By Roxanne Daugherty, Hatfield, PA USBack in August, I had a m/c at 5 weeks. It started at the gym, really not fun. We (obviously) had to leave very quickly. I went to the doc to get checked out, she wasn't sure if I had actually been pg bc it was about 2 weeks until I could get an appointment to see them. I went back about a month later and was sent for an u/s to see what was wrong. I realized the night before the u/s that I should have gotten my period. I did a test and sure enough, we were pregnant! I called and they changed the scheduled u/s to a pg u/s. I was 5 weeks and 2 days. For those of you in the US, I got pg over Labor Day weekend, beginning of Sept. After about a week, we sent the u/s pic via phone to our families. My brother was the funny one who said, "what did you take a picture of - a sandbox with a hole in it?" The pic was grainy with a very definite black circle. Evan's heart was already beating so I got to see his little heart beating and see them measure it. I was SOOO Happy, I started crying.
PROM at 15 weeks + 4 days. Delivery at 16 weeks + 5 days.
Story added: 2008-03-30
I started progesterone suppositories immediately. I had a business trip to Ireland scheduled for the next week. I went to Dublin. The second morning in Ireland, I started bleeding when I got to work. I was alone, in Ireland, 6 weeks pg and bleeding... I talked to one of the women there, they called in the doctor to the site, he sent me over to a hospital to get an u/s. $270 euros, not expenseable, worse with the really bad exchange rate. But, I got another look at my little guy. They said he was fine, but told me to rest. I cancelled the rest of the trip, stayed in bed in the hotel for a day and a half and then flew home. Fortunately, they fly us business class when we go overseas.
I got back home and went to my doc. I had a cervical polyp that was causing the bleeding. It was being pushed and twisted. The doc thought it would come out on it's own but I would be bleeding for a while. We had a vacation scheduled with Rob's parents and they said we could go. So, 11 hours in the car to Maine. We did some light hiking. Very light bc I was such morning sickness, well really any point in the day sickness. I had to be fed at very regular intervals. I think his mom wanted to do more hiking, but I think his dad was very happy that I was limited and needed to eat on a continual basis! I started losing tissue toward the end of the week. We were freaking out! We called and got an appt for another u/s. This one was at 8 weeks. The polyp was gone and my little Evan was starting to look like a tiny baby.
This started a few weeks of no problems, other than still being naseaus all the time. I went to the doc at 12 weeks and got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. That was so amazing. I found out that my neighbor is pg also, she is 2 weeks ahead of where I was. I went to do some training at our site in Manitoba and one of the women I was working with was 1 week behind.
Then early in the morning on 12/10, I woke up all wet. I thought I was sweating, I was really hot. I went back to sleep and woke up about an hour later, wet again. At this point I thought something might be wrong. I called the doc at about 3 AM. When I kept feeling wet, we went to the ER. They couldn't tell it was amniotic fluid but when we had an u/s at 7:30 am, we had low fluid. That morning was the first time Rob saw Evan and heard his h/b. Doom and gloom later, we came home and started searching.
We made it 1 week + 1 day. On 12/18, I went to the bathroom and the cord was hanging down. We had been hopeful becuase the day before we had been at a peri and there had been a little bit of fluid. It all came crashing down. Rob was out and I called him to come home. He came home, got me in the car and then asked if he should get the camera. We had been reading the stories on prom and knew that we would want pictures of our baby. We got to labor and delivery and the nurses were amazing.
I had a horrible time. When we got there, the nurse did an u/s and Evan was alive with a stong h/b. A couple of hours later, the doc came in and did another u/s. His h/b was much lower, around 40. We were waiting for our precious baby to die. The nurse came back another hour later and we asked when we could start to induce. She said the doc had said a few hours, but she would check. Our angel no longer had a h/b. She started to induce. Almost immediately, I started throwing up and my bp dropped to 70/40. After about 6 hours of this, I delivered Evan. We had decided on either Evan or Emily a while earlier. We had changed our middle name choice after the prom to Emily Hope or Evan Patrick. They took out Evan and brought him back wrapped in a blanket. We got to hold him, kiss him, talk to him. We had Evan baptized. After that, they tried to deliver the placenta. After another few hours, they took me in for a D&C to get it out.
Rob had been holding Evan the whole time I was gone. The chaplin stayed with him while I was gone. They took some of the most wonderful pictures of Evan, ones that I most cherish. We got to hold him again in the morning and then had to let him go. I noticed that he had big fat feet, like his daddy. He had my nose. He had his Daddy's profile. He is my angel and I miss him so much. We have his ashes in a little silver heart on the mantle, but he will always be alive in my heart. I never got to feel him move inside me, but he has moved me and put his little chubby foot on my heart for always. And now, if he is like his Daddy, he is flirting up a storm in heaven..