Resolution of a Low‐Lying Placenta and Placenta Previa
Complete Placenta Previa at 21 Weeks : InfertilityBabies
Partial Placenta Previa at 20 weeks - Women's Health
total placenta previa at 20 weeks
total placenta previa at 20 weeks - win
My wife is dealing with complete placenta previa and we are both feeling anxious. Looking for reassurance.
My wife is pregnant with our 2nd baby, and currently at 29 weeks. We've known since the Week 20 scan that she has complete placenta previa -- not marginal, but a total overlap with the cervix. Our OB is pretty confident that the placenta is not going to move away from the cervix before it's time to deliver, based on its current position. So, we know that we are very likely facing a planned c-section. I'm anxious about the remaining weeks of this pregnancy. If she goes into preterm labour, it can be extremely dangerous for her as well as the baby (with a serious risk of a bleed). Thankfully she has made it into the third trimester without any bleeding so far, and she's really trying to take it easy the next while. Just wondering if anybody has ever dealt with this and can share stories or advice. Were the final weeks of pregnancy scary? Was the c-section a difficult procedure because of the placenta previa? Thanks everyone. I know PP is fairly common, but it's unusual to have it still be covering the cervix late into the 3rd trimester and we are nervous about what that means for her safety for the next couple of months.
This is my first pregnancy and I am totally ashamed of how I have let myself eat and how much weight I have gained. I have gained 20 lbs in 25 weeks. I am feeling terrible about myself and even worse about my stretch marks. I had a rough start to my pregnancy; placenta previa, subchorionic hematoma and a placental abruption. I was on bed rest and taking it easy for many weeks. Little exercise, and eating quick carb rich foods like cereal or waffles became my go to. After stepping on the scale and seeing my stretch marks, I trashed all my go to junk food and have started meal prepping (lack of planning and time management is a huge reason why I have ate like trash) and have been drinking strictly water instead of juice or pop. I didn't want to gain more than 30 lbs during this pregnancy and I am at 20 lbs gained with 14 more weeks to go. I feel like even if I make much healthier choices, I have already gained so much I won't be able to get back on track. I wish I would have been more proactive from the start. Is there anyway for me to keep my weight at a reasonable amount for the duration of my pregnancy? Or have I already fallen way too off the path? Dreading my next OBGYN appointment.
Almost 33 weeks and I don’t know what to think anymore.
Not sure if I’m venting or need a hug or what here but I feel the need to write out everything to people who somewhat understand. This pregnancy has been fairly rocky from the beginning. It was a bit of a surprise to find out I was pregnant to begin with (not trying, not preventing) and then there was COVID and how that was going to affect my finishing school. Then there was placenta Previa, which happened right after I went back to work and then had to go on modified duty which meant way less shifts. By the time I was 20 weeks the placenta had moved but the doctor was concerned about echogenic bowel on the ultrasound. We were told it was a soft marker for Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis and were referred to a special program at a hospital 1.5 hours away. Because of Covid my husband wasn’t allowed at the appointment with me where I attempted to give the best account of our genetic history I knew. They did a high resolution ultrasound where the doctor literally told me my baby looked totally normal and he only knew something was up because he was told. They then decided at the last minute they wanted me to get bloodwork done. Well, we were unimpressed we’d gone so far for no answers. I spent six agonizing weeks stressing over what might be to end up finally just deciding to be okay. Then we got the results back of the blood tests that there was no genetic reason for anything and nothing on the ultrasound. Last week after my regular midwife appointment, it was recommended that I go to the hospital to get my blood pressure monitored. It’s been running high for the last several appointments and it was quite high at the appointment (even after re doing it several minutes later). They tested my urine for protein - none, tested my liver enzymes - also fine. Blood pressure stayed on the high side but since it wasn’t terrible and I was going to see the OB this week, they sent me home. Today I had a follow up appointment with the OB to check on baby and ensure he/she didn’t have a bowel obstruction. (I should note this OB is highly regarded in town and somewhat of a specialist). He did the ultrasound and determined baby is measuring somewhat small (3lbs 4 oz) so he wants to see me weekly from now on. I’ve read about iugr and things that high blood pressure can do to a baby and I’m a bit freaked out. The doctor says the bowel still looks the same but it’s not a concern. He said nothing about my blood pressure and didn’t even take it. My husband now officially thinks everyone is blowing every little thing out of proportion and I should just chill. To me that feels like someone just told me I should just never go see a medical professional and just wait for the baby to come out. So I’m a mess and really pissed off at my husband (for other reasons as well). That’s all. If you read this whole thing, you deserve a star.
I just wanted to share a little (well not so little) something that I wrote recently about my IVF journey.
I remember when we first did the transfer. I was alone cause Jon couldn't get off work. It was done in seconds and they handed me the pic of this beautiful little hatched embryo boy. And all of a sudden my heart filled with so much hope again. All the possibility of a baby was back and I felt such a strong urge to protect this tiny microscopic soon to be baby. Then the anticipation started. The irrational thoughts of "will bending dislodge the embryo?" "Will straining to poop squeeze him out?" LOL. I looked at my pile of boxes of first response tests that I bought of amazon (in total I used about 45 tests over the course of about 20 days!!), and waited impatiently. On day 2 I wanted to test but I knew it wouldn't work yet. Day 4 came and I was done waiting. I woke up, and ran naked to the bathroom. You could almost hear the cartoon screeching noise as I rounded the corner. I dipped the stick and waited. It was stark white. Then the sadness hit. The irrational sadness because I knew it was too early but yet I had so much hope and needed this to work so badly after my losses. After the 5.5 years of sadness. All the mother's days. After the 2 losses. the 2 surgeries. The numerous procedures. I needed this more than it could be put into words. Day 5 came and it was another negative. It was so hard to keep myself together. Who am i kidding, I didn't keep myself together at all. I needed hope but the years of struggle made it so difficult to be positive. Day 6 came and I almost didn't want to test. But I did. Because I had to know. I dipped the test and rested it on the counter. Almost shaking, I waited. And waited. It felt like hours passed. I just watched the white window. Like a hawk. Eventually I thought I saw SOMETHING. I squinted and squinted. Turned the test sideways and upside down. Up against the light and in the shadow. Pointed my phone's flashlight at it and eventually I came out to show it to Jon. He said he didn't see anything. But I knew it was there. No it was not another case of "line eye". It was there. Half the ladies in my IVF groups didn't see it either. But I knew! It was there. I wish I could say that I waited patiently till the next day. But I tested about 2-3 times a day from then on. It was so addicting, to pee on all the things! And they got darker! At day 7 Jon could see it now. It was so exciting! By the time the beta test came at day 8, I already had a nice little collection of positive tests on my desk. I went to get my blood drawn. It was happening! Of course then I had to go home and pretend to have some semblance of patience as I waited the excruciating 8 hours for the nurse to call. "Congratulations!" she said. But my number was LOW. 37. I thought jealously of all the girls in my groups who had first beta's of 100+. Even the baby I lost had a first of 130. And so the next nerve racking wait. The wait for my second beta. And the third. All in all I had 6! My tests kept getting darker, but the tests remained quite low. And didn't quite double two times. I was starting to panic that it was going to be taken away before I had the chance to have it once again. IVF is all about waiting. Every step you think will make you feel better. But then every next wait is even harder, somehow. I guess because now you have more invested. And more. And more. We went for an ultrasound at 6 weeks and 1 day. I laid down and my very mean RE inserted the vaginal probe that I, like all my infertility warrior sisters, grow to know quite well. And then, in an instant, there it was. First a little sac. And then, something inside that little sac. A tiny 7mm embryo. I held my breath. Then he turned on the doppler, and the room filled with the most amazing sound. The sound of my son's heart. Most people say they cry. I think I was numb. I hardly reacted. But inside, the feeling of immeasurable love was so overwhelming. It was the first time in all these years that I heard that magical sound. I would watch movies and see scenes of this moment, and it seemed an unattainable thing. Science fiction. But there it was, beating in front of my eyes. The teeniest, tiniest little heart. Inside the teeniest, tiniest little human. I feel him now, at 38 weeks, this huge 7 pound baby that takes my breath away with his kicks, and marvel. I look at my belly and up at the picture frame that holds all the best ultrasound pictures I have collected through this journey, I see that very first picture we ever got, of my tiny little shrimp baby, and it's amazing that any day now, I will bring home my son, and the years of waiting and hurting will all be forgotten. Of course the rest of the road wasn't quite easy. The happy feeling only lasted long enough for me to start worrying about the next step. Will he still be alive at next week's ultrasound? Why didn't I see his yolk sac? Does the sac look a little oblong instead of round? Then of course, the sac measured too small. The yolk sac measured too big. It was the wrong shape. The baby didn't lok right. I spent so many hours researching literary articles on every ultrasound detail and embryonic anomaly that I think I could get an honorary degree as an embryologist or an ultrasound tech. Even after I transferred to an OBGYN at 10 weeks, every appointment I was sure something was wrong with my baby. Something was going to happen. Something would take this away from me. I knew it. I just knew it. But every time, he was just fine. Cozy in my uterus, growing like a weed. I would listen panicked every few days for his heartbeat with my doppler. And it was always there. Happily pounding away. And my heart grew bigger and bigger with him. My son. Slowly I broke down my walls. And I started to get truly excited. Truly believing that he would come home with me. And then I started to feel him. Slowly at first. Tiny thumps and flutters that I wasn't quite sure were there. But they were. He got stronger and stronger. Eventually Jon felt them too. We started to plan and buy and prepare. We were going to be parents. There were more hiccups throughout the road, of course. Things are never easy. First we had placenta previa. Then a velamentous cord insertion. Then Gestational diabetes. Every step of the way I cried. I had major panic attacks. I would break down on the floor and research feverishly every risk. But my strong little man kept on growing. And I kept trying to be strong with him. Now all I have left to do is wait. Wait for him to enter the world. Wait for my life to change forever. Both in wonderful and in difficult ways. His clothes are washed and folded. His bed is dressed and ready. His toys are waiting in a basket. And his cart has all the diapers, rash cream, and baby tylenol he will need. I try to cherish every last moment I have of him being inside me, kicking me and wriggling, practicing his breathing, hiccuping. Even when it hurts, it's wonderful. I am at the point of wanting him out but not wanting it to end. This has been something I waited for so long to experience. I would stuff clothes under my shirt and pretend I was pregnant, wondering if I would ever know the feeling. Now that I do, it's all ending too fast. I know there will be more worrying ahead. First about SIDS. And then when he gets sick. Then when he gets older and all the other worrying that will bring. But for now, I sit here and enjoy this feeling, reminiscing about the day when I first heard his heart beat. And imagining what it will soon be like to show him the world.
After a shit show of a last pregnancy, we decided to try again. This time around I got diagnosed with GD at 11 weeks and hypertension. Which totally sucks because I am in shape, just an old mom. I was feeling better about GD this time around and overall easier pregnancy. Hoping for vback and keep my daytime fasting diet controlled. Have a positive last trimester. Well, I got my 20 week scan yesterday and I have placenta Previa. Gut kick. Now I have this overwhelming dread for the next 20 weeks. I am worried I will end up with another preemie. Ugh. This just sucks.
