It's Almost Here

A year ago today, I was work sitting at my desk like it was any other day.  I was actually sitting on one of those exercise balls attempting to “open” things up.  My due date was January 31^st and I knew I would probably deliver in February, like February 11^th or something ridiculous.  You know, at 42 weeks and miserable. 

The holidays are typically pretty slow at work so I had spent the past couple weeks getting organized for the person who would be taking over my work while on leave.  I was probably so bored at this point that I was reorganizing documents in my files from 3 years ago.  I was bored out of my mind.

At this point, I had been switched to Heparin to thin my blood.  I told you about our battle to get pregnant and the medication I had to take throughout my pregnancy in order to maintain the pregnancy.  I also mentioned why I was switched from Lovenox to Heparin, but to summarize; Lovenox takes 24 hours to pass through your system whereas Heparin takes 12 hours.  Since the chances of going into labor increase at the 36 week mark I was switched to Heparin just in case.  I was administering the Heparin injections twice daily, 8 am and 8 pm.  In the event I went into labor the Heparin would more than likely be out of my system if/when I decided for an epidural.  If labor progressed quickly, there is another medication which would reverse the effects of Heparin.

Anyway, I’m getting way off topic here.  So at this time last year I was bouncing on my ball at work, watching the snow fall. We were about to get blasted by a snow storm.  It was expected to be a difficult drive home that evening and I had a weekly OB appointment at 3 that afternoon.  I called the office to reschedule the appointment earlier in the afternoon so I could head home after to miss the traffic/snowstorm. 

Interestingly enough, I went to the restroom just before lunch and noticed I was leaking every time I stood up.  Now, I knew I hadn’t just peed myself so it could only be one other thing.  My water broke! 

I always imagined if my water did break it would be big like in the movies.  Nope, a steady slow leak for hours.  It was an interesting walk to my car and a slow ride home in the snow.  I surprised Rick when I walked into the house.  The conversation went something like this:

Rick:  I thought your appointment was this afternoon.

Me:  It was, but my water broke in the bathroom at work so I they told me to go to the hospital.

Rick:  It did?!

Me:  Yes, so we need to get our bags and head to the hospital.

At this point, Rick begins frantically running around the house trying to get the bags and those last minute items you can’t pack until it’s time.  It was a pretty funny scene, as usual, I was the calm one and he’s the one panicking. 

In less than 24 hours we would be meeting our sweet baby girl.

My Pregnancy Journey

I've told you all about our life with Adalyn over the past 7 months the blog has been up.  What I haven't told you is our pregnancy journey and how we got our sweet Adalyn.  So let's take it back to the beginning.  (Be prepared, this is going to be long).

Rick and I were married in 2006.  After 2 years of marriage we were ready to start the pregnancy process in December of 2008.  We started trying for a baby in December and by my annual check up in May, we still weren't pregnant.  After a conversation at the annual check up with my OBGYN I had a very frustrating conversation with her.  I was 26 years old so, I thought, there was no reason we weren't getting pregnant.  Just one month later, in June, I took a pregnancy test when I thought I might be pregnant, sure enough, I was.  I couldn't be more excited.  That's all Rick and I talked about, but I told him I didn't want to tell anyone yet.  I wanted to wait until closer to the second trimester, to keep the secret just to us for the time being.  

Almost 2 months later, before my first pre-natal appointment, I woke up with severe cramping.  I went to the bathroom and found out I was bleeding pretty heavily.  I called my OB and was told to come into their office for a  check that morning.  By the time I reached the office, I had passed the embryo.  My OB confirmed this with an ultrasound.  She told us miscarriages are more common than most people realize.  10-15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage and most times there's no reason.  She saw no reason for me to miscarry and thought the next pregnancy would go smoothly.  She suggested that we take 2 months physically to let my body recover.  Emotionally, it was up to us, whenever we were ready.  

The next couple weeks were difficult for me.  It was all a blur and I was just coasting.  I knew I wanted a baby badly and I didn't want to wait long.  We started trying again in September and immediately found out we were pregnant again.  This time, we made it 6 weeks before I miscarried again.  Again, my doctor confirmed my body passed the embryo and a D&C wasn't necessary.  Again she told us she didn't see any reason why the miscarriage happened, my uterus was in good shape, my age was perfect, etc.  This time, though, she scheduled me for a procedure called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) at the local hospital.  

