This will be a little long, so hang on!
We got pregnant with Hannah on our first try (I'm super fertile myrtle). The first trimester went by fairly uneventful, normal morning sickness and exhaustion. We were toying with the idea of waiting to find out the sex for this final babe, but I kept having strong feelings that it was a girl and I just couldn't be patient to see if I was right. To be honest, I had mixed feelings. I was expecting a third boy and looking forward to it! We know how to deal with boys!
We made an appointment at 15 weeks with the same ultrasound place we had used for the boys, and as you already know now...it's a girl! Not long after finding out the sex, I started daily progesterone as I had done with my pregnancy for Noah, and then the weekly cervical length checks began at 16 weeks. The appointments started out dull, with things measuring on track, and then things started to change each week. My cervix was shortening. The progesterone was not going to be enough to keep this babe baking. I had an emergency cerclage placed at around 20 weeks after my cervix shortened to 2.1 and started to funnel.
I arrived at the hospital by 5am to start pre-op for the cerclage placement. If you don't know, it's basically a metal thread that sews your cervix shut. It stays in until around 37 weeks. I was terrified. I remember my whole body shaking while I waited for them to wheel me back to the OR. The procedure is done in a C-section suite, and you walk in, sit down for the spinal, and then they get you in position to sew you up. The spinal was TERRIFYING for me. I was shaking so bad that I was nervous the anesthesiologist wouldn't be able to hit her mark on my back! Once I was in position, the anesthesiologist (thank God for her) rigged up a sheet so I wouldn't be able to see what they were doing (she knew how scared I was). She stayed by me during the whole procedure, chatting with me to try to distract. A few times, she had to hurry and adjust my drip from my blood pressure dipping really low and bringing on bouts of nausea. Once the team finished, they wheeled me back to a recovery room and I sat with Steve until the feeling returned back to my legs. I threw up off and on for a couple hours and generally felt AWFUL. Spinals/epidurals are not my cup of tea.
Once I regained feeling, we were released to go home and I was told to take it extremely easy while I recovered from the intense cramping. Once healed, I was supposed to take it easy for the remainder of the pregnancy to help keep that baby in!
The cramping was unreal. Physically, I hurt so bad that I couldn't move from the bed for over a week. Walking was really hard as well. After I was on the road to recovery, I ended up in Labor & Delivery with INTENSE abdomen pain. Like, there's an alien literally trying to claw out of my stomach, the pain was so severe. The first trip to L&D resulted in the nurses dismissing my pain as just round ligament pain and growing pains. I ended up back at L&D the very next day...Steve had to wheelchair me in because I was in such intense pain that I could not even walk. This time, the nurse on duty took me seriously and ordered a slew of tests. Outcome - C. Diff. After my cerclage, I was given antibiotics to help fight off any infection from the procedure. This wiped out my immune system and left me super susceptible to C. Diff, which my in-laws unknowingly had and passed along to me.
L&D provided me with strong antibiotics and sent me back home. The antibiotics made me so extremely nauseous that I ended up back at the dr's (wheelchaired again because this time I was too weak to walk), and I received bags of fluids to help rehydrate me. Luckily, the baby still seemed A-Okay. I was given anti-nausea meds and returned home to nurse myself back to health (well, Steve nursed me back to health waiting on me and dealing with the boys since I was bed-ridden).
Towards the end of my pregnancy, we had a seizure scare with Julian. He woke up a few hours after going to bed and screamed out for Mommy and Daddy. I rushed into his room and held him while his whole body trembled and eyes couldn't focus. It was the scariest moment of my life. Steve took him the ER and eventually we took him to Children's to have an EEG done, and then an MRI once the EEG came back abnormal. Sometimes life just hits you really hard.
Fast forward through more dr visits with checks on my cervix and baby, everything looked great despite the immense pressure I felt daily in my cervix. I did not think I would make it to my cerclage removal at 37 weeks, but before I knew it we were back in my MFM's office to have it taken out. It hurt like %$&(*&. But afterwards, all the intense pressure I felt in my cervix disappeared! For once, I felt like a normal pregnant lady!
I started trying to ramp up my physical activity so I could prepare my muscles for labor. I bounced on a ball, walked around, played with the boys...I was sure I would go into labor right after the cerclage was removed! My body decided otherwise.
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