Hey MedSchool peeps. So I've had a few MS3 and 4s message me over the past year or two after seeing posts on this subreddit. I made up a mini high yield sheet that I wish I had read before my Obgyn rotations. It's definitely not 100% comprehensive, but it is a good base. The few people who have used it said it helped them a lot, so I figured I'd share the wealth. I can't guarantee that other well experienced obgyns won't slightly disagree here or there on a point or two below, but generally speaking you can take this as helpful info for your rotation. 1) if you can, read the ACOG practice bulletin titled "The safe prevention of the primary c-section" ... someone somewhere at your institution has access to ACOG, I promise. You might be able to just google it anyhow. This article will give an excellent basis as to wtf is going on while you’re on L&D. The big take aways from that are we do c-sections too frequently, active labor isn't until 6 cm dilation, if a cervix keeps changing and the baby looks ok then keep going (even if it is 'protracted' labor), women should be induced at 41 weeks as it reduces the risk of a c-section. Don't induce before 39 weeks unless there is a medical indication for mom or baby. 2) Take the time to learn when we do what for our stuff for prenatal care. (see #5) 3) Non invasive prenatal testing is screening that is basically going to fall into 3 categories. You typically only get one of these and if it is abnormal you either choose option C below, OR get amniocentesis. Almost no one does chorionic villious sampling but technically a really early gestational age (like 11-13 weeks) would get it. a) first trimester screen - checking AFP and PAPP-A (maternal serum) and do a nuchal translucency on the baby. Performed between 11-13 weeks gestational age. b) quad screen - checking AFP , hCG , Estriol (not estradiol or estrogen!!!!), and Inhibin-A. Performed between 15-21 weeks GA c) cell free fetal dna- it's actually a misnomer. It's placenta DNA fragments in the maternal blood which is usually, although not always, the same genome as the baby. You can get it any time after 11 weeks although in overweight women you're more likely to get a "equivocal" result if you do it early. The quick and dirty is that all of these are mostly screening for aneuploidy (in particular 21 and 18) although as quad checks for AFP it also helps screen for spina bifida, anecephaly, and ventral wall defects (omphalocele and gastroschesis). 4) learn how we select a due date - rule of thumb (although not 100% accurate!!!): In the first trimester if the gestational age on ultrasound corresponds within 1 week of what the LMP would correspond to for a due date, then you go with the LMP to set the due date. 2nd trimester 2 week difference, 3rd trimester 3 week difference. Again this is ball park, you can look up the actual strict dating criteria for when there is a discrepancy between LMP and ultrasound if you want. Basically anyone having their due date set after they’re already 20 weeks or later is considered poor dating. 5) Other prenatal care: routine anatomy scan around 20 weeks. Check for anemia and perform glucola (gestational diabetes check) at 24-28 weeks. Tdap is given about 28 weeks. Rhogam is given to rh negative women around 27-28 weeks. Check for vertex fetal presentation and swab for GBS at 36 weeks. 6) Definition of gestational hypertension: systolic of 140 or diastolic of 90, twice, four hours apart withOUT proteinuria. Definition of mild pre-eclampsia: systolic of 140 or diastolic of 90, twice, four hours apart WITH proteinuria (typically people do urine protein to creatinine ratios. so 0.3 or greater is considered proteinuria). Definition of pre-eclampsia with severe features: systolic of 160 or diastolic of 110 twice, four hours apart WITH proteinuria OR other end organ damage such as - severe headache, scotomata, pulmonary edema, thrombocytopenia, elevated creatinine, twice normal LFTs. If they have a seizure it's eclampsia. We treat "severe range" (160/110) blood pressures. This does not alter the course of the disease, it only reduces the risk of a stroke. We administer IV magnesium in severe preeclamptics (and some milds) to reduce the risk of a seizure. Know that mangesium toxicity can occur from too much magnesium (especially of urine output drops off). First signs are loss of deep tendon reflexes followed by respiratory depression, followed by arrhythmia, followed by death! Severe preeclampsia diagnosed after 34 weeks is an indication for delivery. Severe pre-E diagnosed before 34 weeks you monitor inpatient until 34 weeks and then deliver... however many preeclamptics will worsen and require earlier induction - if BPs become difficult to treat or labs worsen. 7) betamethasone injection is given to women who are at risk of delivering premature. It primarily reduces neonatal respiratory distress syndrome but also reduces necrotizing enterocolitis and IVH of all grades. These are two injections, 24 hours apart. It can only be done twice (meaning 4 shots total) per pregnancy. Best effects of the shot are seen 48 hrs to 2 weeks after administration. So we don't just give it right away unless it is someone we are worried will deliver. Traditionally after 34 weeks Betamethasone (beta) isn't given however newer evidence says it can be given after 34 if it hasn't already been done. Women who get beta are people whose water broke prematurely, are at high risk of preterm labor (like coming in at 30 weeks with a short cervix and occasionally contracting), or preeclamptic women. I'd say those are the top 3 reasons ppl get beta. 8) Painless bleeding - need to rule out a placenta previa, although in all likelihood, a chronic placental abruption is way more likely to be the cause. 9) First trimester pain should raise suspicion for ectopic pregnancy. Until at least a yolk sac and/or fetal pole is seen in the uterus, it should be considered a pregnancy of unknown location (is it ectopic or not?). bHCG levels of about 1,000 - 2,000 should show a gestational sac on transvaginal ultrasound IF it is an intrauterine pregnancy. Over 48 hours, a bHCG is expected to about double in a viable intrauterine pregnancy (the actual cut off is lower, and depending on the initial value, more like ~40% increase in 48 hours, but this is a new guideline). Just because the bHCG is increasing normally doesn't mean it is in the uterus. Just because it is dropping doesn't mean it was a miscarriage or resolving. You are only certain if ultrasound definitively shows, products of conception are analyzed from a D&C or laparoscopy... if you don't know, you need to track that bHCG to zero. An ectopic can be treated with methotrexate if they have no contraindications (there is a long list for medical absolutely contraindications that typically don't apply to young healthy people). Relative contraindications are a heart beat, ectopic gestational sac > 3.5 cm, or bHCG > 5,000. Obviously if a patient is clinically unstable, they need laparoscopy. If a patient does get methotrexate, you look for a drop in their bHCG levels from day 4 to 7 of 15% or greater. If it is less they get a repeat methotrexate, or do surgery. If the tube is left in place, risk of ectopic recurrence is 15%, and increases with each repeat ectopic pregnancy. 10) Postpartum hemorrhage: by far most common cause is uterine atony. First line drug is pitocin which is given with every delivery. After that rectal misoprostol, IM methergine, or IM hemabate. Important side effects/contraindications: miso can cause a fever, methergine causes elevated BP and so is contraindicated in PreE (my mnemonic was that Meth labs explode), and hemabate will exacerbate asthma (my mnemonic was that hemabate sort of sounds like an inspiratory wheeze... lame I know). If meds don’t work then an intrauterine balloon to tamponade. If that doesn’t work you’re looking at surgical management. This ranges anywhere from tying off the uterine arteries (Oleary stitch) to cinching down the whole uterus with suture (B Lynch). Or the ultimate option, a hysterectomy. Next most likely is retained placenta. A d&c is done for this. Sometimes it ends up being a placenta accreta and a hysterectomy is generally needed for this as it is impossible to remove all the placenta and the hemorrhage continues. Lacerations and coagulapathy are important to consider - especially DIC. Really interesting is that due to hemodynamic and coag changes in pregnancy, a hemorrhage from something like atony can lead to continued hemorrhage as DIC develops. A pregnant pt should always have a fibrinogen above 200, so if it gets near that (or below) DIC is high on the differential. Peripartum hysterectomy often called a c-hyst (cesarean hysterectomy) is the last ditch effort to stop hemorrhage and has significant morbidity. Changing topics to Gyn... 11) there are essentially only 2 types of urinary incontinence we see - stress (cough laugh sneeze) and urgency (bladder spasm). Technically neurogenic (like paralyzed) and functional (I can't walk to the bathroom so I piss myself) exist but are obviously rarer. 12) endometrial hyperplasia - pt should get a hysterectomy because they have about a 40% chance of actually having endometrial cancer. Only if pt wants fertility should she keep her uterus but then they need serial endometrial biopsies and need to be on progesterone. 13) endometrial cancer - usually stage 1 (confined to the uterus) and usually adenocarcinoma. Usually treated with hyst alone although people who are old, have deep invasion but still stage 1, or have high grade (histologically) may need brachytherapy which is radiation to the vaginal cuff. The only caveat is endometrial cancer that ISNT adenocarcinoma such as clear cell, papillary serious, etc is treated more like ovarian cancer and gets paclitaxol and carboplatin. I Guarantee someone will ask you this. Who should have an endometrial biopsy to o hyperplasia or endometrial cancer? Women 35 and older with AUB and risk factors (obesity, PCOS, nulliparity.. there is a long list). Women 45 and older with AUB and without risk factors. You're interested in women who have heavy bleeding or continuous/nearly continuous bleeding. I Guarantee someone will ask you this. How do you triage postmenopausal bleeding? You can do a transvaginal ultrasound. If the endometrial lining is less than 4 cm then you don't need to biopsy. HOWEVER, this only counts for someone who had one little episode. Anyone who has a lining >= 4cm or is bleeding on and off (even if they have a thin lining) needs an endometrial biopsy. 14) ovarian cancer - most common kind is epithelial - usually stage 3c (every where in the peritoneum). Pt's get primary debulking (meaning hyst, bso, nodes, omentectomy, and if needed bowel resection to remove all tumor bulk) to get all tumors that are >1 cm... or ideally all. But optimal debulking is considered when only tumor left behind is <1cm. THEN like 2 months later they get paclitaxol and carboplatin. Cure rate not so good - like a 5 year 50% recurrence rate. Caveat is that other kinds of ovarian cancer like germ cell tumors get chemo of bleomyocin cisplatin and etoposide and have a really high cure rate. 15) cervical cancer is the only cancer staged clinically! I Guarantee someone will ask you this. It means you can only stage it based on physical exam, a KUB, or a cone biopsy. This is because most cervical caner is diagnosed in the 3rd world and they don't have all the fancy shit we do. You can take findings from a CT to stage but only if it would have been apparent on a KUB (like hydroureter from tumor). 16) PID is intentionally over diagnosed. There are criteria for inpatient IV abx, but generally speaking mildly ill patients who can reliably take PO abx are treated outpatient with IM ceftriaxone followed by two weeks of doxy/flagyl (typically, although flagyl is optional). People who need IV abx first: septic, has high fever, cannot reliably take po (due to n/v or social situations like homeless), pregnancy, uncertain diagnosis, failed outpatient therapy, or who also has a tuboovarian abscess. If you want to know more about this topic, the CDC has a great article. It is very comprehensive and an excellent article on the topic that is reasonably short. 17) vaginal estrogen is great for post menopausal vaginal atrophy and has very little systemic impact 18) Systemic HRT: Rules of thumb: as little as possible for as few years as possible, don't start on someone remote from menopause (such as a woman in her 60s), if no uterus can take estrogen only, if she has a uterus she needs progesterone as well to protect her uterus from developing endometrial cancer from the estrogen. It's more expensive, but patch HRT is safer than oral due to first pass. 19) pap smears: start at age 21. If they come back abnormal then a colposcopy is performed where directed biopsies are done. Rule of thumb: Women with CIN2-3 (high grade dysplasia) should have a LEEP procedure unless they are in their early twenties. Ideally CIN1 (low grade) is watched unless it is persistent. HPV types 16 and 18 cause vast majority of abnormal paps. HPV types 6 and 11 cause the majority of the warts. Good luck on your rotation. Never mind the haters. Sometimes people are really catty although my med school and my residency generally treated the med students very well. Don't let the stereotypical attitudes get in your way or make you prejudiced from the start. OB is a specialty totally to itself but honestly, its worth knowing about it even if you don't go into it. For the guys: don't let being a guy prevent you from taking it as a serious consideration. There are lots of great programs and it's actually easier to match as a guy. And you can sub-specialize if you want to do more of one thing over another. Edit: typos Edit 2: thanks for the gold! Edit 3: added some sections
Here's a breakdown of my expenses so far at 17 weeks. For reference, I live in Cleveland, Ohio, I have SummaCare insurance, and I'm using the University Hospitals health system. I was caught off guard by a huge bill yesterday. Apparently, none of my ultrasounds fall under the "prenatal care" umbrella and I have to pay 20% of the total cost, subject to my deductible. My ultrasounds seem really expensive. For example, the facility fee-the price I pay for the privilege of using the machine-for my 15-minute NT scan was almost $1,500. On top of that, the doctor charged me for two procedures- a basic ob ultrasound and an NT scan. According to the hospital's billing department, I should expect at least two more bills from the radiology department in the next week or so. When it's all said and done, I'll have to pay around $500 out of pocket for just one ultrasound! I have a short cervix and placenta previa so I know I'll have at least 3 more scans like this if everything goes well, but that number will continue to rise if I'm still having complications. Now I'm seriously considering skipping the anatomy scan and cervical checks because I can't afford them. I started this process assuming all of my prenatal care would be covered at 100%, so I definitely wasn't planning to spend ~$5,000 before any labor and delivery expenses. Do most insurance policies cover ultrasounds as part of prenatal care? Does everyone spend this much on prenatal care?
