As promised, here is more of the full story of my pregnancy and the significance of Ocean's name and birth. After sitting down to write this, I discovered that it was not possible for me to get everything written out in one blog post. I just can't help but tell all the details of the story, and I realized that I need to have the whole story written down in detail. So, if you're interested, you'll have to bear with me as a put this out there in parts. And I'm sorry it's a bit long, but at least I warned you! Here it is....
When I found out I was pregnant, it
was not a surprise (Evening was!). We weren't necessarily trying to have a baby, but we weren't trying to prevent it from happening either. My first trimester was great and I had no sickness at all, I felt even better than I did when I was pregnant with Evening (and with her I thought I felt pretty darn good). I was just really, really, really tired. But, hey, that's the one symptom that will never fail you!
The day before I hit my 12 week mark, I took Evening out and we met Jeff for lunch. When I stood up to get out of the car, I instantly felt a gush of liquid come out. All I told Jeff was "I have to go" and I quickly and uncomfortably made my way through Subway, into their bathroom. My pants were completely soaked through with fresh, bright red blood. My hands were trembling as I frantically pulled out a bundle of paper towels. All I could think was, "this is it, I can't believe this is happening" and other than that I didn't really know what to think. I didn't want to think negatively, but I also kind of felt emotionless. I grabbed as many paper towels as I could and met Jeff on my way out briefly explaining that he needed to drive me home. Now. I called my midwife, who, at the time, was not yet MY midwife. We had only interviewed her and a handful of others and had not yet made our decision. We were leaning towards her, though. She gave us the option of going in to get an ultrasound or going home to rest and see what happens. She explained to me how things would progree if I was actually having a miscarriage.
By the time we got home, the bleeding had tapered off except for a couple more small bouts of spotting. I pretty much stayed in bed or on the couch the rest of the day. I never felt any cramping during this time, which was the only physical sign of encouragement. We, of course, had lots of people praying and we were staying in good spirits even though we were still kind of scared. The next day was pretty uneventful as well, but I still took it easy and let Jeff do everything. We didn't know what was going on and we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
The midwife was able to see us the day after that so we could check for the baby's heartbeat. And, of course, that was the very first thing she did when we got there. We heard a nice, strong heartbeat and even some movement from the baby! Oh the relief!...and awe at the beauty of the precious new life that we would get to call our own!
We were still very puzzled as to what had caused all that bleeding, and why it came and went so suddenly. We were able to get in for an ultrasound at 17 1/2 weeks to find out the gender of our baby and we chose to do an anatomy scan to be sure everything with me and the baby was healthy, especially considering our situation. As it turns out, I had a smaller extra placental lobe (or succenturiate lobe) attached to the main placenta. This was most likely the cause of the bleeding. Because the extra lobe was attached to the placenta by a few random blood vessels it meant that there was at least some amount of blood flow to it. The baby could have bumped up against it, or something may have put pressure on it causing the gush of blood. Weird, huh? There was no risk to the baby in this, but it was important to know about the extra lobe so that when I gave birth, we could be sure that it came out along with the placenta so there would be no risk of hemorrhaging for me. And it did come out, on it's own, two days after giving birth. Now, that WAS weird. :o)
We assumed that the rest of my pregnancy would be uneventful. We also assumed we would be having another baby girl. We assumed wrong. In both cases. But....you will have to wait until Part Two for more of the story! :o)
When I found out I was pregnant, it
was not a surprise (Evening was!). We weren't necessarily trying to have a baby, but we weren't trying to prevent it from happening either. My first trimester was great and I had no sickness at all, I felt even better than I did when I was pregnant with Evening (and with her I thought I felt pretty darn good). I was just really, really, really tired. But, hey, that's the one symptom that will never fail you!The day before I hit my 12 week mark, I took Evening out and we met Jeff for lunch. When I stood up to get out of the car, I instantly felt a gush of liquid come out. All I told Jeff was "I have to go" and I quickly and uncomfortably made my way through Subway, into their bathroom. My pants were completely soaked through with fresh, bright red blood. My hands were trembling as I frantically pulled out a bundle of paper towels. All I could think was, "this is it, I can't believe this is happening" and other than that I didn't really know what to think. I didn't want to think negatively, but I also kind of felt emotionless. I grabbed as many paper towels as I could and met Jeff on my way out briefly explaining that he needed to drive me home. Now. I called my midwife, who, at the time, was not yet MY midwife. We had only interviewed her and a handful of others and had not yet made our decision. We were leaning towards her, though. She gave us the option of going in to get an ultrasound or going home to rest and see what happens. She explained to me how things would progree if I was actually having a miscarriage.
By the time we got home, the bleeding had tapered off except for a couple more small bouts of spotting. I pretty much stayed in bed or on the couch the rest of the day. I never felt any cramping during this time, which was the only physical sign of encouragement. We, of course, had lots of people praying and we were staying in good spirits even though we were still kind of scared. The next day was pretty uneventful as well, but I still took it easy and let Jeff do everything. We didn't know what was going on and we didn't want to take any unnecessary risks.
The midwife was able to see us the day after that so we could check for the baby's heartbeat. And, of course, that was the very first thing she did when we got there. We heard a nice, strong heartbeat and even some movement from the baby! Oh the relief!...and awe at the beauty of the precious new life that we would get to call our own!
We were still very puzzled as to what had caused all that bleeding, and why it came and went so suddenly. We were able to get in for an ultrasound at 17 1/2 weeks to find out the gender of our baby and we chose to do an anatomy scan to be sure everything with me and the baby was healthy, especially considering our situation. As it turns out, I had a smaller extra placental lobe (or succenturiate lobe) attached to the main placenta. This was most likely the cause of the bleeding. Because the extra lobe was attached to the placenta by a few random blood vessels it meant that there was at least some amount of blood flow to it. The baby could have bumped up against it, or something may have put pressure on it causing the gush of blood. Weird, huh? There was no risk to the baby in this, but it was important to know about the extra lobe so that when I gave birth, we could be sure that it came out along with the placenta so there would be no risk of hemorrhaging for me. And it did come out, on it's own, two days after giving birth. Now, that WAS weird. :o)
We assumed that the rest of my pregnancy would be uneventful. We also assumed we would be having another baby girl. We assumed wrong. In both cases. But....you will have to wait until Part Two for more of the story! :o)
0 I'd love to hear what you have to say!:
Post a Comment