Week 20

Are you comfy? Sitting? Have a cup of coffee maybe? If not, do that. This might take a while....

What is it with Sundays!? This is the day of the week that we begin another week of pregnancy and for the past few Sundays it's also been a total shit show. Start of week 17  - abdominal pain. Start of week 19 - big blood clot and a hospital visit. Now start of week 20 - more bleeding and another hospital visit.

Week 20 marks the half way point in pregnancy, well the expected half way mark of course. It is generally an exciting time for us momma's because it gives you a real time line. It's the same for me except that it was certainly overshadowed by yet another unexpected hospital visit.

I've actually gotten so accustomed to this bleeding business that I wasn't even going to go to the hospital but my midwife team recommended that we meet at maternity to talk with the OBGYN on call.

Business as usual, blood work and check on baby. Fetal heart rate was good, baby boy was active and seemed happy enough and not in distress. My blood work indicated low hemoglobin (probably not surprising given that I've been bleeding in some regard for 3 weeks) and now I'm taking an iron supplement which is giving me solid heartburn.

My meeting with the OB was great. He is young and modern and super friendly and warm. Dr. Ng, out of Langley if you ever have the pleasure of meeting him under better circumstances. We talked about a lot. What's going on with my placenta, my hemorrhage, his thoughts about the bleeding and about how fluid my birth plan needs to be at this point. I left our meeting with a lot of information but also feeling confident that I was in good hands. I am now in shared care between my midwives and the OB team.

I was dealing well with the continued bleeding (light flow) and managing it best I could and then literally 2 days later I passed an even bigger clot! WTF body, just knock it off already. There were two this time, a smaller one at about 1 inch by 0.5 inch and a second large one at about 4 inch by 1 inch. I had a good amount of bleeding in the hour and a bit after passing the clot. I found all my positivity quickly leaving myself and I was very emotional that evening. I have a strong ability to cope with stressful situations for a long time but at some point I will randomly break down and then restart the positivity shortly after. Perhaps we all need that breakdown moment to let out the emotions that have built up and to be able to forge ahead.

I had expected that all evening and overnight there would be continued bleeding and the morning would include a large amount after pooling all night. To my very pleasant surprise I had very little bleeding. Maybe just maybe, passing that big clot (which the OB saw on screen and blamed for obstructing the view of my placenta) was the last hurray of this bleeding ordeal. Maybe now, it will slow down and even stop!!! MAYBE?! See the positivity is already coming back.

Wednesday was pretty uneventful with the minimal bleeding but then Thursday hit and I had heavier bleeding all morning. Steve and I discussed and decided that we would see how Friday went and we could always touch base with the OB team just in case. Most of Friday was great. Not much for bleeding and had a low key morning. We took Ella to ballet and then dropped her off to my parents for her first ever sleep over! We had the Peach Arch Hospital Christmas party Friday night and while I couldn't really engage in much activity figured it would be nice to get out and get dressed up.

While getting ready for the evening I started to feel some cramping. Nothing major but defintely not typical Braxton Hicks, there was pain associated with it this time. I wondered if maybe it was from standing for a longer period or time. On the way to the party I had more cramping and by the time we were there it had subsided and gone away. Just before dinner I headed for the ladies room to check on my pad (such is my daily life now) and felt a big gush of fluid. I knew this one was bad.

Sure enough when I got to the ladies room and checked out the situation, I had soaked a whole pad in one gush. Not good. Typical standards are "if you soak 1 pad in 1 hour, go to ER". I got cleaned up, changed my pad and had dinner. I mentioned to Steve that we should probably head out soon. That I had heavy bleeding and was best to get checked out.  We ate dinner, stayed a few extra minutes for prizes (which I actually got one, woop woop!) and then said our goodbyes. It's an odd thing to be surrounded by doctors, nurses and other trained hospital staff and to be leaving to go to the hospital for care.

My midwife called to tell maternity that I was coming so they were ready for me when I got there. Let me just tell you, we were the best dressed people in the hospital! One of the nurses who I saw on Sunday for my consult was on shift and recognized me right away. It's nice to have a familiar face but I'd really prefer not to meet these people until April when baby comes!!! Into an exam room we went and I got to meet yet another member of the OB Team. She was also lovely and very helpful and caring. After doing an ultrasound she was concerned that I had possibly prematurely ruptured my membranes (water broke) because it looked as though there wasn't enough amniotic fluid around baby boy. She gave me the option of staying the night for monitoring just in case I began to cramp again or had more bleeding, or I was allowed to leave on a pass to sleep at home and come back in the morning.  Since Ella was with my parents, we chose to stay at home knowing that we could leave instantly if we needed to.