I found out I was pregnant on October 17, just before the 4-week mark (due June 29). I was absolutely devastated. I wasn’t ready for a baby, just started my junior year, I was preparing to write my medical school applications, my wedding was set for November 4, my husband (Marco) and I had just bought a trailer to go camping on weekends and travel the country over the summer, I am also a type 1 diabetic, I lost a baby almost exactly 2 years ago due to its complications. I immediately told my best friend since middle school, she was in a similar situation a few years ago, had her first when she was 17, but her and her boyfriend (who also happens to be my husband’s cousin) have become very successful and have had a second baby too. My husband was away for work and vacation until November 1, and I didn’t want to tell him on the phone, and I knew he’d be over the moon, so I put together a little surprise. I ordered a jersey from his favorite soccer team (Chivas Guadalajara), the number was “88” (his birth year) and the name on the top said “Daddy”. I also bought a baby size one with “18” and “Baby”. I put them in a box, and underneath them I put the pregnancy test. When Marco got back to New York, I gave him the gift, I put his shirt on top so he wouldn’t think much at first. He started crying and hugging me, he was so damn happy. As soon as I saw his face, that’s when I became just as excited, I was finally happy about having this baby! I experienced morning sickness in the beginning, I was able to prevent vomiting by making sure I don’t get hungry, which meant I had to eat the second I woke up. Otherwise I had a pretty mild first trimester. I had to go to weekly appointments from 6 weeks, which meant I went to an OB twice during my honeymoon, but it also meant I got weekly ultrasound pictures which is so awesome to look back on baby’s development. I got my diabetes fully under control during the pregnancy, I started using new technology which helped with management so much. My blood sugars basically became that of a non-diabetic (most recent HbA1c was 5.0%). We had our wedding day as planned, it was absolutely magical. Nobody but that best friend and Marco knew anything. We planned an amusement park honeymoon in Queensland, Australia, so I couldn’t enjoy as much as Marco did. We also spent a few days in Townsville which was very relaxing, but also a little boring as we like to be busy. We got home just before Thanksgiving, managed to keep it quiet there too. On Christmas we announced the pregnancy to family, we put a framed photo of my latest ultrasound in with Marco’s parent’s gift. There was a bunch of screaming and crying and hugging and jumping. We told our friend’s over the next week or so. The second trimester was great physically, but my mental health suffered a lot. I almost rejected being pregnant for over a month, I just wasn’t ready to have a baby, and I didn’t want to give up the life I had planned. I didn’t neglect my health or anything, I just didn’t want the baby anymore. Because of my belly, I didn’t want to be close with my husband anymore, even just hugging him felt strange, so I wasn’t as close to him as I wanted to be, and it caused some issues. By mid-February I was excited about baby again and felt ready (thanks to therapy). At 22 weeks we moved to Utah to be with my husband’s family. I wasn’t happy about moving to Utah, I always pictured living in the suburbs above NYC, but my husband planned his whole life to stay in Utah to raise his family. I absolutely fell in love with Utah once we settled in though, apart from the guy at the DMV who tried to convert me lol (we’re both Catholic). Over Easter weekend (27 weeks) we went to Mexico to visit Marco’s extended family, it was the first time I felt really fatigued from pregnancy, I spent most of the day in the pool as the resort we were staying at, and it was amazing. Swimming always made me feel better from day one. At 28 weeks we went to Wyoming for a week for a “Babymoon”, there we sorted out all the issues we’d been having the last couple months and we became closer than ever. After Wyoming, I had to start going to three-time weekly appointments, Monday and Wednesday appointments were only 15 or so minutes, and Fridays were the big ones where they did ultrasounds and stuff. Everything continued to be completely healthy, better than we could’ve expected. At the same time, we started slowly buying baby stuff, I didn’t want to go too fast because I was worried that having a baby room set up for months before baby comes would only torture me (I’ll never make that mistake again). On Saturday, May 19, at nearly midnight, I started getting some cramping. It was similar to period pains, but it was lower (above my pubic bone) and sharper. Marco texted his dad, who’s a pediatrician, and said that it’s probably nothing to worry about, especially because I wasn’t experiencing any other symptoms, and my belly was still super high. We went to sleep, and when I woke up I decided that today was the day that I’d buy all the hospital necessities, a car seat, and a stroller (I didn’t realize at the time but I think it was a part of my subconscious instinct). We spent the day going from store to store, bought everything we’d need for hospital. That night (Sunday, May 20), at about 7pm, we were eating dinner on the couch and watching the news, I needed to go to the bathroom, when I was walking there I felt something happen “down there”, I completely ignored it, didn’t process it until I saw the dime-sized blood clot on my pantyliner. When I wiped it was absolutely covered in blood, it was pure blood, I’d almost never seen so much blood come out of me. I put on a maternity pad, got up and the toilet was full of blood too, I almost didn’t look diluted by the toilet water. I called to Marco, he starts freaking out, I’m repeating “we’re going to the hospital”. We get in the car, he calls his parents, I call the maternity ward, they told me to go to emergency as they’re busy and it may not me labor. When we were driving I realized I had been getting painless contractions all day long, I don’t believe they were regular, but they happened once or twice an hour. We arrive at the ER in about 30 minutes (thanks to evening traffic), they admit us straight away as maternity called them to expect us. They do all the normal ER stuff, like vitals. My heartrate was a little high, my blood pressure was 160/110, my blood sugar was over 300. The BP and sugar probably caused the bleeding. They did an ultrasound and confirmed no tears or previa, and an internal exam confirmed I was 2cm dilated and 80% effaced. The maternity pad only seemed to have residual blood on it, so the bleeding only lasted a couple minutes, and they never found the cause of the bleeding. We’re gonna do more investigating soon so it doesn’t happen again. After a few hours in the ER there was a spot for me in labor and delivery, I went to sleep pretty soon after, and woke up at 8am with painful contractions. I labored all day long, going up a centimeter every few hours, medication-free, alternated between walking the halls, sitting on the ball, and sitting in the birthing pool all day. At 9cm my water broke, and just after 9pm I was 10cm and started pushing in the pool. I pushed for 50 minutes and my baby was born! Isaiah Morales Cruz 05.21.2018 - 10:07 PM 4lbs 2oz - 16 1/4 inches He was born screaming and bright red, coughed up everything he needed to, seemed very strong. I got out of the tub almost immediately, I never felt so energized and healthy. They laid me on the bed while they checked his vitals, and his oxygen and heart rate started going down, and his blood sugar was 44. They took him to the NICU, they didn’t let Marco go with at first. I delivered the placenta, and it was all healthy and intact. My blood sugar also started going down. They stopped my insulin but I kept dropping, I got to about 20 an hour later and had a seizure. They gave me glucagon which made me sick, but I went up after that, and they took me to the ICU. They didn’t let Marco come with me either, but at that point Isaiah was stabilized and he was able to be with him. They gave him a CPAP machine, feeding tube, IV, and all the wires and cords to monitor his vitals, as well as hourly blood glucose tests, more if they felt they needed to. He was in a little pod so Marco couldn’t hold him. His blood sugar kept dropping despite the basal dextrose he was receiving, so they kept blousing him every time he went under 50. At 2am he had a seizure from a low of 18, administered glucagon, and upped his dextrose basal. I was in the ICU for 24 hours, so I wasn’t allowed to see Isaiah, Marco spent the day moving between the two of us. They had to give him another bolus of dextrose at 7am that morning but didn’t need one for the rest of the day. On Wednesday I got moved back to maternity but spent most of the day in NICU with Isaiah, I was able to breastfeed (which he did so well at), change diapers, sponge bath. He also graduated from CPAP to nasal cannula which means he can breathe on his own, his dextrose basal got moved back down to where it was originally (he needed a bolus 7 hours later). His heart rate was fine as long as his oxygen was, and he developed jaundice that evening too, so he has spent some time under the lights. On Thursday afternoon they lowered his dextrose basal even more, to the lowest whole dose, and he tolerated it perfectly. They were also lowering his oxygen when he stayed over 98% for 6 hours. On Thursday night they let him in our room for a few hours, we took photos, watched TV, and had such a good time, it’s when I really bonded with him and fell in love, but we had to take him back when we were going to sleep. On Friday I got the news that I’m being released, but Isaiah has to stay. He has to meet these certain requirements that I wasn’t totally aware of for some reason: 35 weeks gestation age, birth weight, graduation to crib (temperature regulation), 7 days of consistent, steady breathing and heartrate (on or off oxygen), 48 hours of blood sugar over 70, parent skills, and a “room-in” (Marco and I will stay for 24 hours with Isaiah and they will test how we all go). He reached the 35 weeks that day, parent skills were assessed, but he was still losing weight, at the time 8 ounces so far, a big drop of 5oz between Wednesday and Thursday. We left in the evening, and we decided it’d be a great time to finish his room, I was so devastated when I found out I was in labor because his room wasn’t finished, so that was an upside to getting out before him. We bought preemie clothes and diapers, toys, blankets, sheets, changing table, baby monitor. We had a really good time, it was a good distraction. We stayed up until 3am working on his room and pretty much finished, we just needed to tidy up. We were back at the hospital at 9am, along with Marco’s parents where they met him for the first time (they had no idea what was going on for over a day because everything was so hectic, nobody even knew we had him until Wednesday). He graduated to a crib on Saturday, managed to get off oxygen and dextrose on Sunday, and on the next Tuesday he reached his birthweight. Tuesday night and Wednesday, we did the room-in, and it went amazingly, it felt so good and right. On Wednesday evening he was discharged with a clean bill of health. I’ve checked his blood sugar a couple times since, and we have a foot brace that monitors his heartrate and oxygen, and we haven’t had a single issue. It’s now Friday night and everything is perfect. He’s sleeping when we want him to be awake and vice versa, but it’s still so fun. When they were talking about the risks when I was in labor, nobody expected it to go like this. His lungs were just a little too young compared to the rest of him, and my diabetes made his blood sugars suffer. He’s breastfeeding and doing it so well, I never wanted to breastfeed until I tried it in the NICU. So glad he’s out now, I couldn’t be more in love with him. I never thought it’d be possible to love someone as much as I love Marco, but it happened and it makes me want to explode. Sorry this was so long, but it was a long process and I was excited to share because I love reading y’alls birth stories!
