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In my situation, miscarriage was a risk because I have a bicornuate uterus. A heart-shaped uterus. What that means, or to my understanding, when women are born our uterus has a division in the middle. As our bodies develop and the uterus becomes fully developed, the division goes away. For some women, the division doesn't go away, which is why the uterus actually looks heart-shaped (there are ultrasounds posted on-line if you're curious). There are various degrees of this uterine anomaly and for some women it means they will have issues with getting pregnant and/or carrying a baby to term. A few doctors couldn't tell me if my lovely uterus was severe or not. All they said was that there is a possible bicornuate and that it would be closely monitored once I was pregnant. Great.

I'll never know if the fact that it took me 7 months to get pregnant was because of my funky shaped uterus. When I did get pregnant, I would go on the internet to find out more about symptoms of miscarriage. I was totally expecting it and so of course, I was worried. Not a lot, but it kept me from being completely excited about my pregnancy. It was kind of too bad because then when I did start feeling pregnancy symptoms, I was totally miserable...

I didn't have symptoms of miscarriage. No spotting, no cramping, of any kind. I thought this was a good sign. The whole pregnancy thing is such a crazy waiting game! I find out I'm pregnant at about 4 weeks. I can't make my initial prenatal appointment until about 7 weeks - they don't even check heartbeat then. My dr. orders an ultrasound b/c of the kind of uterus I have, so luckily I get one at 7.5 weeks. Let me tell you, the night before was hell. I was already feeling symptoms of being emotional and I was super tired. I was scared to death that maybe there wouldn't be anything in my uterus. Or, if there was something there, it wouldn't be living. My husband could feel my anxiety, but he didn't say a word. I think he felt the same thing. He's much more positive than I am though... Anyway, after work I fell asleep on the couch and then went to bed at my normal time. I wanted the time to go by fast so that the next morning would come quickly. It did. We went to the appointment, the tech did the ultrasound (which by the way, I thought would give me information about what she was seeing, but she didn't say a word) and told me to go to my dr.'s appointment in 2 weeks. We did see an embryo and heartbeat and it was growing in a timely fashion.

I couldn't wait 2 weeks! I called my dr. that afternoon and she was out of town. Another dr. looked at the ultrasound and said it all looked good....and that there was a possible bicornuate. That drove me nuts, but there was nothing I could do but WAIT! I've learned that pregnancy can sometimes be soooooo ambiguous. You really don't know what could happen and when it does, then that is when they'll give you an answer. Back in the day, women didn't have regular appointments or ultrasounds. How did they do it?! Anyway, I learned to be patient and I continued with my daily living.

I should say that 1st ultrasound appointment was pretty cool. It's unbelievable what you can see these days and how we learn more and more about our bodies. I learned that the little nugget on the screen was a "zygote" (with a beating heart) and the attached "yoke" is what was nourishing it. Wild.