Graduation Story— 37+6, Induction w/ Cervidil and Pitocin, Pre-eclampsia, Gestational Diabetes w/ Insulin, Accessory lobe placenta, Rh Negative! And 3 months postpartum thoughts :)

SUPER long post ahead! 😬

I had my baby back in April, but as I sit here nap trapped with my baby I thought I would share my story. Hopefully this helps anyone who has questions about any of the conditions that affected my pregnancy and delivery!

This was my first pregnancy and everything was completely normal until my anatomy scan, where it was discovered that I had an accessory lobe connected to my placenta. The MFM I was referred to said that it doesn’t necessarily affect the pregnancy, although I would continue having scans every 4 weeks to check on the baby’s growth, but it does affect delivery. Essentially if any of the placenta remains inside of you then it can cause uterine infection and hemorrhaging. This is true for any retained placenta, but it’s just more likely to happen with an accessory placenta since there are two placenta parts and they can detach from one another. Because of this, my OB prefers to do manual placenta removals for patients with accessory placentas. I had an epidural so I did not feel a thing. The placenta abnormality ended up not affecting my pregnancy in any way besides extra appointments. If you also have an accessory placenta I hope this helps reassure you!

Then, at 28 weeks I took my glucose test. My hospital doesn’t do the one hour glucose test, so the only one I took was the long diagnostic one. I failed the fasting number and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, which was a shock to me. I didn’t know much about GD, but after having it I wish it was talked about more. I see so many posts of people worried that them eating ice cream or something is going to make them fail their test. You cannot cause yourself to get GD! It is simply a hormonal imbalance between the placenta and pancreas. Anyone can get it and that is why everyone is tested for it. I met with the diabetes team at my hospital and began testing my blood sugar four times a day using a glucose monitor. After a week, all of my fasting numbers were still way out of range, so I was referred to an endocrinologist who prescribed me insulin that I took every night. I started insulin at 30 weeks. It was honestly so great to take it because it brought my fasting number within range within the first few days and I never had a number out of range after starting. GD really threw a monkey wrench in my pregnancy though. Because I was on insulin I had to do NSTs at the hospital twice a week— every Monday and Friday morning for the remainder of my pregnancy. Between the NSTs, weekly meetings with the diabetes team, MFM appointments for the accessory placenta, and my OB appointments, I was having doctor’s appointments 4-5 times a week by the end of pregnancy. It was crazy. As expected though, the GD went away as soon as I gave birth and my baby’s blood sugars were all completely normal!

At 37 weeks things took a drastic turn with my pregnancy. I was expecting an induction at 39 weeks because of requiring insulin for my GD, but when I went to my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was in the 140s over 100 on the bottom. My OB had me go to the hospital for pre-eclampsia testing and sure enough I had protein in my urine and my blood work showed evidence of pre-e. All of this was a HUGE shock to me and truly came out of nowhere. Ladies please, please, please keep an eye on your blood pressures! My OB really wanted to try to keep the baby in until 38 weeks, so I was put on strict bed rest and was supposed to go in every two days for repeat testing. Well two days later my blood pressure skyrocketed to almost 170/110 and I was starting to get spots in my vision. I ended up being induced that day at 37+5.

The induction started with inserting Cervidil into me around 3pm. We were starting from scratch— I had zero dilation, effacement, nothing. The Cervidil started contractions, but they were extremely mild for the first 12 hours or so. They started to really ramp up the last 12 hours and around the 24 hour mark was when it was time to take the dose out. It only dilated me 2 cm, but this seemed like ok progress. It honestly was slightly discouraging though because I had been having painful contractions for a long time and I thought that I would have progressed more. My waters were manually broken after the Cervidil was taken out (this was around 4pm the next day) and contractions pretty much immediately got more intense. I knew I wanted the epidural (I can’t imagine going through a manual placenta removal without one 😬) so the nurse let the anesthesiologist know so they could place it before the Pitocin was turned on. He did a phenomenal job— I felt nothing getting the epidural and it worked great! I could still kind of move my hips and legs, but I felt no pain. I also could feel all the pressure of the contractions when it came to push time— I knew exactly when I needed to push, I just couldn’t feel pain if that makes sense!