A HSG is an outpatient procedure that takes about 30 minutes.  It's non-invasive and involves placing an iodine-based dye through the cervix and then taking x-rays to determine the shape of the uterus and determine if the fallopian tubes are open or blocked.  The procedure was done while I was awake and talking with my doctor.  There is no anesthesia, only a pain killer is used in order to help with the discomfort.  Cramping can occur which feels just like your period but it's a pretty uncomfortable procedure.  While she was injecting the cannula and dye into me, all I could think was this is really uncomfortable.  I was so uncomfortable that I forgot that she would be giving me results which could change my life, in a matter of minutes.

She told me that everything looked fine and again chalked it up to something that just happens.  By this point, Rick had become frustrated and so had I, though him more so.  It's difficult to have no answer to digest.  She told us again, to try whenever we were ready.  In December 2009, I found out I was pregnant.  Again, we kept everything quiet and again, I was nervous about it all.  I didn't want to think about being pregnant for fear of what may be about to happen.  In January 2010, I miscarried my third pregnancy. This time, it was determined to be an ectopic pregnancy and was potentially life threatening.  

An ectopic pregnancy occurs outside of the uterus and the baby cannot survive.  Typically, an ectopic pregnancy occurs when a pregnancy starts outside of the uterus, usually in within one of the fallopian tubes.  They occur in 1 - 2.5% of all pregnancies and I didn't fit into any of the categories in which an ectopic pregnancy usually happens.  As I mentioned, an ectopic pregnancy must be ended in order to save the mother's life.  If the area of the pregnancy ruptures, the mother must be treated immediately in order to prevent death (which is rare).  Luckily, I had not gotten to the point of concern for rupture, though my doctor informed me that I could not continue the pregnancy.  In order to fully stop the pregnancy I was given methotrexate and monitored my quantitative HCG blood levels to ensure the methotrexate "took".  

This was difficult for me, each time you miscarry your  chart is noted with a spontaneous abortion tally.  For someone who is very pro-life, to even see the word abortion on my file was tough to take in, but to see it 3 times made me very sad.  At this point my OB knew there was absolutely something else taking place that needed to be solved.  She referred me to a reproductive endocrinologist (RE), to determine why I was able to easily get pregnant but was unable to carry the pregnancies.  I wasn't very optimistic by this point but knew I absolutely could not stop until I knew whether or not I would ever have children.

In March, I saw the RE and had a sonohysterogram (HSN) scheduled.  A HSN is an outpatient ultrasound which can determine if there are abnormalities inside the uterus that could interfere with pregnancy.  The procedure involves inserting saline into the uterus so the uterus is full and then the ultrasound is performed.  The way this was described to me was your uterus is like a collapsed balloon, a normal ultrasound is often hard to see because of the "deflated balloon", whereas the HSN is a procedure where the "balloon" is inflated and all of the walls are easily viewable.  Much like the HSG procedure, there was some cramping and discomfort but the procedure was pretty easy.  Again, like the HSG, it was determined my uterus looked fabulous.  Great news, right?  Well yes, but still the question is why can't I carry a baby?

The RE had a full blood work done on Rick and I.    I think I counted 25 viles of blood taken to be tested.  Various test ran, which I can't even tell you because there were so many.  The RE was confident these test would help solve our mystery.  Several weeks later, we were called back into the office with our test results.  Rick's came back clean.  Mine, not so much.  NOTE:  This is about to get overwhelming to understand so stick with me.  

It was determined I had several issue which could be the cause for recurrent miscarriages.  I have heterozygous methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase gene abnormality (MTHFR) meaning one of my parents passed this on to me.  I also have a heterozygous plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), again, one of my parents passed this onto me.  Lastly, I have a protein S deficiency which was determine to be the primary cause for miscarriage.  The interesting piece of all of this is these levels can increase or decrease over your life.  With all the hormone changes while pregnant, these numbers can really spike or fall and would affect the pregnancy.  