I was told my placenta was (maybe?) slightly covering my cervix at my 20 week anatomy scan at the perinatal assessment center where my OB sends her patients for big scans. MFM Doctor told me there wasn't much to worry about as it would most likely move, but to refrain from sex and flying. I told her I had a flight scheduled for a week from then. She had me schedule an appointment for a week later (the day before we were supposed to go - 21 weeks) to check on it again. At that appointment she spent a long time looking. She said the "meat" of the placenta was quite far away but there was a trail of it that she determined was about 1cm away. She said still too low for a vaginal delivery but I was fine to fly. Now I'm 23 weeks and have another flight (3 hours) in a couple of days. They had me come back again today to check on placenta. Still about where it was at 21 weeks....1-1.5cm from cervix. A different MFM Doctor examined the images this time and was very vague about what he thought. At times he made it sound like it was risky, and other times he made it seem totally fine. He said I have no reason to think I'd go into preterm labor and my cervix is really long. Just not to stress. I kept asking about what his thoughts were about flying and he never really gave an answer. Just told me what I should do if I happened to go into labor while away from home. I feel like he didn't want to give me a straight answer. I much prefer the "yes" or "no" type Doctors! I have no history of bleeding. I called my regular OB nurse line in hope's she could take a look at the results and see what she thinks. Hoping she returns my call quickly so we can make decisions. Has anyone had this issue while pregnant? From what i've read online it seems very split: some Doctors put no restrictions on you (as long as it's not covering the cervix) while others treat it as a complete previa and you're put on bedrest. I just want a straightforward opinion (like the first Doctor!).
I’m 26 weeks and have had a pretty uneventful pregnancy so far. I was diagnosed with placenta previa at my 20 week ultrasound and have been on pelvic rest since, but no other abnormalities. For the past several days I’ve had this very heavy feeling in my chest. Like weights pressing in on me, and I’ve found it hard to catch my breath some times. It feels almost like guilt, and intensifies when I feel the baby wiggle and kick. I assumed that she was pressing up against my diaphragm and making it more difficult to get a full breath. On Friday my husband accidentally knocked down a framed picture in our bathroom and glass went all over the floor and all over his feet. He stood still while I got the dustpan and carefully started cleaning the glass around him so he wouldn’t risk cutting himself. I don’t know why, but while cleaning up the glass I started getting very upset. I started thinking about my husband cutting his feet on the glass and started crying. Then I couldn’t catch my breath and started feeling like I couldn’t breath. I went full on panic mode. I just couldn’t calm down and started spiraling in my thoughts about needing to stop crying so I could catch my breath and then worrying about hurting the baby because I wasn’t breathing enough. I started having Braxton Hicks contractions and my belly got rock hard. I think because I was so upset, so I went to lay down to try to relax. That is one thing that can be dangerous with placenta previa. They told me not to exert myself and if I feel contractions to lay down with my feet up until they pass. I couldn’t stop thinking about hurting my baby and that it would be totally my fault. It took several hours before I could calm down and get back to feeling okay. On Saturday I took it very easy. I still had the heavy feeling in my chest and accompanying that feeling was this guilty shame feeling. I just felt tired and kinda down all day, but nothing bad happened so by Sunday I was feeling pretty good. Sunday morning we had planned a beach day with family. We got up bright and early and packed lunch and the car and headed out to meet up with my fam. It was a really good day. We got to the beach and found a good spot to set up. We had fun dancing and laughing. My husband and I went to splash around a bit in the surf, but the tide was rolling in and there was a really strong undertow current. I got tired pretty fast and started feeling my belly contract so I got back out and just hung out in the shade on the beach for the rest of the time. It was really nice. When we were getting ready to go there were two cars stuck in the sand not too far from us and I started to worry about not being able to get out. The beach had become overly crowded by that time and we had several cars trying to pull into our spot while we were still trying to pack up. They were being very impatient and partially blocked out way out making it difficult to navigate around them. Finally we pulled out and about half way to the beach access road I felt our tires start to spin on the dry sand. I instantly couldn’t breath. I felt so scared and my belly went tight as a basketball. My husband asked me to drive while he tried to push us out, but I felt like I couldn’t even see at that point. I just felt like I needed out. Out of the car, out of the beach, out of the whole situation. I freaked out. I couldn’t even find the door handle to get out. I left the car and dropped off all the things that felt like they were too tight. My sunglasses, hat, towel, shoes all got thrown away to the sand and I ran from the car. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I couldn’t see or breath and my belly was hurting and I needed to get away. My husband caught up with me and stopped me and he helped me back to the car. I burned my feet up to my ankles on the hot sand. Some nice people came and pushed our car out and we were free to leave. I know I was irrational. I know it was bad for the baby. I just didn’t have any way to stop. I feel so embarrassed and guilty. I could have hurt the baby and I couldn’t help my husband when he needed me. What is going on? Is this some kind of pregnancy hormone thing. I know anxiety over the pregnancy is real, but I’ve never heard of panic attacks brought on by pregnancy. I just don’t want this to keep happening. I don’t want to lose control again. I don’t want to hurt my baby. Have any of you dealt with something similar? Any suggestion would be helpful.
Birth Story and some PP advice (super long, super positive, lots of pics)
Hi everyone! I had posted back on December 17 when my water broke and I had some updates about the labor, but I wanted to give LO’s full birth story and a little update/very limited PP advice. I'm going to start by saying as a disclaimer, I had a super crazy easy birth. Like easiest birth I could’ve imagined x1000. And my baby is a pretty relaxed guy. So this is mostly happy, issue-free, etc. Okay, here goes! My due date was January 2 based on ovulation or December 30 based on LMP. My DH is a Giant’s fan, and as we were watching the Monday night football game of the Giants vs Dolphins, as soon as the national anthem started, I began to have contractions. They were pretty irregular and lasted about 45 seconds – over a minute, but could space out between 5 mins apart and 30. After a few hours of this, they began to get closer and were 5 mins apart. I called my OB and asked what to do, because only like 30% of them were painful. The rest just felt like Braxton Hicks. She told me to wait it out and come in when they were painful, despite being 5-1-1 for a while now. Anyway, contractions continued at about 5-1-1 throughout the night. I had a regular OB appointment the following morning and when we went in, they started getting REALLY painful. I don’t know about anyone else’s experiences, but sitting up/walking/standing made them much worse. Laying at a 45 degree angle made me barely feel them so that was nice. Anyway, the doctor was taking her sweet time coming to my appointment so the nurse was ready to wheel me down to L&D because they were so close and painful. Right as they were going to wheel me down, the doctor showed up. She checked me and lo and behold, I was completely closed and 50% effaced. Big bummer. All that pain for nothing. So after that, I completely started ignoring the contractions. They continued all Tuesday and Wednesday and they sucked. Wednesday night they finally calmed down to like once an hour so I figured it was prodromal labor and they were going away. Ha, I was wrong. Thursday morning I woke up at 9 to pee. Pregnancy had me super exhausted so I went back to bed after peeing and had an AMAZING dream. Well, at 10am in the middle of that amazing dream, I woke up to POP! and a gush. Thought I had peed myself but it wouldn’t stop. I ran into our master bath, dripping water the whole way. Started screaming my husband’s name, but he had his head phones on working (he works from home) so of course he couldn’t hear me. It wasn’t a steady stream by any stretch…more like an initial burst and then when I’d sit down/stand up it would let loose more. Not going to lie, it was super gross. And the contractions amped up considerably as soon as I arrived in the bathroom. Anyway, I got husband’s attention and freaked him out. Called my OB and they told me to come in immediately, even though liquid was clear and I was a FTM. So I told DH there’s no friggin way I’m giving birth this disgusting (ha), I’m going to take a shower. So I took a shower. Blowdryed my hair. Put on makeup (???). Packed the remainder of the hospital bag to make it look like I was going on vacation in Maui. Yeah, I was a little dumb and my brain wasn’t functioning through the contractions. So we get to L&D and it’s hurting bad at this point. I tell them they can swab my pad, but they say they’d rather just do a cervical check first. They check and BOOM! The bed is now covered in amniotic fluid (which btw smelt like nothing). So it’s official, my water has broke, I’m in a birthing room and this is really happening. Yikes. I get admitted and they tell me I can have the epidural any time I want to. It’s about 11:30AM at this point. I labored for about an hour before I gave into the epidural because 1. Why not, 2. The pain sucked. So they come in, start it, and it literally took an hour. They had to try to set it 3 different times so 3 different pokes, but honestly it was fine and I didn’t feel much of anything after the numbing agent. And as soon as that thing started working, omg. Magic. I could’ve made out with the anesthesiologist. No seriously, I could’ve. It was amazing. Even though he was super gross. So then it’s waiting time. They checked me at 2:30ish and I was STILL at 1cm. That was pretty depressing. So they started me on Pitocin. They kicked it up after a couple hours, then again a couple hours after that. When it got to 12miu (they started me at 8miu), I could start feeling the contractions again. They didn’t hurt but I could feel the pressure. Luckily I had the little button of heaven to give myself a nice bolus of fentanyl so that was nice. No pain at all. They kept flipping me from side to side and whatever side I was laying on was totally numb, which was fantastic. Anyway, about 5:30 comes around and they checked me again. I’m at 4cm now and 100% effaced. Yay, making a little progress! DH and I settle in for the long haul and I’m convinced it’s going to be at least after midnight before this gets going. We make it to 7pm, he turns on the First 48 on TV and we’re like oh sweet, haven’t seen this episode before. We watched maybe 5 mins before they checked me again and the resident happily informed me I was at 10cm and ready to push. I almost pooped my pants. Like excuse me woman, you cannot be serious, I was going to watch this show and relax and enjoy hubby time and now you’re telling me I have to push a baby out of my vagina. Yikes. It was shocking. The nurse starts to prep the room. Then she comes over and asks if I did birthing classes. Nope. But I tell her I’m a nurse and she tells me to think back to nursing school. Ha, yeah, I hated my maternity rotation but sure, I’ll try to remember watching those births. Anyway, she has me do 3 practice pushes when I feel the tiniest bit of pressure signaling my next contraction. She tells me I’m doing great with the first 2. I do the 3rd and her eyes almost pop out of her head and she tells me to stop. She tells DH to hit the call button and she yells to them “get everyone in here NOW!” So in comes the resident whose shift literally started 30 mins ago, the same one who told me I was 10cm. Here comes another nurse. My doctor is nowhere to be found. Funny little add-on here, I have 6 doctors at my practice and of course, I got stuck with the creepy one that I hate. Blah. Anyway! The resident asks if she has time to put on a mask and they tell her yes. She puts it on, turns and looks at my lady parts, her eyes go absolutely super wide and she runs to the table and catches my baby. Apparently I was having a contraction and I didn’t even know it, and it pushed the rest of him out. So yeah. 3 pushes total. The entire thing took 4 minutes. And I’m a first time mom. So now I’ve got this adorable, super red screaming human on my chest and I’m like “uhh…this is my baby?” Really surreal. My DH was cheesing from ear to ear. LO was screaming his butt off. He’s got this super deep little voice for a baby and when he gets hysterical, it sounds like he’s saying “it’s cold, it’s cold” over and over. Ahh so cute. Anywho, my doctor shows up finally and is in shock. Everyone in the room keeps telling me never tell my birth story to my friends, because they’ll all be jealous, haha. The resident is absolutely beaming because she got to deliver my baby. And this is kinda TW, but we had had about 10 ultrasounds during my pregnancy (I had placenta previa that took 17 freaking weeks to resolve) and everyone said his cord was fine and far away from him. Turns out it was wrapped around his neck twice. So that was scary information and I honestly wish they hadn’t told me. But he was completely perfect. They collected his cord blood and tissue and told me my cord was freakishly long. I guess they’re supposed to be like 12-14” or something and mine was like 25”, so LO really was never