Med School Momma: Complications, 3D picture, and belly pictures (Warning! Very Graphic!!)

After the realization kicked in about having twins I had a few weeks to "enjoy" my new pregnancy. I was in an ignorant state of bliss until I went to work at 8 weeks 1 day. In the middle of the day I was working with my boss on a new patient when I suddenly started peeing my pants. I couldn't believe that I was already losing bladder control at 8 weeks! I ran to the bathroom and as I was running the "peeing" got heavier. I got into the bathroom and looked down at my pants that were now covered in BLOOD!! My stomach sank and my heart started racing. I closed my eyes and waited for the cramping to start. "So this is what a miscarriage is like" was the kinds of thoughts that were racing through my head. I sat on the toilet to clean up and blood just poured out. That's when it hit me, I wasn't cramping. I hadn't been cramping all day. In fact I was feeling nauseous. I still smelled like the Wendys burger I had just had at lunch and I wanted to puke. I was not miscarrying! Thank the Lord that I had studied a little about bleeding in pregnancy because at the realization of no cramps I calmly had someone drive me to the ER and joked around with the nurses in the ER until I was able to get an ultrasound. The nurses and doctor were more concerned than I was. Jared kept stroking my hair thinking I needed someone to calm me down, but I was good. There was no way I was miscarrying. The ultrasound showed two perfectly healthy babies. That's when I lost it a little and realized I was more concerned than what I thought and the realization that the babies really were okay was a huge relief. I went home to rest for a week.

One week later I was back at work when I felt that awful peeing feeling again. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough, there was a little bit of blood. I had a blood clot the size of an egg come out and the bleeding stopped. I was scared to look at the clot because I didn't want to see my babies in there. I went home to rest. The next day I went to my doctors and again the ultrasound showed two healthy babies, and baby B immediately started waving at me as if to say "It's okay mom, we are okay". Again I took 1 week off to rest.

I went back to work the following Tuesday and had no bleeding. Ignorantly I thought I was in the clear. Wednesday at 9am I stood up from my chair at work and the blood just poured out. At the time I was sure the blood had completely filled the toilet once I was able to get to the bathroom, but that's probably an exaggeration. I got in at the doctor immediately and went to pick Jared up at school. I almost didn't make it to his school because I was so dizzy and I was getting a headache from all the blood loss. I was too afraid to move to the passenger seat once Jared got in the car because every time I stood up, clots would come out. (its the worst feeling in the world, having clots come out that you aren't sure are blood clots or your own children). I got to the clinic and again the ultrasound showed two healthy babies. This time we saw a medium sized bleed in my uterus right on top of my cervix. It's called a subchorionic hematoma. It happens when the placenta tears away from the uterine wall and then reattaches itself. The risk of miscarriage due to a SCH is 1-3% so its not extremely dangerous, but can cause a lot of problems later on in pregnancy if its not able to resolve. I was put on modified bedrest until I was bleed free for 2 weeks.

I had my 12 week appointment on Monday and it showed that my SCH has shrunk by more than 1/2 its original size. It also showed that I have placenta previa and the placenta may be attached slightly to my csection scar and the bleed is attached to the other side of my csection scar. The previa and the csection scar will need to be monitored a little more closely but we are all expecting the placenta to move once my uterus starts growing bigger. All in all it was good news. I have a referral to a high risk specialist and I should start getting biweekly ultrasounds starting at either 14 or 16 weeks. I will explain more about that later.

As promised, my 3D ultrasound