[~Angela~]

I'm going to try to type this while it's still fresh in my memory. I am writing this mostly for my own memory of it. If you are expecting to m/c natrually, please remember it's different for everyone, this pregnancy was originally twins, and I think I had more tissue than a single m/c would have. I am not writing this to scare you. I believe the (1) baby lived for about 9 weeks, and I miscarried at 11 weeks.

I found out the day before Halloween I was pregnant. DH was not super happy about it but came around to the idea. For the next month or so I spotted. The Dr didn't think it was an issue. The only issue was that they didn't agree with when my EDD would be, even though I charted they really didn't agree. SO, I was sent for an ultrasound on Dec 1. I should have been about 8 weeks. The baby measured about 6 weeks with a heartrate of 40. I went back three days later to find a second sac and 1 baby with a heartrate of 98. We got really hopeful. I went back 1 week later to find no heartrate. From then I decided to miscarry naturally. I bled on a off for 2 weeks. I woke up at 3am on Christmas with really bad cramps. I could hold my breath through them and was able to rest between what I guess were contractions. This lasted about 2.5 hours then stopped. I was lying down through this. About 5:20am I got up to use the bathroom and a large gush, what I'm guessing was a placenta/baby (my DH had to scoop out later, it was large enough to clog the toilet), blood clots and ALOT of blood came out. I ran to the bathroom and was able to get most in the toilet. I couldn't see anything through the blood unfortunatley and had no clue if it was done. I showered while my DH cleaned up the bathroom because the kids were getting up to open stockings (he ended up throwing out all the clothes I was wearing). For about 20 minutes I had minimal blood, then for the next 4 hours I couldn't get off the toilet because pads wouldn't work due to the blood clots and large amount of blood and on top of that I was vomiting. During this time I called the Dr. on call, trying to figure out if I should go to the hospital. I guess I really scared my DH, I got really pale and couldn't stand on my own. I was not thinking straight, my biggest concern was that I couldn't get to emergency without bleeding all over the car and myself....I ended up opting to stay home and thinking back and really angry at the Dr. for dismissing me so easily.

Anyway about 1pm the bleeding slowed. By that time I was going through about 1 pad every 10 minutes for the next 3 hours. By the evening my bleeding had slowed enough for my to lay down for 1-2 hours. This is over a day later and I still have a hard time walking around the house by myself. I can't catch my breath when I go up the stairs. I know I lost a lot of blood, and it was really scary.

Looking back, I should have gone to the hospital. If I find out in advance about another impending m/c I will opt for a D&C.

This was the worst Christmas of my life.

[Mamabekaboo]

[quote]

Looking back, I should have gone to the hospital. If I find out in advance about another impending m/c I will opt for a D&C.

This was the worst Christmas of my life.