So if you've made it this far, your probably overwhelmed.  I was too.  I think Rick and I sat in that office with a dumbstruck look on our faces.  All of this medical talk and we had no idea what it all meant.  The doctor was able to break it down a bit for us.  I am a thrombophiliac meaning I develop blood clots due to an abnormality (in my case abnormalities) in the system of coagulation (forming semisolid lumps in a liquid).  So every time I was pregnant, my body would clot the embryo causing a miscarriage.  Finally, we had our answer and a solution. The RE told us the way for me to carry to term was to offset my bodies natural reaction to clot during pregnancy by taking a blood thinner called Lovenox.  The scary thing, I had to inject myself at the same time daily, in the stomach throughout my entire pregnancy

In April 2010, we began trying to get pregnant and found out in May I was pregnant.  We began testing my HCG levels to ensure the levels were doubling over a period of time.  When this was confirmed, I began my daily Lovenox injections.  Again, I wanted to keep this all a secret.  At this point, I was confident everything would be fine but I was still nervous I would miscarry again.  I didn't want to talk about the pregnancy for fear I would get excited and would start planning the nursery, baby names, etc all for it to end badly again.   

12 week ultrasound

 

In August 2010, I made it through the first trimester.  I was ecstatic!  I had graduated from my bi-weekly ultrasounds with the RE and was being passed back to my OB for continued care through my pregnancy.  My RE explained that at the 36 week mark I would stop the Lovenox and be switched to Heparin injections twice a day (12 hours apart).  Heparin has a shorter life span than Lovenox.  In the event I went into labor, I would not be able to have an epidural until the blood thinner was completely out of my system.  Heparin can also be reversed whereas Lovenox cannot.  I've never been so happy to be back at my OB for continued treatment.  

After my first visit with my OB, at 13 weeks pregnant, we told our family we were pregnant.  I was finally able to be excited about the pregnancy and was able to enjoy the next 27 weeks.  The remainder of my pregnancy went smoothly.  My OB kept saying, you deserve a smooth pregnancy after everything you've been through to this point.  I could not agree more.  

We're 3 days away from our baby girls birthday.  It's been 3 year since our journey began and I could not be happier for the result.  Stay tuned tomorrow for the birth story.

How Time Flies

This is a couple days late but better late than never right?

Just 6 short months ago I gave birth to a beautiful 7lb 12 oz baby girl.  She didn’t enter this world the way I envisioned but that it is how things often go.  I won’t give you the entire birth story, we’ll save that for another day, but here’s a brief snippet. 

Leading up to delivery my ultrasound tech and OB said there was a chance that if my water broke there would be a lot of water.  My Dr. also followed that with not too many women actually have their water break naturally.  This was sort of a fear of mine, that I’d be out somewhere and it would break and I’d be incredibly embarrassed.  Naturally I packed a bag to keep at work just case.  Good thing too because my water broke at work!

It was a Thursday during lunch and there was a serious snow storm on its way in.  I had planned to do my weekly visit with the OB in a couple hours but when my water broke the office suggested I head into the hospital.  Of course, not having contractions, I took my time.  We landed in the hospital about 2 hours later, had there not been a storm moving in I probably would have went home for a couple more hours before heading in.

I was put on pitocin and it was cranked through the night to get me to progress.  After hours of little progress and painful pitocin contractions I called for the epidural.  I was moved, rotated and put in some pretty uncomfortable positions but still nothing.  At 6 AM my OB came in and made the c-section call.  This was the one thing I hadn’t planned on.  I should have at least thought about it considering 1/3 deliveries is the result of a c-section. 

By 8 AM I was in the delivery room and being prepared for surgery.  I was nervous; I had never really been in the hospital for anything in my 28 years.  So to have a major surgery at the same time I was having a life changing moment, I was concerned.  The anesthesiologist was great, he commentated on everything that was happening.  He was our camera guy and captured some pretty gruesome shots but I’m so glad we had him there because we probably would have forgotten. 

I was told there would be a lot of pressure as they tried to push her down and out but I wasn’t prepared for that either.  I think because she was still sitting just under my ribs they had to press down on me more than usual.  I lost my breath for what seemed like a minute but it was all worth it because just a few short minutes later, we heard her first cries! 

At 8:21 am on January 21st, Adalyn Grace was born weighing 7 pounds 12 ounces and 19 ¾ inches long.

So much has changed in 6 months which is a reminder to enjoy every minute with her. 

20 hours of labor and 30 hours of no sleep

My Ham at 6 months!