I came back in the morning and was booked in for an ultrasound to check on the fluid levels and hopefully get a read on my placenta. The morning was full of very serious discussions about the implications for baby if my amniotic fluid was too low. Not only are we talking about miscarriage but also about intentional termination. Stressful, extremely stressful. A few hours passed of waiting for my appointment and I finally get my scan. The tech was so lovely, very gentle and kind.

It took FOREVER (only about an 1hr) to get the report back. Then my OB, my midwife and another doctor all come in to talk to me. Fuck. It must be bad news if they are all here. Slowly they take a seat, making a circle of support around me. Oh God, oh God.... And the OB begins... well we got the report back and.... we have good news. OH THANK THE LORD! The radiologist feels that the amniotic fluid levels are in a normal range. Now, the ultrasound tech did comment to me that they looked low, but even if we are toward the low end of normal, its still normal! What a relief!

They also finally got an answer on my placenta. More good news! NO previa! It is currently 3cm away from my cervix and should continue to move up as we go forward. Now there is a good amount of pooled blood and clots sitting right over my cervix. So, I'm going to continue to bleed. I will probably pass clots. It's possible that once those clots pass we could be done with the bleeding. Fingers crossed.

Where do we go from here???

I will be going to the Jim Pattison Out Patient and Surgery Centre for a follow up ultrasound for some expertise scanning. They want to do a few extra checks and these are the best people for that job. I will also be having weekly follow ups with either the OB or the midwife for the next while, at least til Christmas.

Christmas is going to be particularly special this year because Christmas Eve marks the day when baby becomes truly viable and each day after we only increase the odds of a healthy baby.  A very Merry Christmas indeed.

Weeks 14-19

My true intention was to only do trimester updates this time. My assumption was that it was going to be business as usual and wouldn't be too much to write about. Well if you follow my Instagram you will already know that isn't the case.

Weeks 14 - 16 were uneventful. Full of mostly gym visits and running errands, working and generally feeling more like a human. My energy was great, I was really feelin' my bump and doing well with my workouts and my eating habits. Enter week 17.

I woke up in the middle of the night with very strong abdominal pain. It started in my upper right quadrant and radiated across my belly. This wasn't just a normal ligament pain (which I have waaaay more of this time), this was curl up in a ball, harness your yoga breathing and hope its over soon kind of pain. It lasted only a few moments and after rolling to my other side seemed to dissipate. Eventually I fell back asleep (not an easy feat after that) and in the morning began to Google the shit out of my symptom. I settled on it being a gall bladder issue. After Ella was born I was back in the ER with severe abdominal pain which they attributed to gall bladder stuff. Pretty common for pregnancy with all your systems slowing down. It seemed like a logical assumption.

The next day I began spotting. I hadn't had any since 5 weeks so it was certainly tied to the pain the night before. I'll never have a true answer but knowing now that I have a partial separation of my placenta membrane, this pain could have been that separation happening. After speaking with my midwife we decided that since I didn't have any pain or cramping (on going) and I wasn't spotting a lot that it was within a normal range for my stage and decided to watch it.

At my 18 week appointment we discussed all the spotting and the abdominal pain etc. We opted for a cervical exam and they indicated that I have a "friable cervix". Sounds nice right?! Basically it means my cervix is a temperamental bitch and likes to bleed. Again, not unusual for pregnancy but doesn't make it any less annoying.

Enter week 19... this one is a doozy and full of personal health details, consider yourself warned.

Up until this point I'd been struggling to feel the baby move. I felt Ella at 16 weeks so I was super disappointed when that didn't happen again. Also with all the spotting it left me wondering how baby was doing. Sunday morning I finally got some good jabs. Enough to even be visible on my belly. Steve and Ella both got to feel it too. It was such a relief. And the look on Ella's face was the sweetest. I was on cloud 9. Having a good boost of energy I decided to head to the gym.  I had literally just stepped on the treadmill and set my speed for walking when I felt something wrong. This wasn't normal spotting.

I sped over to the ladies room and ended up passing a sizable blood clot along with a decent amount of bright red blood. We're talking bouncy ball size here. Obviously, that workout never happened. I went home and at the advice of my midwife took it easy and watched for any more bleeding and clots. A couple hours later there was more bleeding. This time I wasn't prepared to sit around and wait. My parents came right away to watch Ella and Steve and I were off to the hospital.

Here's what totally sucks. At 19 weeks you have to go through the Emergency Room, at 20 weeks they will send you to maternity. What does that mean for me? Hours of waiting. We were brought in for bloodwork and then sent back to wait some more. Once we made it out of the waiting room and into the next stage I ended having two more episodes of bleeding. Finally we were taken to a private exam room and waited some more to see the doctor.