Anyways, after I got the epidural and the Pitocin was increased, shit got crazy. I was as chill as a cucumber watching Food Network, but somehow progressed from 2-10 centimeters in less than 3 hours. The nurse came in and put me on oxygen because the baby’s heart rate was dipping, which she said happens sometimes when things progress really quickly. The Pitocin was also turned off at this point. Around 7:30-8 was when I began pushing. I pushed for two hours and it was the most exhausting experience of my life. He wasn’t sunny side up necessarily, but he was sideways, so it was taking a lot of extra effort to get his head past that first point of my pelvis. Once his head was out though, he came out in just a few pushes. The whole induction took about 30 hours. Having him placed on my chest was the most surreal thing and it will be a moment I never forget. I had second degree tearing and labial tearing and recovery was not fun. The labia tear hurt worse than the perineal tearing. The things that helped me the most were ice packs, sitz baths, and then literally just letting it air out— I started sleeping on disposable puppy pads at night (after my bleeding had slowed way down) so that the area could just breathe, which is kind of gross, but it really helped with healing.

Baby was born super healthy— 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches long. He is the best. 💙 The first few months postpartum are really difficult. More difficult than I could have imagined. We spent hours and hours a day just sitting on the couch breastfeeding and he would only nap on our chests. I was so concerned that the house was dirty, etc, but now I would give anything to have those days back. I wish I would have not cared at all and just cherished that month of constant cuddling. Be kind to yourselves during the postpartum period— it’s called the fourth trimester for a reason I found out. It’s really tough, but extremely beautiful at the same time. I am a forever changed person after pregnancy and childbirth. I’m stronger than I ever knew!

I know this post is super long, but hopefully it helps someone out who also has an accessory placenta, GD, etc. Feel free to ask any questions!

