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!