in danger. LO was born at 37+5 at 7:49PM after my water breaking at 10:04AM. He was 6 lb 11 oz and 18 and 3/4". So after all that, they start stitching me up. I’ve got 3 tears but none are even 1st degree. One was in my vagina and needed one stitch and 2 were labial. One was right next to my clit and yeah. It’s not fun. That’s been the hardest part of all of this is dealing with that stupid stitch. But they said all should heal fine and it was only stitched once, it’s just in a crappy spot. But yeah, that part of recovery has sucked. Anyway! We spent 2 days in the hospital, being woken at all hours. LO was cluster feeding the second night from like 3am-7am every half hour but we got through it. We were really happy to get home, but we found out late in the night before we were supposed to be discharged that LO has jaundice. It wasn’t bad but they could’ve kept him another day to go under the lights. We were so ready to leave and that really sucked to hear, but as it turned out his jaundice didn’t get much worse so we were discharged on Saturday. It was amazing to be home. Overall, the hardest parts to me have been that one stitch being annoying and my mother. My mom isn’t a pushy person or anything, but she was really upset that I didn’t want her there when I delivered. She spent the entirety of my sister’s and my SIL’s 2 births texting everyone every update on her cell phone the entire labor. So I was not going to deal with that. She lives 2 hours away and we have 3 dogs, so I had my parents come stay at our house with the dogs while we were in the hospital. Well, they left the house immediately when I was in labor to come down. They ended up showing up while I was still in the recovery room, in the birthing unit, not even in a PP room yet, trying to breastfeed for the first time in my life with my boob hanging out in front of my father as I'm trying to cover us up and figure out how to get him to latch. But I dealt with it and whatever. Then the first night I had so much adrenaline going, I only slept about 30 mins. Finally I fell asleep around 9am, only for my parents to show up at 9:30 and wake me up. Luckily my dad kept telling my mom “we’re going, we’ll be back tomorrow” but she did NOT want to leave. I’m sure there was lots of fighting between the two of them. She really did piss me off too because the first night she met him, she had a cold. She wore a mask, okay, I feel bad for her but I'm not interested in getting my newborn sick. The next day she shows up. She doesn't have a cold anymore. Okay? I trust my mom so maybe she was overreacting the night before when she wore the mask? Whatever. But then the 3rd day, she won't hold him because her cold's back. Like I'm sorry, wtf are you thinking, holding my baby when you knew you were sick on the 2nd day. That really rubbed me the wrong way and is so selfish. I get it, she wants to hold her grandson. But at the expense of risking a 1 day old getting sick? Give me a break. Still fuming from that one, and that's the main reason she hasn't gotten a phone call in 3 days. Anyway, then the second night LO cluster fed. I got maybe 1.5 hours of sleep that night, and again, 10am, hi Mom and Dad. It was frustrating but they only stayed about 30 mins at a time. They came again that night and were going to come again the next morning if we had to stay due to the jaundice and I finally put my foot down and said no, we need to sleep. Then when we finally got home from the hospital and they were going to “leave immediately”, that turned into my mom forcing us to sit and open all of our Christmas presents from them while we tried to soothe our newborn. They finally left after we fake ooo’ed and aww’ed at everything (like how can I be excited about this shirt when I’ve had NO SLEEP and my poor little guy wants to be fed?! Wtf?!) and I was never so glad to see them leave in my life. I know I sound completely selfish and I should be thankful that they watched our dogs for us and I should be thankful for the Christmas presents. But everything was done in such a selfish way by her. I'm grateful for her watching the dogs. I'm not grateful for her making everything all about her and not about her grandson and his health and wellbeing. And it's weird because she's usually the most selfless person I know. I guess she was just so excited to be near him, she became a psycho mom. Lucky for me, my mom wants to come visit next week for FOUR days and I just can’t even deal. Still trying to find a way to say no. But it’s her grandson and I’ll probably have her come down for 2 days and not 4. I would probably murder her if she stayed for 4. Ugh. Anyway!!! That’s it. Now for my limited amount of 5 days of PP advice:
Absolutely bring lanolin with you to the hospital if you’re going to breastfeed. I swear, I had read SO many horror stories about breastfeeding and cracked nipples and whatever else. I had NO problems breastfeeding at all. My nipples dried a little sure, but I put lanolin on them after every single feed and we did skin to skin immediately after birth and started breastfeeding within 10 mins of him arriving. We’re only 5 days out, my milk is in, and he goes to town. It is seriously so easy for us. He has a great latch, my boobs are overproducing a little right now, and everything is great. Now I know that can change, but right now we’re awesome.
Absolutely bring swaddles with you to the hospital. LO is a magician and breaks free of even the most experienced nurse swaddles. We bought a 3 pack of Summer Infant SwaddleMe’s and we couldn’t live without them. He randomly breaks a hand out but it’s not often, and they are 100x better than any other swaddle we have (we have like 3-4 different kinds).
Rock n Plays are awesome. We had him originally sleeping in a PnP bassinette portion and he was getting too cold in our room and it didn’t seem comfy. We also had him in the newborn napper part, but he almost rolled in it so we stopped using that. The rock n play is soft, it vibrates and he absolutely loves it. He sleeps way better in that than anywhere else in the house (except on us, of course).
As everyone else says, take your stool softeners. They gave me oxycodone because my tear really hurt the first night. Yeah, needless to say my first poop was like a brick. But it seriously didn’t hurt at all. I was slamming fiber and stool softeners and I’m sure it made it way better.
Lochia sucks. Get nice and soft absorbent pads or depends. I had bought these giant PP pads and they make me itchy and they’re uncomfortable and they just suck.
Make sure you get SOME newborn sized clothes/diapers. We had a few but based on his ultrasounds it looked like he was going to be a big baby. Yeah, he’s not. And he’s got a little head so we only have 3 hats that fit him (2 being ones from the hospital that are bright pink). Also get some mittens or clothes with the cuffs.
Get a good camera if you can afford it. I have a galaxy note 3 phone and the pics don’t do him justice. The camera we got on Black Friday is awesome.
Tell visitors to screw off if you need to or forewarn them that they can’t stop by whenever. Baby’s figuring out the world. You’re busy healing. The last thing you should be dealing with are pushy people who can’t take a hint. And it’s better to offend them before baby arrives than after imo.
Ignore everyone who says sleep while you can. Omg the amount of times I heard that when I was in the third trimester and super uncomfy and getting up to pee every hour. Sleep now is only in 1-2 hour intervals but it’s the deepest sleep I’ve had in months. I can lay on my stomach or my back and not have horrible SPD and hip pain. It’s heaven and I feel refreshed in the morning, even on little sleep.
Ignore everyone who says you won’t be able to breastfeed or you’ll have problems. It’s NOT hard for everyone. It DOES come naturally to some people. And to be honest, I’m a nurse but I was super grossed out about having a baby suck on my boobs. It truly is the most natural thing in the world. When you see your LO crying hysterically and you pop out a boob and he’s soothed instantly (or after you convince him for 5 mins yes the boob is already right there, latch already!), it is the best feeling in the world. I can’t imagine not breastfeeding…I would be really upset if we had to stop. And I understand it’s everyone’s own choice and I couldn’t give a crap who formula feeds and who breastfeeds. But if you’re interested in breastfeeding and all you hear is that you won’t be able to feed your baby if you have an epidural, ignore it. It’s not true. Some people have problems yes, but that doesn’t mean you will.
That being said, I expected to have problems with basically everything. I thought I’d need a c-section when they told me I was 4cm. I thought LO wouldn’t gain weight. I thought I’d suck at breastfeeding and he’d be formula fed by now. I expected to have an episiotomy and tear and have a useless vagina for the rest of my life. I totally expected the darkest of each scenario, which basically made me a nutcase but also made everything seem so much rosier when no, those insane things didn’t happen. I think I read way too many horror stories, haha.
The great pacifier debate. Let me start by saying every time we had an ultrasound of LO (about 10), his hands were up in his face. He sucked on his fingers, toes, in every ultrasound. So now he's here and he loves sucking on his hands. The problem is that he startles himself awake so we have to swaddle him with his arms down. So his way of soothing himself was to breastfeed CONSTANTLY. Like the other night, he was on every 15 minutes from 10pm-7am. Not kidding. My nipples were raw. So I spoke to his pediatrician the next day, after his feeds we give him a soothie and he's fine. No nipple confusion. He is WAY more content now. He's gaining weight fine. Everything's fine. The first time we gave it to him, I cried thinking our breastfeeding relationship was over (yay hormones). It wasn't. When he's hungry, either he spits out the soothie and goes to town, or I take it out of his mouth, stick him on the boob and he latches immediately. Also, I have super flat nipples and he has NO problem knowing what's what. No shields or anything.
Last one. I guess I had more advice than I thought I did? Anyway, for me, I wish I had bought nursing clothes. I bought a ton of maternity clothes, a ton of maternity bras, but the only nursing clothes I bought were 3 piece sets of pajamas from Kohls. They are totally awesome. But I'd love to have some regular looking clothes that can be used for nursing instead of having to pull my shirt up/pull my boob out. It'd be much easier to have some deep v-necks or something, even if they showed more of my ridiculous 34GG's than I'd like. So yeah. Might be picking some of those up this weekend. If you see some on sale, I would definitely get at least a few so you have options when you're out/have guests if you're uncomfortable pulling out the boob.
One last thing. I gained 45 lbs during pregnancy and was all freaked out about the weight loss. At 4 days PP, I was 20 lbs down. My legs look completely normal, my face isn't all puffy anymore and I don't have 15 chins, my arms are small. My boobs have taken on their own gravitational pull and are loaded with milk, and my stomach shrinks every time I look in the mirror. Seriously, I'm only 5 days out and I feel like myself again. It is super awesome. So if you're all worried about your weight gain like I was, don't be. You'll be back to yourself in no time. Anyway, that’s all. If you’ve made it to the end, you’re a trooper and deserve a medal. If you guys have any questions feel free to ask, otherwise I’ll see you all on the other side!!!! You ladies rock!!!! Thanks for getting me through my pregnancy!!!!! And here are some pics of my little monkey: http://imgur.com/a/48dlu ETA: One more thing I want to say. I've read so many people say they lost their libido after LO is born or they don't want to be touched by their DHs because they snuggle with LO all day or they're turned off by their DH or whatever. I am the complete opposite. Seeing my husband hold our baby makes me an absolute sucker for him. I didn't think I could love him anymore than I did, but I do. It's overwhelming and makes me bawl like a baby, thinking about how much love I have for my two guys. And man, being able to snuggle with him again without a GIANT belly in between us...I missed it so bad. Plus my libido is absolutely insane. I'm hoping everything heals right because my 6 week appointment can't come soon enough!!!
So let me start by saying I know that how I'm feeling is totally irrational and just not how these things work, but I'm hoping one of you may be able to relate.. I feel like I've somehow failed. I was due yesterday and while being one day past that is really nothing in the grand scheme of things, I just feel defeated. I had placenta previa at my 20 week ultrasound, so I had really come to terms with the idea of having a scheduled c-section between 36 and 37 weeks. It fixed itself (hooray!) but I still had this naive thought I wouldnt make it to my due date. I have been doing all the old wives tale methods for weeks now, just in case they helped. Couple that with false labor starting at 39 weeks that hasn't let up, and oh my goodness am I feeling so, so done. I have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday, then they'll schedule an induction sometime from 41 to 41+6. I just hit 1 cm at my 40wk appointment after being high and closed each week before that, and my Ob said unless I start making a lot of progress or something is wrong, it's likely to be closer to 41+6. Now I know realistically it is perfectly normal that I haven't had my baby yet. They don't call it "estimated" for nothing, and statistically only half of all babies come before 40 weeks. But my crazy, type A self just feels like I failed by not doing things "right", not walking enough, not eating the right things, blah blah blah. My maternity leave started yesterday, and now I just feel guilty being done with work without him here yet. Like I said, I know its silly. But has anyone else felt that irrational sense like you somehow failed by not having your baby at 40 weeks, even when you know deep down everything is really fine?
