PolkMoms.com

OK MICHELLE, I DIDN'T EVEN GET HALF WAY THROUGH BEFORE I STARTED BALLING........WHAT A WONDERFUL OUTCOME, A BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTER, AND THANK GOD, YOU CAME OUT OF IT ALRIGHT. GIRL, YA KNOW, WHENEVER i START COMPAINING ABOUT HOW BAD THINGS ARE RIGHT NOW, I WILL GO BACK TO THIS AND READ IT, AND REMEMBER THINGS WILL GET BETTER, AND IT COULD ALWAYS BE WORSE. WOW, YA'LL ARE REALLY BLESSED. YOU KNOW SOMEONE UP THERE WAS LOOKING OVER ALL OF YOU THAT DAY. LOL

I have a ton of birth stories, LOL. But I will start with my last one first. This is LONG...sorry
My little girl was born on April 30, 2008. I was 37 weeks pregnant. I had a relatively easy pregnancy, as my last I had Hyperemesis Gravardium, and vomited upwards of 10 times a day. I am also diabetic, blech.I had a scheduled C-section due to having had 4 prior c-sections, and a history of extremely large babies(9-12 pounds). Either way, it was going to be a C-sections, as I had placenta previa. (Placenta was covering my cervix completely) I had bled through the entire pregnancy from 6 weeks until 26, constantly. At 7, 10 and 18 weeks, I had a significant bleed, meaning excessive. Each time I headed to the nearest ER, too panicky to call my OB. The first visit they told me the baby had implanted very low, and I had a 80% chance of miscarriage. Having just gone through that twice in the last 12 months, I was understandably devastated. They were wrong, thank goodness. At my 18 week bleed, I went to WH ER. I also had a gush of fluid along with this bleed, and was certain my water had broke. At the hosp they tested, and said it was indeed amniotic fluid. I was bleeding quite heavily at this point, and they grabbed the first Dr they could find- an allergist. He was pretty clueless. They asked us if we wanted to see the baby, and explained what we already knew, she would not survive. They would/could not do any intervention, as I was not yet 20 weeks. The magic number.
I was there for several hours as they tried to decide what to do, including an hour long u/s they would not allow my husband in for. During this the tech said she saw decent fluid around the baby, and saw NO bleeding. This was very interesting as I was visibly soaking her table. She also could not locate my placenta. They theorized I had a small tear in the amniotic sac that was slow leaking. At the end of it all, they agreed there was nothing they could do, go home, wait and go to OB on Monday. They got me another number for my OB (the emergency number we had didnt work!) And the on call said go hiome and come in first thing monday (was sat) stay in bed.
I continued to bleed moderately until a few days into 26 weeks, then it stoppped. At this point I was still on modified bedrest, no exercise, etc. Hence a lovely (but well worth it!) weight gain.
Finally the big day was here. We anticipated a simple c-section, based on the last 10 weeks or so with nothing interesting happening. Not to be so. My placenta had grown wildly. They delivered my beautiful girl, all 7lbs 8oz of her- the tiniest baby I had ever had for sure. She was a shock with a head FULL of beautiful dark hair, and a medium complection. Very shocking as her brother is pasty white and golden blonde! They took her to check her out in the nursery. Then the fun began. I started to bleed out. The placenta was very ingrained into my uterus. They could not get the bleeding to stop. After roughly 20 minutes of pouring blood, they decided to do a hysterectomy. The Dr started the process, then realized it was not an option. My placenta had grown through my uterus completely, and into my bladder. I hysterectomy would mean losing a portion of my bladder also, and being long term catharized. Not a pleasant though for sure. My Doc was determined not to go that route and later told me he had to kind of double my uterus over on itself and finally got the bleeding to stop. It was all very painful and traumatic. I still have nightmares. I am so grateful I had the Dr I did though, or I may not be here today. I had to have blodd transfusion, and was very ill for quite a while. I am still anemic, and suffer bouts from that.
I am extremely happy though. I can pee by myself (LOL), and I have my life, and my gorgeous little girl!

Bethany,
You forgot to give us the heads up for a tissue first!

I am glad you finally felt comfortable posting about your experiences through this pregnancy - difficult times need some healing time - and am so glad you did have the dr. you had. He is wonderful!

I am so sorry to hear it haunts you still, but know how strong you are and how blessed you feel having your little girl (ALL your children!) - and she is precious! You definitely know the value of your children and family. It shows!

btw, thank you for sharing her and letting me snuggle her to sleep. It made my day!!

Have a good day, my friend!