SUPER long post ahead! 😬I had my baby back in April, but as I sit here nap trapped with my baby I thought I would share my story. Hopefully this helps anyone who has questions about any of the conditions that affected my pregnancy and delivery!This was my first pregnancy and everything was completely normal until my anatomy scan, where it was discovered that I had an accessory lobe connected to my placenta. The MFM I was referred to said that it doesn’t necessarily affect the pregnancy, although I would continue having scans every 4 weeks to check on the baby’s growth, but it does affect delivery. Essentially if any of the placenta remains inside of you then it can cause uterine infection and hemorrhaging. This is true for any retained placenta, but it’s just more likely to happen with an accessory placenta since there are two placenta parts and they can detach from one another. Because of this, my OB prefers to do manual placenta removals for patients with accessory placentas. I had an epidural so I did not feel a thing. The placenta abnormality ended up not affecting my pregnancy in any way besides extra appointments. If you also have an accessory placenta I hope this helps reassure you!Then, at 28 weeks I took my glucose test. My hospital doesn’t do the one hour glucose test, so the only one I took was the long diagnostic one. I failed the fasting number and was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, which was a shock to me. I didn’t know much about GD, but after having it I wish it was talked about more. I see so many posts of people worried that them eating ice cream or something is going to make them fail their test. You cannot cause yourself to get GD! It is simply a hormonal imbalance between the placenta and pancreas. Anyone can get it and that is why everyone is tested for it. I met with the diabetes team at my hospital and began testing my blood sugar four times a day using a glucose monitor. After a week, all of my fasting numbers were still way out of range, so I was referred to an endocrinologist who prescribed me insulin that I took every night. I started insulin at 30 weeks. It was honestly so great to take it because it brought my fasting number within range within the first few days and I never had a number out of range after starting. GD really threw a monkey wrench in my pregnancy though. Because I was on insulin I had to do NSTs at the hospital twice a week— every Monday and Friday morning for the remainder of my pregnancy. Between the NSTs, weekly meetings with the diabetes team, MFM appointments for the accessory placenta, and my OB appointments, I was having doctor’s appointments 4-5 times a week by the end of pregnancy. It was crazy. As expected though, the GD went away as soon as I gave birth and my baby’s blood sugars were all completely normal!At 37 weeks things took a drastic turn with my pregnancy. I was expecting an induction at 39 weeks because of requiring insulin for my GD, but when I went to my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was in the 140s over 100 on the bottom. My OB had me go to the hospital for pre-eclampsia testing and sure enough I had protein in my urine and my blood work showed evidence of pre-e. All of this was a HUGE shock to me and truly came out of nowhere. Ladies please, please, please keep an eye on your blood pressures! My OB really wanted to try to keep the baby in until 38 weeks, so I was put on strict bed rest and was supposed to go in every two days for repeat testing. Well two days later my blood pressure skyrocketed to almost 170/110 and I was starting to get spots in my vision. I ended up being induced that day at 37+5.The induction started with inserting Cervidil into me around 3pm. We were starting from scratch— I had zero dilation, effacement, nothing. The Cervidil started contractions, but they were extremely mild for the first 12 hours or so. They started to really ramp up the last 12 hours and around the 24 hour mark was when it was time to take the dose out. It only dilated me 2 cm, but this seemed like ok progress. It honestly was slightly discouraging though because I had been having painful contractions for a long time and I thought that I would have progressed more. My waters were manually broken after the Cervidil was taken out (this was around 4pm the next day) and contractions pretty much immediately got more intense. I knew I wanted the epidural (I can’t imagine going through a manual placenta removal without one 😬) so the nurse let the anesthesiologist know so they could place it before the Pitocin was turned on. He did a phenomenal job— I felt nothing getting the epidural and it worked great! I could still kind of move my hips and legs, but I felt no pain. I also could feel all the pressure of the contractions when it came to push time— I knew exactly when I needed to push, I just couldn’t feel pain if that makes sense!Anyways, after I got the epidural and the Pitocin was increased, shit got crazy. I was as chill as a cucumber watching Food Network, but somehow progressed from 2-10 centimeters in less than 3 hours. The nurse came in and put me on oxygen because the baby’s heart rate was dipping, which she said happens sometimes when things progress really quickly. The Pitocin was also turned off at this point. Around 7:30-8 was when I began pushing. I pushed for two hours and it was the most exhausting experience of my life. He wasn’t sunny side up necessarily, but he was sideways, so it was taking a lot of extra effort to get his head past that first point of my pelvis. Once his head was out though, he came out in just a few pushes. The whole induction took about 30 hours. Having him placed on my chest was the most surreal thing and it will be a moment I never forget. I had second degree tearing and labial tearing and recovery was not fun. The labia tear hurt worse than the perineal tearing. The things that helped me the most were ice packs, sitz baths, and then literally just letting it air out— I started sleeping on disposable puppy pads at night (after my bleeding had slowed way down) so that the area could just breathe, which is kind of gross, but it really helped with healing.Baby was born super healthy— 7lbs 5oz and 20.5 inches long. He is the best. 💙 The first few months postpartum are really difficult. More difficult than I could have imagined. We spent hours and hours a day just sitting on the couch breastfeeding and he would only nap on our chests. I was so concerned that the house was dirty, etc, but now I would give anything to have those days back. I wish I would have not cared at all and just cherished that month of constant cuddling. Be kind to yourselves during the postpartum period— it’s called the fourth trimester for a reason I found out. It’s really tough, but extremely beautiful at the same time. I am a forever changed person after pregnancy and childbirth. I’m stronger than I ever knew!I know this post is super long, but hopefully it helps someone out who also has an accessory placenta, GD, etc. Feel free to ask any questions! https://ift.tt/eA8V8J https://ift.tt/3icdisw