Hi all, just had my anatomy scan today! I was very excited to see my girl again. Most of the appointment was totally fine. My technician was very vocal about what she was doing and didn't hesitate to say things like "good, I like what I see here" for 90% of the time. That being said, I will definitely be waiting for the official doctor's sign-off but at least it's generally in a positive direction. She noted that one of my kidneys had some fluid. She said 90% of these case go on to be fine by the baby is born, but I wanted to know if anyone had this? It worried me ever so slightly in the room. The other thing is, she said I had a low-lying placenta, not yet considered placenta previa, but once again, a little worry was going on inside of me because at this point I can just hope it grows upwards as my uterus expands. She was able to get a 3D printout of the baby who, to be completely honest, looks a bit like a skinny alien at this 20 week mark, BUT my adorable little alien nonetheless. I can't wait to see her as she progresses, and more importantly, when she comes out as a newborn! I do have to go back for the profile, 4 chambers of the heart, and the lower spine, because my baby really likes to curl up in a very, very tight ball.. any tips on getting her to turn over, and spread out a bit more next time? I probably can't do anything about it but just wondering :)
My son is 19 months old now but since someone posted a birth center birth to encourage anyone wanting to go the natural route, I decided to share my experience and give a bit more encouragement. Our bodies are amazing and can do amazing things. We are expecting our 3rd child this September and were finally cleared for home birth again, I had partial previa and it has finally moved in the right direction. We have 9 weeks to prep for our birth and I couldn't be more excited. Reference: J is my SO. A is my daughter. J-man is my son. Extra info: I had been drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea for my entire 3rd trimester. I started taking Evening Primrose Oil capsules orally at 36 weeks and vaginally at 37 weeks. We took Hypnobirthing classes as well. We were originally going to have him at a birth center but after a traumatic emergency room visit for A at around 20 weeks, she became terrified of our birth center so we found a home birth midwife at 27 weeks. I didn't want her to think that birth was scary, I wanted her to know that it is normal and beautiful and nothing to be afraid of. The day before I had J-man I was feeling very funky. I had a lot of back pain but I was mostly fine. It wasn't anything I was really worried about. Right before bedtime I stepped into the bedroom to check my email and set up the stuff for a birth announcement to be sent out to friends and family. I was only 37 weeks, 5 days at the time so I thought I had plenty of time. A is just under 2 months shy of her 3rd birthday and she comes running in and says, "Mom, I'm really sorry." I couldn't figure out what she did, I go into the living room and there is hair EVERYWHERE. She had cut some of her beautiful curls off (probably because people always point them out and she hates it). I clean up the hair and put it in a bowl to be saved, it is her first haircut after all. I get her ready for bed and play a game of League of Legends before J comes home from work. After he got home, we watched a movie and I went to bed around 12. I was so tired. I woke up at 3am to pee, everything still felt normal. Woke up at 5:30am to pee again and because my back was really starting to hurt. I busted out my handy contraction timer and got to work. I watched a movie on HBO and labored in different positions while I timed. It wasn't hurting really, it was just uncomfortable. I didn't want to wake anyone but after timing and them being 7 minutes apart and 1.5 minutes long I called my midwife and she told me to time for another hour and call her again. An hour later, everyone was still asleep and they were 5 minutes apart and 2 minutes long. This was at 7:30 am. She lives roughly an hour away so I knew she wouldn't be here right away. I also called my doula who lived close to my midwife. I hopped in the shower and then the bath and A wakes up and comes in and asked what I was doing. I said that the baby was coming and that I was taking a bath to help my back which hurt a little bit. She and I had been practicing "singing" the baby out. We had intended to have a support person there for her in case she wanted to leave or go in a different room but they didn't show up in time. I woke up J once A was up. He ran to get himself some coffee and then we began prepping the bed and the dining room where the birth pool would be. I helped and would stop during contractions and then continue on. It still wasn't that bad. It did finally get to a point that I couldn't get on top of them, I couldn't focus so I went into our room and put on my hypnobirthing CD and laid on the bed. I stayed like that until our midwife showed up at 9:30 a.m. She casually walked in and asked how I was doing, I said that things were good and that the CD was helping me focus. I had stopped timing after I called her because my phone kept freezing and I was tired of dealing with it. She asked if I wanted her to check me, I agreed quickly and we discovered I was at an 8-9. Okay then. My mom wasn't going to make it (she had been driving for 2 hours, still had another 3 ahead of her) so I began frantically calling my best friend to come and be with A. She helped me work through a contraction and had me vocalize during it which REALLY helped me focus. My doula showed up and took over the support. My midwife was no longer casual, she was running between her car and my apartment to get the pool set up. I labored on the bed for bit while they did that. My doula had be drink some water and then I started to transition. I got incredibly hot. I seriously felt like I was in a sauna. I moved to the bathroom while they finished up filling the pool, she checked me again and I was complete but had a small cervical lip. I got in the pool and while I pushed I got... loud. A completely freaked out and because her support person wasn't there yet, my midwife handed her a baby blanket and said, "It is your job to hold this blanket, it is VERY important." A was completely fine after that. I pushed probably a total of 3 times before his head was out, the ring of fire is VERY TRUE. I started to say "I can't do this" to which my midwife just laughed at me and said "you ARE doing this." I immediately pulled him up to my chest, he was amazing and wonderful. We checked to make sure he was indeed a boy and named him. His sister was so excited, she freaked a little bit at the bit of blood in the water but was too excited about J-man to really care. I handed him over to J so that he could officially introduce him to A. Someone knocked on the door and it was my best friend, 10 minutes late. He was born at 10:30 a.m. I got up and walked on my own to our bed where I was checked, I had minimal tearing and didn't require stitches thankfully. J-man was great, A was starving because in all the commotion she wasn't fed that morning... and was still in her nightgown so my best friend made everyone some breakfast. I felt great, I walked to the living room on my own, I went outside while he got cuddles with J's mom who had just showed up. A's birth was nothing like that, I didn't "meet" her for the first time until she was 5 minutes old (induced hospital birth with epidural) and I was incredibly tired afterwards (only a 12 hour labor). I felt fine, great, could run a marathon. I was the first person to touch him, I birthed him all on my own, I was so proud of myself for trusting my body and the process and not being afraid. Breastfeeding was rocky at first, I had one inverted nipple and one flat. We used a shield for longer than I would have liked and he self-weaned at 11 months to my devastation. 2 months later we found out we were pregnant again. It wasn't planned and was prevented in almost every way possible but oh well. I was going to get an IUD after J-man was born but was hospitalized to have my gall bladder removed for a week and couldn't make my appointment and when I got out of the hospital and done with recovery my insurance had gone out. It was a horrible week of pumping (mad props to pumping moms, that crap is hard) and my daughter wouldn't come see me without screaming. She missed me though and came anyway. She brought prizes too and she still plays with the stuffed turtle she gave me. A remembers the entire birth. All of it. She is very excited about the next one, she wants to cut the cord. Some people would find it weird that we let her be present but it was her choice. She could have gone to her room if she wanted to, she didn't. She wanted to be there. She talks about how my midwife is going to catch her babies. Oh and my doula was also working on getting certified for placenta encapsulation so she took mine and did her thing. I still have half a jar leftover but will be doing it again this time. I had horrible PPD with A (I also didn't breastfeed her from lack of support and education) and while I still had some PPD with J-man it wasn't nearly as severe. Some pictures. http://imgur.com/a/Ztuca
My journey (and very long Rant) thus far with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, and an OB/GYN that does not care. I try to keep telling myself It is all worth it in the end!
This is extremely long, I am sorry, but if you have ever experienced any of this, I would love your insight... So, I am now 18w4d pregnant, and it has been a journey like no other. I never thought I was going to survive this long, yet I have. I have seriously felt like I am the only one that has ever experienced HG, and my OB/GYN has been absolutely no help whatsoever. Starting at Week 7, I had not been able to get in to see my OB and would not be able to get in until 10 weeks. I had an US at the ER because I had been bleeding for the entire 7 weeks. US showed that I had a small tear in my uterus where the placenta was attached, but was told 'you are probably having a miscarriage, just go home and continue your life like normal'. I was devastated, this is my first pregnancy, and was so excited to become a mamma. I go home and try to continue my life, and morning sickness kicks in over the next week. The nausea and the vomiting continued until my 11wk initial visit to my OB. I have lost about 13 lbs by this time, because the N/V has been 24/7, non-stop. I'd get up several times in the middle of the night to go throw up. I had tried every remedy everyone had thrown at me. Nothing seemed to help. Crackers, pretzels, toast, the BRAT diet, gingerale, ginger tea, ginger this, ginger that, Emetrol, anti-nausea meds from the pharmacy, nothing helped. Water would not stay down. I burst the blood vessels in my eyes from heaving so much. I get in to see my OB at 11wks, and I had no idea what to expect at a visit. He did the normal initial tests, and I asked about the weight loss over the past 3 and a half weeks. He said "The weight loss is no concern, you were overweight to begin with," granted, I was 220lb, down to 207lbs, and know that I am overweight, but I felt humiliated by this comment (and this comment still hits me hard to this day). I asked about the severe morning sickness I was having. He threw this out saying "this is normal, it will go away by 14wks. I asked for something for the n/v because I told him it was so severe 24/7, he said to take Emetrol, it was over the counter, and worked really well. I asked about the bleeding, because by 11wks, the bleeding had not stopped, and was still at a light flow. "Oh this is normal, it will stop by 14wks also." I don't know any better, so I believe him. The next week, I go to the ER for dehydration and Zofran IV. I am a nurse on skilled rehab unit (yes I am a nurse, but anything to do OB or babies, I am totally clueless), and it is highly difficult to continue going on with life, let alone life at work, when one suffers from HG. Working my 12hour shifts are no longer possible. I talked to my DON, she, thank god, is very understanding, and agrees to put me down to 8hr shifts, and to put me on an easier unit. This had been well needed, although, still not easy. I have such a severe lack of energy, am so fatigued that I feel like I have forgotten everything, and cannot remember anything, I want nothing more than to sleep, and to stop starving, and I feel I have lost all ability to function properly. It is hard to explain to a patients family that has just died, and needs consoled , that you will be back, and run for dear life to the nearest restroom or trashcan, hoping to make it out of the room, OR to be in the middle of a sterile treatment or wound dressing and have to run for dear life, and come back and apologize to the patient for leaving their 'coccyx' overly exposed, or leaving a patient naked sitting on the toilet awaiting my return to finish dressing. My 14wk OB visit. My OB comes in, asks me to lie back and expose my tummy, we are going to listen for the heartbeat for the first time. I am all excited, the first time I am going to hear my baby's heart beating! Yay! 5 seconds later, the Dr, says 'heartbeat is 150. you can sit up, we will do an Ultrasound next visit to see if you are having a boy or girl" and he walks out of the room. I'm sitting there waiting on him to return so I could ask him some questions, and the nurse walks in 5 minutes later, "oh, why are you still here, you can go." I state "Uh, I have some questions, can the Dr come back please?" the nurse replied "Oh, he is very busy, ask me and I will call you later and let you know what he says." I reply "No, I want to talk to him. I have questions." reluctantly the Dr comes back in, and I ask "What were my labs? What about my bleeding, why am I still spotting? What of my weight loss? I have lost another couple pounds. What about my nausea and the vomiting? It is still 24/7, not able to eat hardly anything and keep nothing down." Dr replied "Oh, the labs were normal. The bleeding is normal, it will go away by 17wks. the weight loss is normal, you have nothing to worry about, you are still overwieght. The N/V will go away by 17wks, it is normal." I ask for zofran ODT for the N/V, and the Dr replied " I do not know what this Zofran is, I will give you phenergan." and he walked out. The appt ended. I was not happy. I filled my phenergan suppository prescription and began taking it. The side effects about killed me. I could not walk right, could not focus, could barely get out of bed, and work was out of question, made me dizzy, light-headed and faint and made the n/v worse. I tried it for 3 days, thinking It would pass. It did not. I called my Dr and explained I was having severe side effects to the phenergan. The nurse on the line said, Oh, phenergan does not have any side effects. I still told her I wanted to speak to the Dr. He answered. I explained what was going on, and I wanted switched to the Zofran ODT. "Oh, I never heard of that, what is it?'' I explain it is a dissolving tablet that will dissolve under my tongue, and do not need to drink water with it, so I won't throw it up. He still does not believe me, so I give him my pharmacy number and demand he call and find out what it is, and he needs to give me a prescription for it ASAP since I had not kept anything down for 3 days. I called at noon. I had not recieved a call back by 3pm, so I called back, begging, PLEADING. The