by Leisha Greefkes

This weekend I was reminded of how scary a pregnancy can be. The waiting for the blood test to find out if your HCG level increased. The worry of “what if”. Going to the bathroom and checking to make sure that you are not spotting. Worrying that if you are spotting could this mean a miscarriage. I would like to share some of our scary pregnancy experiences with you and I hope that they might put your mind at ease on some of your scary experiences.

I can remember how excited my husband and I were to find out that we were pregnant. After ten long years, our dream of having a family was finally coming true. We were both excited and scared to go for our 6 week ultrasound. This would show us if there was a heartbeat or not. It brought back unhappy memories of the prior year when we were pregnant. The year prior when we had our ultrasound our IVF doctor told us that we had a blighted ovum (an empty sack). Today’s ultrasound we were hoping to see a heartbeat. We were thrilled this time when our IVF doctor told us that there was a heartbeat, in fact there were three heartbeats. Of course with expecting triplets our doctor had to warn us of the dangers that can occur with carrying multiples. My husband and I were a happy couple one minute and in a blink of an eye we were faced with having to make a huge decision. We were so scared and worried that if we continued with the pregnancy what would happen, would the babies be ok, would I be ok?. We did our research and decided to go on with the triplet pregnancy.

My first ultrasound with my “high risk” OB/GYN doctor happened at 9 weeks. At this ultrasound we were able to bring in a blank video and have our ultrasound taped. My husband and I were crying with joy when we saw all three babies each in their own sac. This was really happening, this was reality, we had three babies in my belly! After, we went to eat lunch and talk about the babies.

The first scary moment was during lunch, I had felt this gush and I excused myself to go to the bathroom. While in the bathroom I started to bleed very heavily, so much that it went right through my pants. I came out of the bathroom and yelled across the restaurant to my husband that I think I am having a miscarriage and to get the car. On the way to the hospital, I called my doctor (her practice was in the hospital) and she advised me to come see her right away. She did another ultrasound to reassure that the babies were still ok and yes they were. While doing the 2nd ultrasound she showed me some little sacs that were most likely filled with blood. She explained that these were probably left over from my last period and sometimes can pop, hence the bleeding. Just to be on the safe side, she put me on 3 weeks bed rest just the same.

Our second scary moment came one Sunday evening, we were watching the health channel. They were showing women giving birth. My husband turned to me and asked me if I knew what a contraction felt like. I of course had no idea. That night I was having what felt like my belly getting really hard and then really soft. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but it kept going on all night. I got up and started timing when my belly would get really hard and then get really soft again, it turned out to be about every minute to every 2 minutes. Not knowing any better I fell asleep. The next morning I awoke and advised my husband of what I was experiencing the prior evening and he suggested I call my doctor. I went to work and called my doctor, she told me to come in A.S.A.P. I was probably having contractions. When I arrived she immediately sent me to the hospital to get admitted. I didn’t know what kind of a long haul I was in for that day. While my husband and I waited to get admitted to the hospital a doctor came up to us and asked what we were there for, my husband told them I was having contractions. The doctor asked how far long I was in my pregnancy and we told him 1 day shy of 24 weeks. He stated that we need to hold on to these babies at least through the night because if they would be born at 23 weeks, there was nothing legally that they could do to save them. This comment not only worried us, but also scared the living crap out of us!!!

The third scariest moment was when my husband was called in the middle of the night to come to the hospital right away. My bed was wet and the nurse thought that I was leaking embryonic fluid. I was almost rushed into surgery for an emergency c-section. After that scare I had several more spotting moments. I was told to try to stay in bed and not get up as the babies could “fall out” because they were so little. Just the thought of having them fall out kept me in bed for the next two months.

I think that the scariest moment for us was when I was ready to give birth. The nurses were prepping me for my c-section, my husband was not allowed in the room when I was getting my epidural. When the man was done administering the epidural shot the babies heartbeats dramatically dropped, they dropped so low so fast that the nurses called the doctor in right away and the doctor told me to lay on my left side and see if this helped and we waited a few minutes. I remember crying and the doctor telling me that I need to calm down. I told her that my husband was in the hallway and I needed him to be in here with me. Imagine how scared he was, seeing all these nurses and doctor rushing into my room and not being able to come in and not knowing what was going on!

I told our story because we want those of you to know that we have been were you have and we felt what you are feeling. My husband and I are real people who experienced Infertility, we went through IVF, we became pregnant, we had miscarriages, and we were amazingly blessed with triplets.

We have to say that our pregnancy was probably the most scariest thing we have ever dealt with in our lives an we wanted to share this with you to offer support while you are going through some of your scary moments and experiences. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!