Bethany ~

Your story gave me the shivers, even a bit of deja~vu. I'm so glad to hear everything turned out well, and I'm sorry to hear it was so scary throughout.

I can relate somewhat, although your case sounded even more traumatic in some ways.

With my last pregnancy, my son's cord was attached in the wrong place. And he and I both could have bled to death at any point during the pregnancy if the cord had detached, but his unusual cord placement and condition wasn't detected until I started bleeding about 3 1/2 weeks prior to my due date and my hubba rushed me to the hospital. Thankfully, my son still was able to make his entrance despite my heavy bleeding. It was frightening though, even the doc looked very worried.

The interesting part the doctor told us after my son was born, was that my son's cord over~ compensated for not being attached in the right spot by tripling its normal size. The doctor was amazed to find his cord was super extra thick, and my son somehow got the majority of nourishment he needed, despite the cord problem and despite my morning, noon, and night sickness that lasted till shortly before his birth, (a few weeks before he was born, I suddenly stopped being sick.) But going into labour, I was still pretty weak.

The doc did tell us when he saw the potentially life~threatening anomoly with my son's placenta/cord, that he recommended to us we not have any more children. And once my son made it out of NICU, (he was slightly premature, although he was a good weight at close to seven lbs.,) shortly thereafter my husband had his vasectomy. He didn't want to take any chances after what the doctor said.

It can be frightening, there are so many things before you get pregnant, that you never even realize could go wrong. It sure makes me thankful we live in the century we do, with the medical options and care we have.

One last note ~ I had a dream early in my pregnancy, as many moms do, but my dream detailed almost every part of my labour and delivery. (And it all happened exactly as I saw it in the dream.) I knew something would be very wrong, and I also told my husband there would be something wrong with my son's eyes too, but in the dream, I also knew it would be okay in the end, and that my son would ultimately be fine. I remembered that dream a lot when my son spent the next few weeks in NICU, and it gave me a great deal of strength and hope.

And we do, of course, have the pictures of our son from after his birth. He did have noticable bruising around his eyes from the delivery.

And Bethany, prayers for your continued strength and healing.

Okay, my daughter was a little of an adventure...
The beginning of the pregnancy was pretty normal. I knew at the end I had gained 25lbs but most of it was swelling so I had to continuously keep my feet up, lay on my left side, etc. She was due 12/24!! As the week of Thanksgiving approached, my parents went out of town but I had to stay at home due to the pregnancy. I jokingly told my mother if she left something was going to happen. The day before Thanksgiving, I was at work and began to feel dizzy, I called the doctor on call and he asked me to come to the hospital. They checked me and said I had protein in my urine, elevated blood pressure, etc. and I had to stay on bed rest for a week. So....after spending Thanksgiving day laying on my side and my blood pressure not getting any better, I told my husband that night we needed to pack our bags just in case. The next morning, I called my doctor (Dr. Barrett), he asked me to come into the office and said I had toxemia as my blood pressure wouldn't come down, protein in my urine and as he did the ultra sound she wasn't moving like he wanted. He said I had to go straight to the hospital for a c-section.
I had never been more devistated!! I was one to never care "how" my children got here, just that they got here healthy and with her being my first, I really didn't know what to expect because she was 5 weeks early!
So we went to the hospital and waited until we could do the c-sections because all emergencies were put before me.........and remember my parents were in NC!! I called and they left right away when I was sent to the hospital. After sitting 7 hours in triage, it was finally my turn! She was born at 4lbs12oz, and sent straight to the NICU for monitoring. She was breathing fine, the doctors were just worried about her size and being born so early. By the time I got to into my room, my parents showed! I was never so happy to see them. My daughter was in the NICU for 11 excrutiating days!! But I remember we were there for EVERY feeding possible! I even remember my dad would show at the hospital for the 5am feeding so I wouldn't have to get up that early. Now how is that for a new grandfather? Something I will always remember! My husband and I were there the entire time and I am sure the nurses got sick of seeing us but I didn't care. We loved her and I surely hated going home without her!!
Now my son.......the pregnancy was normal, except I was totally exhausted the ENTIRE time!! I didn't have toxemia with him at all but a planned c-section. He was born at 39 weeks at 7lbs8oz!
Anyway, those are my stories!