nurse said he had been too busy and would do it later. I begged and begged, and this was her answer over and over. Finally, the office closed at 5pm, still no call back. No script sent to the pharmacy. I call back and got ahold of the answering service, stating the Dr was out of the office. I was so sick and so angry. I called my mother to take me to the ER, where I knew they would give me some relief. Just as my mother had gotten to me, it was 7pm. I recieved a call from my Dr office stating he had just sent a script for Zofran ODT to the pharmacy. THANK GOD. So, no ER visit, mom shot me straight to the pharmacy, got the Zofran ODT, and 20 mins later, I was feeling so much better, and could finally eat, and it stayed down. Sweet HEAVEN. The Zofran has helped keep my foods down, with occasional vomiting, and still 24/7 nausea. I can deal with that, it's better than it was. my 17wk OB visit. The nurse came in first to take a pee sample. I aske her what I am to expect this visit. she rattles off 4 things she says the Dr will do, that he has done at each prior visit, and will do at every visit there after. I stop her and tell her he has not done any of those things, that the only thing he has done is listen 5 seconds with the dopplar to the heartbeat. Nothing else. The nurse reassures me that he did these things last time. My husband speaks up and says No the Dr did none of those things. I then ask if he was still to do an ultrasound this visit. The nurse says there was no US scheduled, and they don't do them in the office, you have to go to the hospital for that, and the Dr does not do them until 18-20 weeks. I asked her why I wasted my time coming in for this visit, if the US was going to be next week instead. She replied because the r still does those 4 things she said he does. OK. Fine. Dr comes in and again, we listen to the heartbeat not even 5 seconds, and he says "the heartbeat is between 150-154" and walks out. I told the nurse to get him back in the room, I have questions. Again, it was a fight to get him to come in and talk to me. I ask him why no US was ordered. He called me a liar and said he never told us that. My husband tells him he did. Dr still denies this. I ask my same questions as before, how were my labs, why am I still bleeding, why am I still having severe N/V 24/7, and I have lost a couple more pounds, equaling a total of 20+lbs lost, and NO weight gain. Again, all of his answers are "This is normal. It will go away by 20 weeks. It never lasts longer than that." I told the Dr, since he did not ask, the N/V has still been bad, but definitely better with the Zofran ODT, can I get a new script with a refill. Dr replies," I did not know you are having bad morning sickness." No crap. why do you think I asked for the Zofran ODT, and you wouldn't give it to me. Dr denied ever saying that he did not know what Zofran ODT was, that I asked for something completely different. I asked about the tear the first US showed in my uterus, is this why I am still bleeding? Dr replied "I did not know you had a tear. where did you here this?'' from the ER US. I called him an idiot and embarrassed my husband, walked out and told them to release all my records to me, I would not be back. I also demanded that Dr order an ultrasound so I could find out if I still have a tear, or if I have placenta previa, or whatever else might cause me to bleed. reluctantly, he did order it. I had my ultrasound last Friday, at 18wks. I was highly relieved to find out that there is no longer a tear in my uterus, and the placenta is far enough away from the cervix I have nothing to worry about there. I found out the baby is measuring spot on for 18wks, and currently weighs 7oz. the baby looks healthy, and was moving around being uncooperative. Also, found out, We are having a little Girl! That made my day. All I wanted to know was, is there a tear and is the baby alright, the DR could have humored me sooner. I'm scared shitless and don't know what to expect. But this was all good news to me, and calmed my nerves A LOT. I now have an Appt scheduled with a new OB, and will not get in to see her until Jan 6,2014. I hope she cares a lot more than this last Dr did.
Complete placenta previa. I am annoyed at the Internet now.
All the bloggers and "news" articles who mindlessly quote this "90% of placenta previas totally move!" statistic that goes around are making me insane. I am pretty sure, but can't tell for sure, that that statistic is relative to previas that are first noted in the first trimester, i.e. when they shouldn't even be telling you about it, and not ones where "placenta is completely covering your cervical os at 20 weeks gestation." Then there are the threads on boards where someone asks if anyone's complete previa ever resolved and the responses are "mine did but I only had marginal previa lol!!" Anyway, I trust you guys to understand the importance of facts and accuracy more than the Internet at large. Did anyone else have a complete previa at 20 weeks? What ended up happening? (I haven't had any bleeding yet but I do NOT want to spend the next 4 months wondering if today will be the day I wake up in a pool of blood. Fuck fuck FUCK.)
Wanted to share my experience being pregnant so far...
Hello! Long time lurker, finally decided to pen down my experience with pregnancy so far, hoping to help or hear back from anyone in remotely similar situation. *Warning - long post with a lot of complications... *
I'm 33, moderately obese to begin with. Had no issues with periods or regularity. We decided to ttc on and off since last year. Found out pregnant in June. All the tests, genetic tests, blood tests were normal and everything was going smoothly.
Week 10, 12 - Doctor detects few fibroids in cervical and uterus region. Nothing to worry about, let's see how it progresses.
Week 15- fibroids, 3 in total are growing. One near top of uterus about 8cm, one on the left about 7cm in diameter and another on the right of uterus wall, about 4cm. No pain.
Week 16- went in for extreme pain in lower abdomen, especially while peeing. Possible bladder infection, treated with antibiotics. I had mild discomfort/pain in the fibroid spots, but nothing major.
Week 18 - I was just hanging out, doing nothing strenous, out of nowhere I bled, as if a balloon of blood burst between my legs. There were many clots and lot of blood gushing (red, dark red, bright red). Rushed to the ER. Cervix looks closed, measuring 3cm. No explanation for the blood.. low lying placenta. Was given IV fluids and released after half a day of monitoring for blood loss. Was adviced to be on bed rest for 2 weeks. Monitor for placenta previa. I had mild spotting almost daily since then.
Week 19.0 - I had a lot of upper abdominal pain, was pretty sure it was because of what I ate. Very similar to gas, I tried water and walking a bit and eventually took gas x. The pain went off immediately.
Week 19.2 - went in for anatomy scan and cervix measurement. Placenta has moved back to regular position (yay! No previa) Anatomy scan took longer than planned, baby was not cooperative. They couldn't get all pictures of heart . Fibroids still present and growing steady. Was asked to come back to complete anatomy scan.The cervix measurement however is now 1.8cm. Doctor is quite concerned that something changed in 1 week. I'm immediately admitted to L&D for triage. They are observing periodic contractions, even though I don't feel much. I'm immediately put on indomethacin for 48hrs to stop possible fibroid inflammation which is causing contractions, and in turn cervix to shorten. Also bed rest and daily progesterone suppository.
Week 20.1 - Go back to anatomy scan and they are happy with heart pictures now.
Week 20.4 - once again, out of no where a balloon of blood bursts, all over my legs and on the floor within few seconds. I go back to hospital, they're seeing contractions and my cervix is now .9mm and 1cm dilated. I'm admitted for 2 days, put back on indomethacin and IV to stop fibroid inflammation for 48hrs. Contractions stop after a day, I'm monitored for another day without medications, all ok.
During a routine scan, they notice very high amniotic fluid, suddenly. Normal unit is 11-25, I have 34.. This is putting more pressure on my already delicate cervix situation.. Dr is hoping I have GD, which possibly explains high fluids. I'm in hospital for 2 more days, GD is negative.
Doctors suggest possible abnormalities in baby's stomach, kidneys or throat which is causing high fluids. Need Mri to conclude. I'm discharged with complete bed rest. Doctors asked us to be open minded about options and possible outcome..
Week 21.2 - Fetal Mri done... it's not conclusive. Kidneys look ok, baby is swallowing fine, but extra skin like tissues found around throat and neck.. doctors are unsure of its impact and what it means...
So to summarize I'm currently on bed rest, hoping fibroids don't inflame again and cause contractions for another 18 weeks at the least (!).. even if I hold up that long, nobody is sure if baby is going to turn up ok or will have some issue with breathing which they cannot help if there is extra tissue around neck. The possibility of survival is low, with long term health issues if the baby is born in next 4-10 weeks.
Doctors have given us the option to terminate, but we have only 2 weeks to decide as I'll be 24 week mark.
We don't feel we have enough information to decide that the chance of survival and decent life is low with current reports.. so continuing on bed rest and wait and watch..
My two very different baby stories [long and positive].
After giving birth to my second baby a week ago, I've been saying that I need to write a book about my two very different stories. This is the closest I will ever get to that, but I think you all will enjoy it (as I enjoy all your stories!). My first was born on her EDD two years ago at home. You can read the full story here. The short version is that it was an amazing experience. My prenatal and postnatal care was given by a midwife and her apprentice, and we also had a doula. Only had one ultrasound at 20 weeks. I labored in an inflatable pool in my dining room and other random places around the house for 12 hours, and then Arya was born on our mattress in the living room. No complications. No meds. Everything was perfect from my perspective! A very happy story. My second baby was born a week ago (at 40+2) in a hospital. Initially we planned another home birth and started the prenatal care with the same midwife (no doula this time, though - we couldn't afford it). Everything was fine until we went in for the 20 week scan. The technician detected placenta previa and a low-lying placenta. This was the turning point for this pregnancy because now we had to find an OB and go in for regular checks. I was devastated, but we did what was best. Luckily, we were able to find an amazing OB that was willing to accommodate our "hands off" wishes (unless, of course, he felt me or the baby were in danger and required intervention). So now my prenatal care was switched from the midwife to the OB, but my midwife kept with us the whole time and we planned for her to be at the birth as our doula instead. Overall, I had about 7 scans, I think. I also had one cervical check, which was a new experience because my midwife does not perform cervical checks as they aren't necessary. I declined all other checks after that first one. Throughout the visits, the previa had cleared up by itself (as most do) by 35-36 weeks. At this point, my OB said it would be ok to do a home birth, but he suggested the hospital because the placenta was still low (and could potentially result in hemorrhaging). To be safe, we decided to do the hospital just in case. Fast forward to my post-due date appointment. Baby's heart beat was still strong, she had most definitely snuggled her way into the perfect birthing position, and there was talk of induction at 42 weeks or somewhere around there. I also had another scan to check the fluid levels, which were "borderline low." Because of this last little nugget, there was talk of induction sooner than 42 weeks. I was not happy about that. I went home, a little freaked out, and did some reading about inductions for low fluid on evidencebasedbirth.com (best website for solid knowledge, in my opinion). I was calmed by the information I read and just went about the rest of my day. Went for a long walk with my daughter. When we got home, contractions began. Yay! No induction! I had been told the whole time that the second babies usually come faster, so not to wait at home for too long, but I was supposed to wait until they were regular. I tracked them for about 4 hours and they were still irregular and tolerable. I was able to move around just fine and everything. Soon after the 4 hour mark, though, we decided to go up to the hospital to get checked. I really didn't want to have the baby at home or in the car. Turns out I was 4cm dilated when I arrived at the hospital at about 8:30pm. We were moved into the delivery room around 10pm and immediately the contractions were very real and getting so much stronger. The nurse was monitoring the baby and I told her "I need to push." She was so calm and said, "Ok. Do you want us to check you?" I nodded and she called a doctor. I pushed while waiting for the doctor. Couldn't hold it. He checked me and I was at 8cm. It took 2 hours to go a whole 4 cm. Wow. That doctor left and then another contraction came and I told the nurse again, more urgently, that I need to push. She frantically called the doctor while I pushed again. The doctor arrived and just barely got her gloves on in time to catch my daughter. I pushed a total of 3 times and this little peanut was out! I was so relieved that it was a quick and relatively easy birth. It was so quick that my midwife/doula and my OB were both in transit to the hospital as she was born. I didn't even get to use the rebozo I bought. :( But, there was no hemorrhaging! AND the hospital allowed my husband to take home my placenta (which is currently in the process of making a tincture). I was expecting the hospital to say it was against policy, but they were very willing as long as it was taken out of the hospital immediately. Another difference between my stories has to do with breastfeeding. Breastfeeding with my first was a struggle from the beginning. We ended up having to supplement at day 4 or 5 and I gave up pumping and everything with breast milk at 5 months. But so far with my second, we have been going strong and exclusive for a week now! There's no sign of stopping either. Overall, I recommend and prefer the home birth to the hospital for one main reason, in addition to several other small reasons: the stay after giving birth. This could very well have everything to do with which hospital is used, but where we were, we were not really able to get any rest or bonding time in our room because there was a nurse or some other hospital staff in there with us literally every 30 minutes. Everyone had to poke and prod at me and the baby, usually doing the same things over and over. There was only two times where we had a 3-4 hour stretch of private time. Ridiculous. And they didn't have the discharge papers ready when we requested to leave. I was very frustrated by the end. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! Although, my husband and I do no plan to have any more kids, I am still going to lurk on /babybumps because I very much enjoy all of your stories!
