There are some things about life that completely fascinate me. Life is truly ‘full of surprises’ as cliché as that sounds.
Today I write this post as a final pregnancy update and some of this update may even surprise you (those that have followed our pregnancy stories).
As I wrote about in my last blog post, we had my cerclage stitches removed about 3 weeks ago (at 36 weeks gestation). They were able to get the stitches out but it wasn’t without some extra pain for me and effort for the Doctor. I had the ‘McDonald’ style stitch placed around my 15th week of pregnancy to keep my cervix closed to prevent the early dilation and ultimately the preterm labor I had with Thor which kept me bed ridden for 2 months before delivering him.
This stitch with the combination of weekly shots to stop preterm labor resulted in a MUCH different pregnancy…..one with many less complications. I am so thankful for that.
When they remove a ‘McDonald’ cerclage stitch it is done in the office during your regular OB exam. It is removed without pain medications as it is typically not a big deal to remove and is more uncomfortable than painful. The issue with mine was that over the months it had been doing its job ‘holding my cervix in place’ it also did some ‘embedding’ into the tissue. Without going into any more detail they simply had to get a little more aggressive with getting my stitch to detach. This was hard on me but thankfully the pain subsided shortly after and resulted in cramping and uterine discomfort for a little while but nothing unbearable.
Thankfully the whole thing only took about 5 minutes total…..but it felt like 5 hours at some points. I hesitated to share this as I would not want to scare anyone else who has one currently or who is considering one as I think they are a great option for certain scenarios even though the removal was harder than we thought for me. Although mine came out rough, it would not have swayed my decision to not have it placed when we did. And remember, what happened to me is not the norm, thankfully.
When the stitch was finally out they immediately checked for dilation and my cervix was still closed at that point.
Before having my stitch removed they did a full ultrasound scan/body measurement of the baby to ensure they were comfortable with the size before taking it out. It is not common for women to immediately go into labor after the removal but it does happen sometimes and they wanted to make sure there were no concerns with size or development of the baby as they could have opted to keep it in another week if concerns arose.
During that ultrasound the baby’s body was measuring around 40 weeks and the head was measuring around 42 weeks (remember I was at 36wks exactly that day)……..Yes- I did say 42 weeks for head size. They estimated the weight at 36 weeks to be around 8lbs.
This instantly made this momma a little nervous not so much the weight but most definitely about the head size. After seeing this, the doctors were very ‘okay’ with removing the stitches as you can imagine.
Fast forward to my 38 week checkup which was 2 weeks later. They found that I was 3cm dilated and 75% effaced. I was shocked because I hadn’t been feeling much of any activity and figured they would tell me I was not dilated at all.
I was relieved to hear that there was progression as they were not sure how easily I would be able to progress with the baby’s head appearing to be so large as they did not know if it would be able to correctly engage my cervix.
Basically what happened is that my stitches worked just as they were supposed to holding my cervix high and shut. As the stitches were doing their job, the baby was growing higher into my pelvis. Because baby has apparently been growing a larger head I have carried it higher into my pelvis because it could not drop as low like Thor was able to which lead to my preterm labor.
During the 38 week appointment they did another growth scan to see if baby was still tracking to be larger. During this scan the body was measuring an average of about 1 week ahead of schedule (which was much better than the last scan) but the head was quote ‘off the charts’ meaning the ultrasound machine did not have a gestational week to attach to the head size as it stops reading at the 42-43 week mark so we were looking at a head in the 100th percentile just like a couple of weeks before.
If you are curious, I did have them look at the head and brain closely to ensure there was no concern with extra fluid being present. The great news was that everything is completely normal. The larger head is simply genetic and comes from daddy.
This was also the appointment that the word ‘induction’ came up. This is a word that I thought would never EVER be brought up in any of my pregnancies because of all the preterm labor with Thor but here we were…..discussing it.
They will not induce until you are at least 39 weeks along unless there is a medical emergency tied to the baby or the momma.
There is much ‘opinion’ tied around the option of induction for a situation like ours because we do not have an ‘emergency’ present, we just simply have a large headed child (more than likely).
Many individuals do not feel this is a good enough reason to induce…..but when you are the lady carrying the potentially large headed child let me tell you…..you may be a little more interested in talking about it…..especially when you really want to vaginally deliver.
I will mention that our doctors were very supportive of us considering induction but were not in any way ‘pushy’ about it. We were not pressured into our ultimate decision in any way but very much supported.
Long story short- after much thought and prayer we did ultimately decide to schedule an induction for tomorrow Thursday, Feb 6th. I will be officially 39 weeks and 2 days. Because my cervix is progressing on its own we decided instead of letting our sweetie’s head continue to get bigger and bigger in mommy that we would try induction to help me hopefully have a vaginal delivery. Our plan is not to get super aggressive with medications and take the ‘slowest’ route possible as we work through the induction tomorrow for my bodies sake.
The doctors are not 100% sure that I will be able to deliver vaginally if the head is in fact as big as it appears in the scans ( as these scan can obviously be incorrect to some degree) so we know that a c section could be possible with or without induction.
I would really like to try a vaginal delivery again as I had a very good experience with Thor’s even though he too had a large head but I have learned that flexibility is key in pregnancy. Even when things do not go as I would ‘plan’ ultimately getting the baby here healthy is the goal. I am willing to do whatever I can to make that happen.
This past Monday the 3rd I had the doctor’s strip my membranes. So far this procedure has not put me into active labor but I do hope it continues to progress my cervical changes before our big day tomorrow. I have had some symptoms from it that seem to be aiding in some sort of progression although all out contractions have not started.
If you think of us this tomorrow (Thursday) please pray for safety for baby and I. I am not sure I actually like knowing when my baby will likely be born. It is weird and keeps me up at night. I also find myself feeling very emotional knowing that my belly will be gone in a matter of days/hours. I am very uncomfortable but I also love being pregnant and I tend to get very sentimental about it. I know that God will be with us giving us strength and guidance in all decisions that will be made tomorrow.
I want to mention that there is a chance we could still get bumped off the schedule tomorrow if there are a lot of emergencies going on but otherwise they will be calling us between 5 and 7am tomorrow morning to let us know when to show up to get this ‘show on the road’.
Eeeekkkk
Michael and I went on our final ‘date before baby’ on Monday night and we talked so much about our journey to our family and everything we have been through. We feel like we have seen so many different scenarios filled with pure joy, devastation, confusion and about every other emotion….many situations so very opposite of the one before that we could never anticipate how to react or feel about them until we were sitting right in the middle of the situations having to make hard decisions. We have had to make so many decisions that have been hard not only in this pregnancy but in others. I feel like I have had SOOO many different procedures, pokes, prods that I could write a book…..seriously.
Even though things have not always been easy we wouldn’t change this for the world. Tomorrow we will embark on another ‘first’ with an induction. Although this is not how we ideally wanted to see my labor start we do feel it is the best option for me and baby after weighing all scenarios. We are praying it is slower and steady and that I can do it!
We are so very excited to meet our little one and share the news with everyone! I can’t wait to know if I will be the momma of 2 boys or the momma or a boy and a girl! Much excitement, nervousness and anticipation in our house today.
Thanks so much for praying us through these months. The end is near and we look forward to welcoming this blessing into our family very soon! Please lift us up in your prayers tomorrow and the days to follow if you think of it.
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