The ER Doctor was lovely. She was very warm and calm. We did a bedside ultrasound to check on baby and also check for internal bleeding. She did a speculum exam (let me just tell you how not fun that was. There was none of that "gentle pressure" business, it was all "let me get the best look possible". ) In her words, "this is more than just a friable cervix". SUPER! She soaked up a good amount of pooled blood and finished up her business. She concluded that I had a placenta abruption (part of the placenta has separated from the uterine wall and is bleeding). There is literally nothing we can do. She put me on modern day bed rest. No lifting, no sexy time, no exercise. General around the house activities are fine and walking is good. Not awesome news for someone who was super jazzed about having a fit pregnancy.

We were lucky enough to get our detailed ultrasound moved up and Tuesday we went into Medray Coquitlam (fantastic office and I highly recommend them). A typical 20 week scan is about 45mins. Mine took 1.5hrs. Turns out they were having trouble getting a clear read on my placenta. The edges were not clearly visible and therefore they could not confirm the location. What we do know is that it is on the front which is why it took longer to feel baby, we also know that it is low. At a minimum I have a low lying placenta, which really isn't of much concern being that it should have no trouble moving up later on. Worst case scenario I have a complete previa which means my cervix is totally covered. This is less likely to move and would result in a scheduled c-section.

The GOOD NEWS!!!! Our little nugget is healthy and unremarkable, never have I been so happy to have a just average child. Also, this mama gets to go shopping all over again because we are having a little BOY! Ella is really excited to be a big sister to a little brother and we spend a lot of time talking about all the things she can teach him to do.

Week 20 is just around the corner, half way here we come!

Baby Round 2 - First Trimester

Well here we are again. 3.5 years after Ella's birth and we are on the journey all over again. 3 years of me vehemently saying HELL NO to a second baby and then randomly one day I became obsessed with having another. After a week of it not going away I told hubby "so, you'll think I'm crazy but I want to have another baby". He's been hoping this would happen for a good long while so he was on board straight away.

It took us 4 months of trying before we successfully conceived. At the time, for a couple who accidentally got pregnant the first time, this seemed like forever and was getting frustrating but of course looking back now we are very blessed that it was so quick.

It's kind of amazing to me how each pregnancy can be so different but at the same time have a lot of similarities. Blogging was a great outlet for me when I was pregnant with Ella so I plan to do it again but clearly I'm a bit busier this time around. Working 5 days a week, carting Ella to and from pre-school and ballet, trying to fit in time with Hubby and time at the gym, the days just seem to disappear. My plan is to do trimester updates instead. So that brings us to the first trimester!

Our family found out MUCH sooner this time. We were about to leave for a weekend away visiting my father in law and family when I decided maybe I should take a test BEFORE we go on a weekend full of beers and ciders and wine. I was testing pretty early, I think 6 or 7 days before my expected period and couldn't believe that I got such a clear positive result. We hadn't been at they're house more than 10 minutes when I was offered wine and had to decline and me being a terrible liar I shared our exciting news, prefacing it that it was SUPER early.

We slowly told more family and friends as we saw them but held back on doing anything on social media until I figured out work.

My birth experience with Ella wasn't ideal or very positive so this time we have decided to use a midwife and have also hired a doula. If it's going to be my last baby I'm going to do everything I can to have fonder memories of our birth and early days. 

At 5 weeks, I started bleeding. I never experienced any spotting or bleeding with Ella so it freaked me right out. Because it only lasted a few days and wasn't a large amount or coupled with any pain or cramping it was decided it was in the normal range and not to worry.

Around 9 weeks we had our dating ultrasound and our due date was pushed up by 2 days (as I had expected, knowing that I had ovulated sooner than what would have been expected). The results from my dating ultrasound brought yet another new "complication". It was discovered that I had a cyst on my ovary as well as a subchorionic hemorrhage. Don't those just sound like awesome things to have!?!? Thankfully both are considered normal. 

My understanding is that the cyst on my ovary developed from where the egg was released and should have been reabsorbed by my body by my details ultrasound at 20 weeks. The subchorionic hemorrhage is basically a blood blister where the baby implanted. They vary in size and most often cause bleeding.

At 12 weeks our midwife was unable to find the heart rate for the baby. Stressful much?! She seemed very calm about it and said the baby was quite low and probably just tucked in nice and snug and moving too much to get a solid reading. We went in the next week and they got it within seconds.

Overall my first trimester was easier than with Ella but full of more worrisome moments. I wasn't as nauseous and my skin has been much better. I was the napping queen though. If Steve was home I always had an afternoon nap of at least an hour. I also experienced a lot of dizziness and light-headedness. I have naturally low blood pressure and in pregnancy it dips even more. I also had a ton of bloating but thankfully I found that a cup of peppermint tea made a HUGE difference. I'm talking I could have a cup at night, looking like I was 6 months preggo and wake up with no belly. It was amazing and talk about relief, the pressure was so uncomfortable so it was such a welcome surprise.

Onto the honeymoon stage!