Jane was not a planned pregnancy and took us by happy surprise. Though to be honest I was not sure I was emotionally ready to go though pregnancy again, especially after the difficulties with Thomas's pregnancy and settling into a new house. After confirming the pregnancy with my new high risk OB, Dr. Muckerman, he got started right away on trying to figure out why Thomas came prematurely. Because there was no obvious reason for the early labor, risk of having another premature birth and an earlier premature birth was at a higher risk for me. So he started a battery of blood test to check out many possibilities. The prevailing thought was that I had an autoimmune issue where my body went on a seek and destroy mission of the pregnancy. Your body is program to seek out foreign entities and destroy them. When you get pregnant, the pregnancy hormones "hide" the baby from your body. The doctor thought that perhaps my body does not do a good enough job "hiding" the baby. Thus, once it finds the baby it starts labor to expel the foreigner. The other possibility was that I had a blood clotting disorder which would block the tiny blood vessels in the placenta. This would send distress signals to the baby via lack of oxygen and nutrients and thus labor would begin.
Before the blood work came back. I started to bleed a lot. The pregnancy was confirmed on a Thursday and I started bleeding on Saturday. I called the doctor and he said there was nothing I could do. If I was going to loose the baby, I was going to loose the baby. He wanted to see me Monday to perform an ultrasound. It was a long and emotionally distressing weekend. Come Monday I was prepared for the worse. Being only 4 weeks along there was a chance that the ultrasound might be inconclusive. If it did not show a baby it could be because it is too early in the pregnancy to show on the ultrasound or it could not show because I lost the baby. To everyone's surprise, not only was the baby still there, she was nine weeks along not four! Great news but we were not out of the woods yet, I was still bleeding. I was put on bed rest until the bleeding stopped, which was about a week.
Two weeks later the blood work came back and nothing was conclusive. It appeared I did not have the autoimmune issue but I did have a slight genetic propensity for clotting. So the game plan became, taking blood thinners for 36 weeks, which needed to be inject daily into my abdomen. Not fun. I was also put on special medication to prevent preterm labor, needing weekly injections. I felt like a pin cushion and it looked like my abdomen took a beating with all the bruising from the injections. But at least we had a plan! It was comforting to know that we were doing something to prevent another early labor. I would have endured a hundred daily shots if it meant not spending three months or more in the hospital again.
After the external bleeding stopped, it was noticed that I was having internal bleeding in my uterus. These "bleeds" continued to show up on the ultrasounds for weeks and were a constant threat on the pregnancy. Once the bleeds passed, then came the water on the brain. You tend to get nervous when the ultrasound tech asks if you are considering genetic testing. To which you immediately think, do I need genetic testing? What did you see to make you ask that question? One ultrasound showed the baby had water on the brain which is a red flag for a genetic disorder. More blood work and more weeks of agonizing wait for the result. Thankfully the results were good and water eventually went away. With so many ultrasounds every little thing was picked up. Which on the one hand was good monitoring of the pregnancy but on the other hand led to a lot of unnecessary worrying over issues that in a normal pregnancy would resolve itself without me ever knowing about it. The state of the pregnancy was an ever constant concern on the back of my mind. I am immensely thankful that I have and engaging and engrossing profession that keeps my mind busy so I did not have time to think about the pregnancy. Then I would come home to being busy with Thomas. My hectic lifestyle was a saving grace to my sanity. I rarely discussed the pregnancy. It took a long time before I was ready to let people know, especially at work.
After the scare with bleeding and genetic disorders passed, it became a waiting game. Waiting to reach 18 weeks( the time implantation is considered secure), 27 weeks( the week Thomas was born), 32 weeks (baby lungs are developed and would need minimal hospitalization if born), 37 weeks (consider full term). Jane made it to 40 weeks plus 2 days!
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