36 Week Emergency C Section

I was pregnant with my 3rd who was a total surprise. I had my now 15 month old daughter on Dec 20 2023 and we were enjoying watching her grow and her older brother loving on her when we find out I’m unexpectedly expecting again only 6 months later, 6 months after a second c section.

I was nervous because I was about to turn 36 and they don’t normally like having pregnancies so close together in general and especially not with C-sections. The entire pregnancy I was followed by my OB and MFM due to the aforementioned reasons of age and close pregnancies. Honestly, everything was going beautifully without any issues right up until the end. Baby boy was due April 7th but since he would require a repeat c section it was scheduled for March 31st at 9 am. I was doing weekly NSTs starting at week 33 and those were all great too. I should have known it was too good to be true. On Sunday, March 9th, at about 9:30 in the evening I noticed some very light spotting when I wiped and called my OB who advised I go to the hospital I would be delivering at for triage to be safe. After only a cervical exam and some monitoring of the baby they decided my consistent contractions and light bleeding was preterm labor (no ultrasound done on this night even though I was high risk🤦🏻‍♀️) and sent me home with instructions to return if I fill up a pad with blood within an hour.

The next morning, Monday March 10th, I noticed I was now having contractions that I could feel as the other ones from the prior night were almost non existent as far as pain went and I see my bleeding had picked up but I’m not filling a pad. I watched for a few hours and even took a nap because per the ER instructions I wasn’t even supposed to return. When I wake from my nap I’m now having bad back pain, painful contractions, and bleeding heavier (though still not enough to fill a pad in an hr) so I tell my husband to pack us up, get my mom to the house because I was pretty sure I was in full labor.

When I get to the hospital they test to see if my waters ruptured, they hadn’t and I was still not dilating only 50% effaced. Due to the heavier bleeding and the consistent contractions with pain they decided to finally order an ultrasound and admit me for monitoring around 11:30 pm. By midnight I was in my room and my husband had arrived to be there if we ended up delivering. About an hour later and 20ish mins after the ultrasound the doctor comes running into my room with multiple nurses and tells me I have a severe placental abruption and we were heading for an emergency c section to basically save my sons life as the placenta is his life source and it had detached by 7.5 Cm at a minimum.

No, I already knew this would be a C-section so I wasn’t too worried about that but I was very concerned for my unborn child. I put on a brave face, kissed my husband, and said I would see him in the operating room. I didn’t want to panic nor cause my husband any panic hence the holding back of tears and brave face. At 3:32 am my sweet baby boy was born, they showed him to me but then whisked him away which wasn’t normal. He was struggling to breathe and rushed off to the NICU while my husband was sent to wait in our recovery room for me to have my tubal done and be stitched back up. It wasn’t until I left recovery that the staff finally stopped pushing pain meds so I could wake up and ask where my son was, and it was then I was told he was in the NICU and as soon as I was in my room someone could wheel me down to see him.

I was so worried but he was doing surprisingly well. He was on a bubble cpap to help him breathe but other than that no jaundice, no other issues. When I went to walk for the first time I noticed I had a lot of clear fluid draining from somewhere and the nurse checked only to discover my incision was coming apart (thanks shitty we doc) but we could handle that separately and if I wanted to be discharged so I could spend 24/7 in the NICU they would discharge me after 48 hrs. By my release my sweet little Luca was already off the cpap breathing on his own! We were able to initiate breast feeding and stop pumping. I got discharged and my husband went home to get some rest while I stayed (my choice) with the new baby.

Overall Luca spent 6 days in the NICU and we came home the Sunday following delivery. Currently I’m enjoying every other day wound packings and antibiotics and multiple appts each week trying to avoid reopening my incision (they are hopeful this will work) but everything is worth it as long as my baby boy is healthy, which he is.

So welcome to the world Luca Mark, I’d do it all over again for you. Photo with no ng tube is from the day we came home, photo with ng tube is from the day before he graduated the NICU and the photo with all the tubes was 2 days after delivery right before the cpap came out