talk of (something someth)ings,
of shoes and ships and sealing wax,
of cabbages and kings.

Shoes. Yes, and the two year old who almost always puts them away.  “Them” being the shoes everyone *else* leaves strewn all over the floor.  Happy, sweet little guy.  He’s awesome.
And the super-cute little purple flats I impulse-bought at K-mart because they were only, like, $2.  How I love them.  I didn’t realize I wear purple that often.  They match everything.  Shoes are great.  Now I have *2* pairs I wear with regularity.

Ships. Nah, nothing to say there.

Sealing wax. Does anybody actually use that stuff any more?  I bet my kids would have a field day with it.

Cabbages (not likely)…

Kings… Anybody wanna come clobber me at chess?  It gets pretty boring sometimes when your husband is always out being Bishop.  We haven’t had time to do something as simple as a nice, quiet, board game in a long, long time.  He’d tell you it’s because I’m Exhausted Preggy-Woman, not because he’s the bishop, but if he wants to tell the story, he can write it on his blog.

In the mean time

I’ll get back to the Boredom Prevention Program that is blogging.

... Or I could just play with scarfies...

Okay.  Now that we’ve covered the important things, I can catch you up on a little bit of the drama we’ve dealt with over the last month as regards Baby #5.  Fortunately for you, I have answers now and can give you the punchlines.  That’s why I haven’t posted about it until now.  I didn’t want you worrying about the questions for which I had no answers.

What follows is not meant to be true or exact science, but is the simplest and easiest way I have to explain what’s going on.  I like to think it’s fairly accurate, but it’s probably not.

Being Negative

Did you know that all of us rh-negative-blooded-people are special?  Yes, we can donate our blood to you positive-people, but can’t take yours.

Nope.  Our blood will take a good look at those funky rh-things hanging out on your red blood cells and say, “Whoa!  What’re those???  We don’t have them, they must be bad.”  —- and then the next time we see it,

“ATTACK!!!!!!!!!  Die you evil rh-thingies!  Die!”

I told you this was going to be watered-down, right?

Well, somehow or another, I’ve got an rh-inhibitor now that I didn’t used to have.  We’re not sure how it got there, but here it is.  And I’m married to a  pretty positive guy.  And -in case you’ve forgotten- we’re expecting Baby #5 in March.

Which means…

IF Baby5 is positive-blooded like Daddy, and

IF my resistance to rh is strong, and

IF my blood gets in there to mingle with Baby’s
(no, it shouldn’t mix, but occasionally that happens and IF it does)

THEN mine will take a look at poor, little, Baby’s rh-factor and say, “ATTACK!  Kill the crazy mutant red blood cells!”

"And that's... bad..."

Yes, of course it’s bad!  This is not a very nice “complication” for Baby at all.  People (yes, even prenatal people) need their red blood cells.  It’s not so good if they have something in there killing off the oxygen-carriers.

Those are three big “if”s, though.

So….

What does that mean for me right now?

(1) More bloodwork than normal so they can check the strength of my  rh-inhibitor.

(2) Another home birth is not a likely option. 

Waaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s talk about the good news.

My “resistance” to those rh-thingies is so weak they can’t  even test it,

ALLELUIA!

and

IF it stays low, chances are there won’t be any serious “complications” at all — even with a positive-blooded-baby, even after delivery.  Yay!

That news made me even happier than sneaking into makeup made them!

Best-case scenario,

IF Baby5 is negative-blooded, there is no complication to this pregnancy.  None!  I can’t attack that funky rh-factor if it isn’t there.  Totally normal pregnancy/delivery.

Oh goody!

Maybe I will consider that home birth after all…

Ooh, I like the sound of that.

Who am I kidding?  I LOVE the sound of that!  My home birth with Freedom was the most awesome, amazing, beautiful, sacred experience of my life. 

Mind if I soapbox here for a while?  Okay, I won’t.  Cut, paste to a different post, and I’ll simply say…

I was totally looking forward to another home birth.  I’ll show you.

This is me thinking about home births:

Happy, Confident, "I know something you don't know"

This is me thinking about hospital births:

Oh, fiddle.

But, no, a home birth isn’t likely.   For this baby or any others of mine.

Don’t get me thinking about that deeply, though, or I’ll end up being a basket-case and crying about it the whole stinkin’ day.  (Again.)

Of all the ironies…

I, who am a HUGE fan of home births,
I, whose favorite thing to do is try to teach women how extreeeeeeeeeeemely unlikely is the event of a complication during delivery (following a normal, healthy pregnancy),

I, who actually enjoy seeing the outright disbelief on the faces of people who hear that a midwife-attended home birth is SAFER than a hospital birth (following a normal, healthy pregnancy)….
really, you’re far more likely to die in a car accident on the way to the hospital!

I got stuck with a complication that really should land me in a hospital for delivery.

IF Baby5 turns out to be positive-blooded, there’s a *chance* he or she might need a blood transfusion at birth.  Yes, like, immediately after delivery.  It’s not a sure-thing, going-to-happen event (especially if my resistance stays low) but it could happen.  Even the fabulous Holly (my amazing home birth-midwife) isn’t equipped to do something like that.

But, hey, at least I can still “go natural.”

And… call me crazy… I’m thinking about bringing my OWN bathrobe this time instead of wearing their lovely, revealing hospital gowns.  Just to see if I can.  I mean, what are they going to do? 
Send me home?

Thanks for letting me borrow your face, Lou. That's exactly it.

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