Angela,

I am right there with you. I started bleeding on the Monday before Christmas. The bleeding got heavier and was accompanied by cramps for Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday morning, I felt a bit better but the bleeding was noticably more. I was also cramping quite good. I got up and woke up my other kids and watched them open their Christmas gifts. I did make it through that. Then I went back to bed. I slept for about 2 hours. Then I got really antsy and wanted to leave the house. I went with a lady I knew to the only place open (the truck stop) and got some hot cheetos. We talked for a while in the car after and I was feeling fine. I got home and my kids wanted to watch a movie with me. I didn't see anything wrong with that. I was cramping again but didn't think anything of it. After about the first 15 minutes of the movie I knew that my cramping was WAY to much. I got up and went and took a LONG hot shower. I was literally breathing hard and grunting to get through the cramps. I don't think my husband realized how bad it was at that point. After I got out of the shower I just stayed in the bathroom and walked back and forth. The cramps were causing me to have to have a bowel movement. I knew that as soon as I pushed right with my bowels that my miscarriage would start. It was almost like a loud pop too. Instantly blood was draining into the toilet and I passed a large clot. This is my third natural miscarriage. My first passed like a period, my second was like this one except I passed so much blood that I almost passed out (at the hospital thankfully with a nurse right there). They say to go to the hospital if you fill the pad in an hour... I filled it in 10 minutes. We already had someone ready to call for if we needed her. We were just really hoping it didn't happen on Christmas day. We left within 20 minutes of the "Pop" and I filled three pads in that time. By the time I got to the hospital, I had soaked through another pad, my underwear, shorts, pajama pants, and a towel that I was holding between my legs. When I went into the hospital the ER lady just was like UMMM what do I do? as I stand there holding a towel between my legs. After standing there for about 5 minutes I told her if I didn't get to a toilet I was going to bleed all over the floor. They took me to the back then. I went to the bathroom and then they had me go to a room where they sat me on a big waterproof bedpad. After about 1.5 hours they finally gave me some Lortab for pain. YEAH that was a joke. Didn't help at all. Then they gave me an IV and gave me some morphine after about another hour. My nurse was really nice. The doctor came in and did a pelvic. He pulled out A LOT of stuff (or so my husband says) which made my bleeding slow down considerably. Then they ordered an ultrasound and saw that I hadn't passed the sac yet but it was very close to coming out. Other than that most of my uterus was clean then. They said other than needing some meds for cramps I should be able to go home. I did about 1.5 hours later. I still hadn't passed the baby. We came home and I passed the baby about 15 minutes later. I am still bleeding but it has slowed down considerably. I am soooo glad about that. I actually think going to the hospital is the best option for a natural miscarriage. They can pulled some of the clotting out without hurting you. I am sorry you had to do this on Christmas of all days... but at least now you know that you were not alone. My husband commented that we would never look at Christmas the same again. This is true, but I am not going to let it control me. I went to the ER because I knew it would help me through it and make it go faster. It didn't go too much faster but at least I had meds to help with the pain. And I don't have insurance so I get to see the happy Bill too.
Also, your doctor shouldn't have let you carry that long after knowing the baby was gone. The longer you wait the more chance you can suffer depression. I would probably change doctors. A doctor won't tell you to go to the ER unless they think it is life threatening. Most don't think that of a miscarriage. I decide on my own for things like that. I know my story probably didn't make you feel any better but I wanted you to know you weren't alone.
Again, sorry this happened on Christmas... it really sucks for us right.
Beka K.

[~Angela~]

Thank you so much for writing that. You have actually made me feel so much better about it. It was so scarey to lose that much blood. Later that day I was seriously considering having DH get himself fixed. I think it was worse than labor, because I had no idea what was happening, no control and no medical intervention. It's unreal that an ER wouldn't get you into a room ASAP bleeding that much. I'm so sorry this happened to you, especially on Christmas . It will always be a marker of when our babies left us.

[Mamabekaboo]

Just wanted to see how you were doing? My bleeding has almost stopped. My husband and I have decided to wait until we both lose about 30 lbs to try again. Plus we think that will give us adequite time to grieve. I do want another baby. This being my third miscarriage, I am wanting my heart to be prepared in case it happens again. I hope you have a wonderful New Years Eve in spite of our rotten Christmas!!!
Beka K.

[Mamabekaboo]

Just wanted to see how you were doing? My bleeding has almost stopped. My husband and I have decided to wait until we both lose about 30 lbs to try again. Plus we think that will give us adequite time to grieve. I do want another baby. This being my third miscarriage, I am wanting my heart to be prepared in case it happens again. I hope you have a wonderful New Years Eve in spite of our rotten Christmas!!!
Beka K.

[~Angela~]

My bleeding has almost stopped as well, just spotting today, a good sign I think. I am feeling much better. We had talked about trying again in March, but we shall see how we feel about it then, the whole experience scared me, I'm not sure I could go through this again. I'm glad your doing better!

Being your 3rd m/c, have you spoken to your Dr. about what might be causing them?