Controlled Chaos

With my firstborn, everything was a chaotic blur. After nine months of severe morning sickness, my husband and I made the hour drive into town to have baby. I had begun labor at 3am on February 15th and my little girl arrived at 12:24pm on February 16th via emergency C Section. She had become partially lodged in the birth canal and it took Doc a little to get her out, but otherwise the delivery was fairly standard for an emergency C Section.

Shortly after delivery, I noticed something seemed off. I could not catch my breathe. I felt extremely weak. After my stats tanked and I went unresponsive, a few tests found I had significant internal bleeding. Transfusions and monitoring began. In the midst of the chaos as I was holding my baby girl, I noticed her making an unusual jerking motion. I mentioned something to the nurse who reassured me those were normal newborn movements.

The following day, Doc was not satisfied with my progress and new scans showed I was beginning to develop fluid in my lungs. She wanted to fly me to a larger hospital. The plan was to release baby to Daddy and they could meet me at my destination. As baby was being evaluated for release, the nurse on duty noticed the same jerking motions I had seen. She noticed them as being seizures. Big change in plans. Doc came in and told me both baby and I would be going to an even larger hospital about 6 hours away.

Shortly after arriving, both Baby and I had been seen by several specialists. It was found that my daughter had Lacunar Skull. Lacunar skull is an extremely rare defect which is usually associated with Spina Bifida, Meningocele, etc. It's essentially extra holes in the skull (aside from the fontanelle). Aside from the syndromes Lacunar is associated with, the significant risk of the defect is cerebral hemorrhage occurring during delivery. Baby had two separate hemorrhages and was placed on anti seizure medication while she was evaluated. After just a few short days, mommy's internal bleed had been stopped and stabilized and the pneumonia was in remission. Exceedingly more reassuring, it was found baby's Lacunar Skull was a-symptomatic and would be self resolving with time. She had no further seizures and no developmental delays from the hemorrhages.

Fast Forward about 17 months. Daddy and I had begun to throw around the idea of maybe having another little. Baby girl is happy, healthy and so, so smart. Things seem to be going well enough. I start to feel a little off. I take an at home pregnancy test and SURPRISE!!! Pregnant. Ok, cool. As excited as I was to be a mommy again, I was less than excited for the pregnancy/delivery experience. Doctor appointment a couple days later confirms the at home test. The following week was relatively uneventful. No morning sickness, felt great and went to work (police officer) as if everything was normal.

Tuesday morning I woke up really early to go to the bathroom. I get off work at 2am, so 7am was right in the middle of my sleep cycle. That's when I noticed I was bleeding, a lot. I rally my husband and he grabbed our daughter and we headed to the ER. The local ER ran a few tests and scans and decided it would be best to fly me out.

At the second hospital, the Doc explained that I had what was called a Heterotopic pregnancy. A intrauterine and extra-uterine pregnancy occurring simultaneously. Twins!!! This occurs in 1/30,000 natural pregnancies. An emergency laparoscopic surgery was done and it was found the ectopic pregnancy had ruptured. The fetus and part of my tube were removed. While I was saddened at the loss of the little, I didn't have much time to mourn because Doc told me that the intrauterine pregnancy was still viable. He said the next week would tell a lot as to whether the little could withstand the trauma and would go full term.

So here I sit in my recliner under the watchful eye of my mother and husband, contemplating the little life growing inside of me and watching my daughter run and play thinking to myself that I should go buy a lottery ticket.