My son was born when I was 31. I felt so healthy when pregnant. Felt faint at times and had palpitations. Heartburn towards the end. I noticed he was completely folded in half in every ultrasound. A few weeks before due date he was still breach. Doc (Barrett) said not enough fluid to try to flip him. I accepted the fact that I would have a c-section. I heard they were easier anyway! NOT SO for me! It was incredibly painful. I was bruised all over my abdomen. My face was extremely swollen, as were my legs. I developed an allergy to anti-inflamitory drugs after this. No more precious Aleve or Advil for cramps! I was so drugged up, nauseous, could barely move. Took weeks to be able to get out of bed, shower or pee on my own. Months before I felt somewhat normal. Didn't stop bleeding until they finally put me on the pill a few months later. I couldn't really hold my son, or breast feed due to the pain, and what little milk I pumped was full of oxycodone anyway! No wonder he slept so much. I was also told I lost more blood than usual and to take iron. I said I would never have another child. Fast forward to next pregnancy, 2 1/2 years later. Started spotting around 7 weeks, which never happened before. Went for sonogram but they couldn't find heart beat. Next day, heavy bleeding, pain. Lost baby. A year later, pregnant again. Felt great again. More palpitations and more near fainting spells. At 31 weeks, started bleeding red. Went to ER. Had abruption. Started going into labor. Got up to two cm dialated. Gave meds to slow contractions but didn't completely work. They said she had a couple of heart decelerations overnight but I think they just wanted to get her/me out. Docs (Caravello/Nixon) didn't want to take chances sending me home. Gave me two steroid shots over two days to build her lungs. They thought she was about 3 lbs. At barely 32 weeks they got her out. Turns out the abruption was in an extra lobe in my placenta, which wasn't a vital area, but they didn't know ahead of time. This extra lobe tends to repeat itself, so perhaps that is what happened with my past bad experiences. Any way, second c-section wasn't as bad. Partially because I knew what to expect, partially because she was 3 lbs 15 oz. I had extreme pain in breasts at random times, even though I could barely pump an ounce. Baby girl was in NICU for three weeks. She had some issues and almost had to go to Shands in Gainsville. The issues mysteriously vanished, and she is very healthy today. Healthier than my full term boy was! I wish I could have had both kids naturally...no drugs. I feel like I missed out on that unique "womanly" experience. I cherish the few contractions I had with baby #2.

I have the birth story of my little boy on my Blog.

The first part is The King is Born, Part 1. The second part is The King is Born, Part 2.

I love that this thread has been picked back up.

There are some amazing stories on here! This is great information to arm pregnant moms to understand instances that can happen. I don't want it to scare new moms to be, but prepare them.

Also these stories bring us closer as women. This is something a lot of us have shared, gives us a commonality, - birthing bonds. For those of you that adopted, maybe it will make you feel good to skip the physical drama of getting your precious one here. It can be a chore and life threatening!

mommy-of-2

Reading your story and jmarr's, wow. Although, I did not ever have to have a C~section. I can imagine that made the whole recovery period more difficult, and your experiences on the whole just that much more scary in a way. And I want to say, Mommy-of-2 I'm glad you were able to stay at the hospital & your parents made it into town as quickly as possible. That was wonderful, your Dad sounds like a great Father & Grandfather.

I remember wanting to stay in the NICU with my son naturally(or at least be at the hospital nearby) the whole time, but with two other kids at home, we just couldn't do it for the entire length of time he had to be in there. My middle daughter was not at one of her easier points during that time period, and she needed me too, and she not at a point or age where she understood a lot. I remember that time period as being very hectic, trying to get home to be with my other two children, trying to pump milk for when they'd allow my son to have it, and being exhausted still from birth.

I don't know how I would have managed some of that if I had had a C~section, I really don't.

And jmarr, that feeling of not having missed out, I didn't have that with the labour obviously, but I still feel I missed a lot of things through the years. Dealing with my daughter's autism consumed so much of my energy, I just was not able to enjoy my son's early years the same way I would~could have otherwise. I was far too worn out and overwhelmed at times. As tired mommy said somewhere, I think on the topic of patience with other's children. To paraphrase, I couldn't help but wonder if perhaps I'd been given more than I could handle at times, looking back, I made it through, but I still wonder how sometimes.

It was never my daughter's fault, and it's not at all about blame, that's just how it was with her condition. And I'm just thankful my other two children were easier by and large, personality wise and otherwise, because most days my middle daughter felt like 10 kids rolled into one. Now, you'd never know it, she's come amazingly far.

But in that way, I do understand your feeling of missing out on something.

Jmarr, I just wanted to add, I am so sorry to hear of your losses in~between, but very happy to hear though of your two now. One of my good friends had multiple miscarriages in between her brood, and from what I've heard, it can be awful and devastating.

Anyway, I really didn't mean to be that lengthy again, but I guess I took a trip down memory lane reading the exciting and somewhat scary birth stories that were shared.