I thought 2nd trimester was suppose to be easy???

Well I guess easy if life cooperates right?

The baby is doing great! Hunter is developing so well and we get to see an anatomy scan on Friday, I can't wait!

I have physically been pretty well. Since I have been pregnant I have had some kind of cold or illness that doesn't seem to want to go away. Right now I'm battling an upper respiratory infection. On Friday we will check it again to make sure I don't develop pneumonia. That would be very bad! I also will either go down to one day a week or stop working all together mid May (depending on what the doc says Friday) due to my heart condition at 24 weeks the pressure on my heart will be equal to that of 32 weeks so we want to prevent the risk of heart failure as much as possible.
Now lets talk emotional! I have had a horrible emotional time! I was not sleeping well and I would cry when ever I was alone. It wasn't until I suffered an anxiety attack a few weeks ago that I finally decided this was not normal. After talking to my doctor he agreed. We got me on an antihistamine that's safe to use as a sleep aid. That has helped alot. I also got connected with a support group for the baby blues. I can only blame so much on my hormones. We recently, as a family, have had to deal with turmoil. About a month ago my grandfather was ill and went into the doctors only to be taken into surgery and stomach cancer be discovered. After we were told that half his stomach was gone along with the cancer we found out that the cancer had spread to his entire body. Although he is in a "safe" health zone at the moment we know that the day will come when he will slowly leave us and go home to our Lord. I can't express the deviation my heart felt by this news! After that news Isaac and I dealt with his job not being financially sound and he quickly had to turn to other means. Now that problem has been solved and I felt we were on our way back to normalcy, I was hit with the shocking news of my cousins heart attack. He is 27 years old, 4 kids, healthy weight, and no signs of trouble. Suddenly on Sunday morning at 1 am he was hit with a heart attack and life flown to a more "equipped " hospital. While there it was discovered he had an infection in the sack that hold the heart, therefore causing the attack. Well he was placed on antibiotics and seemed to be in the clear, then at 5 am this morning he suffered his second heart attack. The hospital released him at 2 this afternoon, which angers me and makes no sence! They told him at this point there was nothing more they could do. WHAT!?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! 27 year old healthy men don't just have heart attacks! I guarantee if he was older he would be monitored right now! This news just makes me want to spread the word more. This is something that could happen to ANY ONE OF US!
Anyways, see what I mean about life stress? All I can do is turn to the comfort of my Lord and pray for all of it. Pray for healing, compassion, support, and lots of love for everyone involved.

With that, soon I will be raising money for out annual heart walk. I beg you please to donate, even 5$ help honestly! There are to many people I know that this disease has made a victim out of, unfortunately Hunter may meet this demon as well.
Every 34 seconds someone dies of heart disease. No other statistic comes close to that.
Thanks for reading and thanks for caring and loving Hunter and I enough to follow our journey until we meet!
Blessings and love
Jenn

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baby + heart disease = ????

Whelp, its that age old question: what's going to happen with a girl who survived this rare heart condition and is now pregnant?
Let me tell ya!
After a few meetings with some high-risk maternal fetal medicine doctors I kind of have a pretty good idea of what to expect!
Let me back it up for a quick second! I was born with congenital heart disease and a rotation disease. Combined, my conditions medical term is situs inversus, dextrocardia, atrial septal defect, with the assistance of a pace maker, murmer, arithmia, and a ventricular septal defect. Forgive me for any misspending! Basically that all means I was born with all my organs backwards, my heart wiring is backwards and reverse, I had 2 holes in my heart and my original pacemaker crapped out on me! Now back to the pregnancy! Oh and all that combined makes me rare!

So the pregnancy! The biggest concern is how my heart will take the stress of a growing life on me. When you're pregnant the heart increases in size and the blood volume increases as well. There is an input and out put in your heart. The input is blood coming in the heart! That is not the concern. Our concern is my out put. Can my bottom chamber put out the blood it takes in? That has always been a struggle for my heart, which has caused low blood pressure, and my bottom chamber needing an artificial pacemaker to pump it, and poor circulation. The other concern is can the patch in my heart handle the pressure of this new stress or will it break causing the damage that almost killed me as a child? This is a possibility. With this new higher amount of fluid pumping through my body I can go into heart failure before the baby is born or after. I know the signs and symptoms of that incase it happens!
so at some point my work load will lighten, and if I have to be on bed rest it will be in the hospital, not the comfort of my own home.
We pray that doesn't happen!
As it stands now my heart is handling this very well so far. My blood has already increased 30% and my heart has started to enlarge in a healthy manner. So far so good! Lets keep trucking!
Now the baby has a chance of heart disease as well. If I just had a heart problem it wouldn't be so bad for the baby but because I have a rotation condition to (backwards organs ) the baby's risk is increased as well. So at the 20th week we will start to look at Hunters anatomy. The doctors will check his heart for any signs of damage or disease and we will continue to monitor it.
In all honesty I know my strength and I'll be fine but I want prayers, love, and thoughts of health for my miracle baby Hunter Aaron Jones!
So that's about it. In 2 weeks I lost a little bit of weight and I need to watch that. I will also experience lower blood pressure, higher levels of dizziness, and cold chills due to poor circulation because of my condition. I am so confident in my team. I have 3 high risk specialist, my cardiologist, a pediatric cardiologist, and a cardiologist who specializes in women with heart disease. I am ready and prepared for anything! We will do an ecocardiogram second and third trimester along with other monitoring methods.
So that's about it for now!
I don't tend to talk much about my condition or the seriousness of it so it comes across as non serious, but it is and I know that. I come to you with a humble heart asking for love and support. Sometimes it is joked about the baby coming out backwards because of this condition but I ask respectfully for none of that at this time. Please feel free to ask me any and all questions. I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared or worried after hearing all this. But that wont do me any good so I hold my head up, go about my everyday life, and stay confident in my own strength through God.
Thanks for reading! I love you all!
PS I'm sorry if I say no to certain social events, I just need to listen to my tired body!

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