Anatomy scan was good for baby and bad for me... Placenta Previa?
Had my 20 week anatomy scan today. I was super nervous to being with because my daughter had a few problems that popped up at the 20 week scan and ended up being diagnosed as IUGR. So for this little peanut I was totally worried that it would be bad news from the get go. Thankfully, no signs of IUGR yet, and our little guy is measuring like he should which was very comforting. However, I found out today that I have total placenta previa. My cervix is covered, and covered pretty well at that. I have to go back in a few weeks for another scan to check if my placenta has moved at all. The only issue is that my uterus didn't make a lot of room for my daughter, which contributed to the IUGR. Your uterus has to expand for the placenta to move away from the cervix, but mine might not have anywhere to go depending on how well my uterus chooses to function this time. I'm also really confused as to why this didn't come up previously? This was my 4th ultrasound and placenta previa was never mentioned at all until today. Maybe they thought it would move before and didn't say anything because of how early it was? I just hate feeling helpless! I can't do anything to help or cure this problem, I just have to wait and see which is going to drive me batty. They warned me about bleeding (have not had any yet) and possible bed rest/pelvic rest requirements. Do any of you ladies have placenta previa or had it previously? Were you able to have a natural delivery? Were you put on bed rest?
Rant/Vent Single digits 'til I'm due..let's get stressed!
Warning - wall of rant. Yay! 9 days until her due date. During my country drive yesterday I notice my car acting up, and it was worse yet today. But, before I could drop it off at the shop, I needed to go to two different appointments. So I sputter my car to my first appointment, get that done, and head to my second. That's appointment is usually a 20 minute drive away. Not this time. It took me an hour due to traffic. Yay Austin. BP is high at prenatal appt (likely due to traffic and sputtering choking car), and I'm 3 cm dilated. Cool. Things are doing things. Could be tomorrow, could be next week, still cool. Drop the car off at the shop. It's misfiring, so I didn't totally ruin the engine somehow (my brain always goes straight to worst). Left it there and they'll get to it Saturday, likely. Cool, again. Cool because today's hub's last day of work until next week, so there's transportation. Cool. Mom agreed to having xmas here so we don't have to travel. We had turkey day here, she brought some bread she made. She said she'd handle everything with the xmas meal (this brought concern to me because she said the same thing about turkey day - suspecting the worst I got everything anyways because I hadn't heard from her and she had nothing but the bread). I ask her today what she's bringing. "All I have is a ham." Ok, mom, that's what you have. My question is what you're bringing, so we can get what's needed. No response. Sister lives with mom. I deal better with sis. She's getting some stuff because mom is broke. Ok, what? She doesn't know. Jeebus. I had asked to not to have anything to do with this, because it stressed me out last time, and now I'm in the middle of it again. Ok. Finally my sis understands, after asking, that I don't want to deal with this and hubs will call when he gets home. Cool. For months now, mom is getting the pack and play I picked out. Months. Last month she said she was going to get it, and I was curious where because I picked it out on Amazon. But I didn't say anything then. We go to her house, she's complaining that she doesn't have any space for any more gifts, and I say well we can make some more space I'll take the pack and play you said you bought (by this time it had been a week or more). She said nope, it's getting shipped. Cool. Sis comes over Sunday, mentions that mom hasn't got the pack and play. And she's broke right now, so likely won't be getting any food for xmas. OK, it's ok. I don't care that she's broke, ok? I care that she lies!!!! STOP LYING MOM Today I send a text asking when it will be delivered (Sis hasn't told her that I know). No response. Another thing about turkey day. She kept saying "I need more alcohol" and drank pretty much all of our booze. Cool. She gets attitude because sis isn't hanging the xmas lights right. She knocks over a pot with soil in it, leaves the mess there, doesn't apologize or anything. Just leaves the mess there for us to clean up. "I need more alcohol." Cool. Dad is on his way from out of state. They divorced years ago. We'll see how this goes. My brother. I texted him asking what he needed for his kitchen (he bought a new house within the last year). Tupperware. Get that shipped from Amazon. Done. Find out he's on vacation with our aunt and uncle. Ask when he's gonna come and meet his niece. He doesn't know, it's likely going to be a long time. I tell him I'm hurt and disappointed as this is a big moment. He responds with "You need to calm down. Don't send the gift. Stop talking to me." Apparently I'm overreacting. Cool. I go to his facebook page and I remember. He's a Trump supporter, confederate flag, budweiser girls, and shit like that. Maybe I don't want her meeting him. Cool. I feel as if I've done pretty good about not blowing a gasket. They say that low stress is conducive to baby coming out. Well, unless they mean fight or flight stress, it might be a while. And this was all just within the last week. I could write a book with what has happened during the pregnancy (two paternal deaths, surviving a tornado then flooding while camping, coming home to a flooded house, loss of friendships, being screwed by contractor friends, placenta previa, shitty birthing center, my legs! oh how my legs bother me). I'm glad to have this group to vent in. I realize a lot of my sentences start with I. Deal with it. It's been enough of my taking care of others. I'm pregnant damn it! P.S. How do I get it to look like the other tags (rant/vent)? tl;dr Family is stressing me out and I'm pregnant! vent.
I thought my 20 week scan went great as the technician told me that the baby looked great and a doctor didn't come in to see me after the appt. However, I had a follow up appt with my OB yesterday and she told me I have a low lying placenta (not previa, but almost) and that we will need to continue monitoring it to see if it migrates away from my cervix. She said there is a 90% chance it will move but that we will likely need to have a c-section if it doesn't. Okay, fine, I can deal with this. However, she also told me that the umbilical cord isn't attached at the center of placenta. It's kind of frayed (not badly) and not quite centered. There's a word for this and I can't remember what it was and don't recognize any of the google hits I'm getting. She said that it's not common but also not rare and that it's often not discovered until labor but they were able to pick it up in my scan. She said about 1 in 60 of her patients have it. There are 2 risks: (i) it can impede fetal growth and (ii) it can make labor more stressful for the baby. She said it's not impeding my baby's growth because she is measuring at the 54th percentile and they are not concerned unless it's under the 10th percentile. I am going back for a 28 week scan to check the placenta and measure growth. As for the labor distress, she said if there is any indication the baby is under distress (change in heart rate, etc.) that she will recommend an emergency c-section, so I should be prepared for that possibility. I'm moving to DC in July and she told me that because of this issue I need to make sure I am delivering at a major hospital. Obviously not an issue in DC, but the fact that it's required makes me nervous! My doctor didn't seem too concerned, but I'm super bummed about this. I was really hoping for an easy pregnancy and now I'm full of worry. I am totally fine doing a c-section if that's what's best for the baby, but knowing that she's more likely to be in distress during labor makes me super anxious. Has anyone heard of this umbilical cord issue? I just want my baby to be okay!!
An ultrasound at 18-20 weeks may show a low-lying placenta or a placenta previa. The ultrasound will be repeated in the 3rd trimester, when most low-lying placentas will no longer be low because I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at 20 weeks also. with my 3rd pregnancy after 2 natural births. I was told straight the chances of the placenta moving was very minimal and I was to prepare myself for a c section delivery. I spent the next few months worrying myself every minute of the day. I researched everything I could as nobody I knew had ever had it. At 27 weeks I had a scare Dashe et al 7 conducted a cohort study of 714 pregnancies with placenta previa (complete or incomplete) diagnosed between 15 and 35 weeks' gestation. Placenta previa diagnosed in the mid trimester (between 15–19 and 20–23 weeks) persisted in 12% and 34% of women, respectively. Our study suggests a similar persistence in women with placenta previa diagnosed in the mid trimester, with 27.7% of women not having sonographic evidence of resolution in our cohort. Eichelberger et al Placenta previa usually presents with painless vaginal bleeding in the second half of pregnancy (>20 weeks gestation), most commonly between 34-38 weeks gestation. Other associated clinical features include: high fetal presenting part maternal/fetal compromise secondary to exsanguination Placenta Previa Diagnosed 20 Weeks. Updated on May 07, 2009 M.Q. asks from Roxbury, CT on May 05, 2009 I had the same thing happen and while one of the doctors in my group was worried and had my husband and I a total wreck, my regular ob/gyn told me he was just going to watch it. In my case it did move, but had it not they were going to schedule a c-section before I went into labor. From I had a complete placenta previa during my 2nd pregnancy, found at 16 weeks. I was on pelvic rest and at 32 weeks it had fully resolved. I had a normal vaginal delivery. I was worried for a long time, and I know how serious the complications can be for mother and baby. Oddly, I had multiple large bleeds with my first pregnancy and didn't have placenta previa. Those bleeds stopped after 20 Methods Total placenta previa cases followed up at the Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics between January 2011 and June 2014 were examined retrospectively. All cases were categorized in two Usually, the first signs of placenta previa will show up during the routine 20-week ultrasound scan. These initial signs are not necessarily a cause for worry, since the placenta is often lower in... Partial Placenta Previa at 20 weeks njrohe. Confused! All of the internet articles say different things so I am appealing to FIRST-HAND EXPERIENCE. At 20 weeks pregnant I was diagnosed with a partial placenta previa (I am now almost 22 weeks). The doc didn't seem too concerned and even acted confident that the situation would probably resolve itself before delivery. Anyway, I was researching Placenta previa and abruptio placentae NCLEX practice questions for nursing students. This quiz will test your knowledge on the differences between placental abruption and placenta previa. As the nurse you must know how to provide care to a woman experiencing one of these conditions along with identifying signs and symptoms. This quiz is part of a NCLEX review series over maternity nursing, so
When is low lying placenta seen? Can this be seen in TIFFA at 20 weeks?-Dr. Teena S Thomas - Duration: 1:47. Doctors' Circle - World's Largest Health Platform 84,723 views Labour is never easy and in this episode, we hear a mummy's story on how she nearly died during her 3rd childbirth due to Placenta Previa. Find out more abou... Hi guys! Jen here. On my channel I will be sharing any lifestyle updates, vlogs, and pregnancy videos. I hope you enjoy this content and would love to hear from you. Please be sure to give this ... In my 20 week pregnancy update I mentioned ... In my 20 week pregnancy update I mentioned that I have placenta previa. In this video, I go into detail ... __count__/__total__ YouTube ... Hi everyone! Today I am sharing my 15-20 week pregnancy update with you. The biggest thing that happened this past few weeks was my 20 week anomaly scan. All was going so well until they came to ... You're wondering if placenta previa is anything to be concerned about. ... but usually an ultrasound is done at about 20 weeks of ... I'm 28 weeks. Can my placenta previa reverse in time for ...