Road to Delivery

A lot has happened since I last wrote, as suspected of course, carrying a child an all. But taking a break from writing throughout my pregnancy was necessary, for me. After FINALLY getting to the point we have waited for, for so long, I wanted to try to enjoy it as much as possible and I thought that writing about it, as it was happening, was just going to jinx things. Yeah, I've been paranoid, but couldn't help it! I needed to take this pregnancy one step at a time! It wasn't long before I realized, it most likely was not going to be a smooth sailing pregnancy...shocker!

It was not even a surprise to me, honestly! Nothing about our journey had been easy so far, so what's one more thing? We got this!

Best news of all, through it all, was our baby girl was always in good health! That was what mattered most to us. Whatever else I had to go through, I would be fine with and deal with!

At our 20 week ultrasound, they noticed my placenta was not where it should be. However, they did not want to put a lot of worry into us this early, because there was a good chance that it could move. It was laying very low, partially covering the cervix. With only being 20 weeks, our doctor did not want to go into too much detail about what COULD happen because most cases like this caught this early end up working themselves out and not being a problem anymore. She said we would re-evaluate at 28 weeks.

Although our doctor did not seem too concerned at this point, of course I still was. I tried not to let it bother me though. We got to this point, so I had faith that everything would work its way out. I was NOT going to spend my pregnancy being stressed out, when I spent the last three years stressed out trying to get pregnant. Our baby girl was healthy and in no harm, so I was happy!

When the time came for my 28 week follow up ultrasound, I was a bit nervous. However, once I heard her heartbeat and they said she was looking great, I was relieved. The ultrasound tech. couldn't tell us how the placenta was looking however, they have to leave it up to the doctors to go over. So we just had to wait...and wait...and wait til we got to see the doctor. Felt like forever!

FINALLY, she comes in to go over everything with us. And nothing was sugar coated, which was good! As soon as she walked in the room, she told us she didn't have the best news. My placenta had moved further down, unfortunately, completely covering the cervix. This is called Placenta Previa. Not the WORST thing in the world. I could have had far worse problems. This just meant I would have no control, what so ever with my birth plan. I would HAVE to have a C-Section and towards the end of my pregnancy there could be some potential complications with bleeding because of where the placenta is laying. I had to be careful with my every day activity, not doing anything too strenuous that could cause the placenta to rupture or bleed.

With Placenta Previa, they do not want you going full term either. It is too risky because of the bleeding. Our doctor said I would have to have her three weeks early. Again, not the end of the world, could have been a lot worse! I got this! Yeah, it does suck knowing that the way you imagined your first birth was now going to have to be completely different, whether you liked it or not. But like I said, nothing about our journey has went how we expected it to, so why should the rest of the journey? Baby girl was still healthy, doing great and growing. That is all that mattered! So she would be here a little earlier now...we just get to meet her sooner than we thought!

I really did not have any issues for the remaining weeks, other than the typical swollen feet and back pain. It was not until I was 35 weeks, did those potential complications the doc mentioned, take place. I woke up one morning for work, and was having cramping, that I had not felt before. When I went to the restroom I noticed a little bit of spotting. UH-OH! What does this mean? Should I be freaking out? It wasn't a whole lot of spotting, so I continued to get ready for work and would see if it got worse. When I made it to work, my stomach was still cramping and the spotting had not stopped, so I called my doctor immediately. Because of my Previa issue they wanted me to come in immediately to be checked. THEN I slightly began to freak out.

I called Bud on my way to doctor and filled him in. Of course he was freaking out as well. I told him once I knew something, I would let him know, but it may be nothing to worry about. Once I got there, they checked to make sure I wasn't dilating yet. With Placenta Previa, they DO NOT want you going into labor at all. That is when it can become super dangerous because of over bleeding. So if I was starting to dilate or having contractions, they needed to stop it.

Thankfully, I had not dilated any, but they were concerned with the cramps and spotting, so hooked me up to the monitors for about 30 minutes to see if I was contracting. Any contractions to the uterus is what could cause the bleeding/spotting. After being hooked up for 30 minutes, they determined I was contracting, and needed to send me down to Labor and Delivery for further monitoring. WTF?!

This whole day ended up with me having to stay in the hospital for about 9 hours, being monitored. The spotting stopped not long after I got moved to L&D, but I was still have mild contractions. Things calmed down and they let us go home that evening. I was instructed to take off work the next day. This happened on a Wednesday, had to take off work Thursday and could return to work Friday, as long as I did not have any more spotting. I proceeded with my normal activity on Friday, as they said I could, and Bud was not happy about it. He said I should have rested the remaining of the weekend. However, they told me I could go back.

I probably should have stayed home anyway...

As soon as I woke up Saturday morning, my shorts/underwear were soaked in blood. Scariest thing ever! I yelled for Bud from the bathroom and told him I was bleeding, a lot. He got outta bed so fast and started getting things together for the hospital. I could not even get off the toilet because the blood just kept coming out. I grabbed a towel and attempted to get up and get dressed to leave. Not long after standing up, it felt like something was seriously about to fall out down there. I was freaking out so I ran back to the toilet and as soon as I sat down, a could feel something just making its way out. I know this is TMI, but it's how it went down. It was a huge blood clot, not the baby, don't worry! Finally made its way out, but good lord, it was a pretty good size. I started crying because of all the blood and then seeing that...I just did not know what the hell was happening.

I made my way to the car, and we booked it to the hospital. They admitted me as soon as we got there. The bleeding had started to slow down some, thank God. We were in labor and delivery from about 8:000 am until about 2:00pm, just being monitored. Baby was doing well! However, they decided they wanted to keep me overnight, so we were moved to Antepartum. They did not see any distress from the baby and my bleeding had pretty much stopped, but because of the Previa and the amount of blood I shed this time, it was too risky to send me home right away.

They took precautions as if I could possibly have to have an emergency delivery. They went ahead and gave me steroids shots for the baby's lungs, since I was only 36 weeks, put a saline lock for IV in my arm and drew blood to confirm blood type in case of needing a blood transfusion. It was a little scary, but again, baby girl was doing great, so I was good!

After seeing the doctor the following morning, she decided to let me go back home but had to be on bed rest. I still had two weeks before my scheduled C-section!!! These weeks were definitely going to drag on now. However, if I am going to be on bed rest, I would much rather be on bed rest at my home rather than in the hospital for that long. The doctor didn't think I would make it the full two weeks anyway, without having anymore bleeding and having to come right back. She said if I ended up having any more bleeding, they would just go ahead with delivery. She was already going to be three weeks early, with the scheduled C-section, so I was praying she stayed in there, with no more issues, until our scheduled delivery day. We can do this! I just gotta do nothing for two weeks!

We are soo close to meeting our daughter!! Praying everything else goes smoothly from here on out! Her daddy and I cannot wait to see her beautiful face! See you soon Rowan Mae!