Sad labor story

**WARNING** again; read with caution

A lot can happen in 24 hours! Reading my last post, I was doing fairly well with the whole miscarriage, and kind of waiting for it all to be done. In the afternoon the cramps started getting more intense, and comparable to labor contractions, with some heavy bleeding. Joe was at school, and after about 3 hours of bearing it alone, I called Emma to the rescue. She dropped everything she was doing, and came straight to my house. The cramping and bleeding tapered off, and I was hopeful that the baby had come out. It had been painful, but bearable.

After going to be early, I woke up around 2 am, again with heavy contractions. Not wanting to be up all night, I tried to go back to bed. That worked. For a few hours. But the next time I woke up, I literally worried I might bleed to death, and called the midwife. Luckily she believed the severity of the situation, and came to my house to have a look. It didn't take her too long after arriving, to decide I was in bad enough shape to go to the ER.

Initially at the ER, the only thing they did for me, was comfort me by running some blood tests to make sure I hadn't lost too much blood. The midwife had made a guess of 1 quart of blood, so they wanted to make sure I didn't need a blood transfusion. Then a lot of waiting. Waiting for the blood results. Waiting for the OB/GYN to come into work at 9am, in order to do an ultrasound to see if a D&C would be necessary. Waiting for the contractions to slow down or stop. Luckily I didn't need blood. Luckily they gave me some wonderful drugs to get rid of the pain.

As they were getting me ready to move me to the Obstetrics department, so I could wait for the doctor to come in, I lost what turned out to be the placenta and other tissue. Knowing that the baby was only 4mm, I wasn't expecting much, but it was surprisingly big. Definitely not something that would just go away unnoticed. At this point I started feeling a little better. The combination of the drugs and the slightly lighter contractions allowed me to rest for a few hours while waiting on the doctor.

My worst fear was that I would still have to have a D&C, even after suffering through all that pain. Luckily they were taken away when the OB/GYN did her ultrasound around 9am. Everything was clear. My body had taken care of itself. I never dreamed I would have to go through labor, and not have a baby to show for it after.

Most of all I want to express my sincere thankfulness for all my loving family around me. For Emma who got up in the middle of the night, cleaned up the huge mess I made in the bathroom, took care of the kids and took them to school. And for my dad who has called and asked how he can help, just about every few hours. And of course my dear husband Joe, who had to spend the first part of his 35th birthday sleeping in an uncomfortable hospital chair, and never left my side despite his well-known aversion to female issues. For my cousin Talita who brought me flowers and dinner this morning, even without knowing about the whole episode. Who is also picking up my kids from school this afternoon.

I can't imagine having to do something like this alone!