The boys’ pregnancy was my first pregnancy after loss. It was quite challenging compared to my other pregnancies. The first 12 weeks were really hard but I had the same great midwife from Porter’s pregnancy. That helped a lot because she knew my story. By the time we found out the boys were boys, I was about 14 weeks. After this time, the majority of my fear subsided that was associated with pregnancy loss. I am so grateful that worked out that way.
In the 2nd trimester, I began having bleeding episodes that landed us in triage 3x. We found out that I had full placenta previa. Placenta previa is when the placenta partially or fully covers the opening of the cervix. Therefore when there is any cervical change such as dilation, the placenta will bleed. This also meant that I no longer could try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after section) because if I tried, I could hemorrhage and lose the boys and myself potentially.
At 31+0 I woke up around 1am to a pop feeling and a warm gush of fluid. I went to the bathroom and saw that I was bleeding but it was very very watery. We went to triage that night thinking maybe it was just another bleeding episode. In triage they tried to test whether it was amniotic fluid but because there was blood mixed in, it was hard to get a clear answer. I was having mild contractions at the time which was pretty normal for me at this point. Then the dr came in and said, “You are getting admitted to antenatal. You will stay there until you deliver.” This freaked me out! We both were not prepared to be admitted into the hospital. Within minutes of being told this, transport was there to take me by wheelchair to my room. Here was the catch, it was the beginning of April 2020… Covid had just basically shut down the country. Matt was NOT allowed to come up with me OR even visit me! I had nothing with me but my phone and wallet. They let us wait to be transported because I was not okay with just leaving Matt on short notice and not knowing when I would even see him again.
In triage, the nurses gave me an intramuscular injection of a steroid to help the boys lungs just in case they decided to come early. Then 24 hours later they gave me one more injection of the steroid. Around noon the next day, so about 12 hours after coming to triage, my contractions kicked up in intensity and were 3-5mins apart. At this point, they needed to try to stop labor. They gave me magnesium via IV. What they say about ‘the mag’ is 100% true. IT BURNS! I felt like a truck hit me. I had to have an ice pack on my IV because it felt like my arm was on fire. After some time, the mag worked and I was able to get off of it.
I ended up staying in the hospital 8 days. The entire time I was trying to find a way to be discharged so I could go home to my kids. Matt had just started at his new job a few months before and suddenly had to work from home in our tiny 1100sq ft house. Plus schools closed down so all 4 girls were home! My mother in law took over helping with the kids while Matt worked, but it was so chaotic. I had the doctors retest for amniotic fluid and it came back positive on one test and inconclusive on another. Eventually, with the help of my midwife, we convinced my team to allow me to go home on bedrest. With this compromise, I agreed to have the boys at 34+0 which is the protocol when you PPROM. If I had stayed in the hospital though, they would let me go past 34+0 day by day as long as I was ok and the boys were ok.
TBC…