FYI…there is going to be a lot of blood + postpartum talk so if you’re not interested, i suggest you click away now!

this post is brought to you by a hot coffee turned iced coffee!! and i’m needing about 12 more hours in the day…anyone else?!
i’m finally wrapping up all the details of maisley’s birth story + the following 3 weeks…it’s like there’s 4 crazies running around here or something! we’re finally 6 weeks out from maisley’s birth and if there’s one thing that’s certain it’s that we made the right call by taking these tubes out. while i absolutely love being pregnant and quite frankly, already miss it, my body doesn’t love anything about pregnancy or delivery and it sure made a point to prove so this time around.

i actually healed fairly well after the cesarean. i make it a point to get up and move and probably push myself a little too far those first few days…but. i know that the faster i can get up and move, the quicker i heal. i also make it a point to wear a medical grade corset {and actually still wear it!} which also helps.

fast forward to my 2 week follow-up {a few days before 2 weeks} and i was doing great. no bleeding. no complications. i was cleared to lift the big kids and start walking, paying attention to my body and obviously listening to it if anything hurt. i was feeling good {still sore from surgery, but otherwise feeling great!}.

monday

thank heavens zach was still on leave because monday {over 2 weeks since delivery}, we had gotten the kids down for naps and i was sitting on the couch feeding maisley…stood up when i was finished, and felt a huge gush. i went to the bathroom and there was a lot of blood…and it just kept coming.
i was filling pads about every 20-30 minutes and after an hour of continual bleeding, i told zach i was starting to get concerned. we had guests come to bring dinner and when they left, i made the call to the doctor, hoping he would tell me i should go in to get checked out because i was starting to worry.

prior to this, i hadn’t had any bleeding for nearly a week and it had slowed down to barely spotting with old blood…so this much fresh blood was concerning.
as soon as i filled the doctor {who happened to be the one who delivered maisley too, who we adore} in on what was going in, he agreed that this was entirely too much bleeding and something to be concerned about. he said to head to the emergency department immediately.
nothing happens immediately with 4 kids under the age of 4 so it took some time to drop the kids off at zach’s brother + sister-in-law’s house and finally get to the hospital.

at that point i was still soaking a pad every 20-30 minutes so they got us right back. a quick cervical check showed that i technically wasn’t hemorrhaging because my cervix wasn’t pooling with blood…but it was still ‘too much blood to be normal’. they took some labs to check my blood count levels and sent me off for an ultrasound to see what was going on.
the results came back that i had retained product of conception… basically leftover stuff and it could have been anything from tissue to placenta to whatever else is in there from pregnancy. initially the plan was to do a d+c that night but after talking to the doctor, the plan was to discharge with a medication called methergine to start the next day.

tuesday

the plan tuesday was to take the methergine 4x that day to try to get my body to get rid of everything left in my uterus. i was told to expect lots of cramping, contractions and a ton of blood…basically like labor.
i experienced the exact opposite. no blood. no contractions…nothing. i didn’t feel good…tired, headache…annoyed… but the plan for my body to get rid of everything left over wasn’t working.
the major downside to this medication is that i couldn’t nurse maisley so i had to pump and dump for 36 hours..huge bummer.

wednesday

i had a follow-up with my ob on wednesday morning and as we were parking, i told zach i just wanted to be done with all of this. i was ready to move on with the healing, get back to being ‘mom’ and i was tired of all the complications. i was emotional and when my ob got the status report of how the last day went {lack of bleeding or any progress} we all agreed that a plan for a d+c {dilation + curettage} would be the best way to avoid an emergency.
the concern was that i had gone so long without any bleeding, and we knew that there was retained matter still in my uterus that i could start an infection or hemorrhage and it could be the next day or the next week. the best way to prevent this becoming an emergency at 2am was to get everything out…a d+c. we scheduled it for first thing the next morning so we could have time to make plans for the kids to stay at my moms.

thursday

zach, Maisley and i arrived at the hospital about 545 for pre-op. so thankful i could bring maisley so i was able to feed her right before i went into the OR and then again after i came out from under anesthesia. although it’s a fairly quick procedure, i opted to be put under general anesthesia so i wouldn’t have to wait around in recovery for a spinal/epidural to wear off…and they make me so sick so i didn’t want that either. i was wheeled back to the OR, i got myself up on the operating table and the anesthesiologist asked me for my favorite memories with each of the babes until i fell asleep… what an awesome way to go under!
i woke up in recovery only about 30 minutes later, rather hysterical, asking zach if they found what they were looking for. i tend to either be really funny or really emotional when i come out from anesthesia..and today was emotional. zach answered the same question about 10 times until i remembered the answer that they found exactly what they were looking for and sent it away to be tested.

my ob was very gentle around my incision from the ceserean because that hadn’t healed yet but was fairly confident that it wasn’t retained placenta because most of the ‘retained matter’ he could see was at the top of my uterus.

about two hours later, we were packing up to head home and i was starving…thanks to nursing + fasting from midnight… so we stopped for a giant iced coffee and salad. the rest of the day was uneventful and spent on the couch and in bed sleeping off the anesthesia.

it’s been nearly two weeks and i’m doing great… i continued to have some bleeding but as the days have passed, it has become less and less. i had my follow up appointment last week and we discussed that i could potentially bleed for awhile and if it becomes too much we’ll reevaluate the need for a progesterone only birth control pill to thin the lining of my uterus.
i’ve started working out this week and can finally say i think we’re in the clear and officially back to normalcy!!

it’s been such a rollercoaster and i couldn’t be more thankful for amazing family we can throw our kids at with a 5 minutes warning and who shows up to the hospital on an all-too-regular basis to spend hours in the ER and friends who are there for ice cream and wine dates.