And Then There Were Four

 

AnnouncementThe Double Danger family is expanding once again!  We are so excited that a little baby girl is on the way.  I am currently 25 weeks pregnant and as with Liam’s pregnancy it hasn’t been an easy road to get here.

What is a Transabdominal Cerclage?  And What’s the Big Deal?

Because of Adenocarcinoma in situ cells that were found during Liam’s pregnancy and the two LEEPS following that diagnosis, I had a Transabdominal Cerclage at 10 weeks pregnant with this little one.  The LEEPS left me with a very short cervix that my wonderful doctors were afraid would not hold a baby to term.  James and I were given the option of a Vaginal Cerclage, Transabdominal Cerclage or wait and see.  After a discussion with our specialist (Dr Wortman in Fort Worth, TX), some research and a lot of discussions, we chose the Transabdominal Cerclage.  We all felt that this was our best chance at getting this little one here safely.

If you are unfamiliar with a Transabdominal Cerclage, as most are and we were until it happened to us, this is the short story.  A stitch is placed between the uterus and cervix, by going in through an incision in the abdomen.  I was told that the incision would be about the size of my c section incision and it was a little larger than that and when the doctors opened me up they found that my abdominal muscles had been sewn together after my c section so they had to cut those muscles apart to get to where they needed to be.  Thankfully, the scarring from my c section was minimal which made it easier to get to their location and the surgery was very routine.  Baby girl handled the anesthesia, surgery and recovery like a pro and I wish I could say the same for myself.  Recovery was ROUGH.   The bad part was over in about a week and though every second of it was worth it, it was not easy.  I expected the recovery to be like my c section, but in my experience, it was worse.  Pain meds that were safe during pregnancy were given to me and though I took them the first few days, I tried to take them less as the week went on, due to my worry of harming the baby and introducing so many meds into our systems.  Constipation set in due to anesthesia, pain meds and normal pregnancy side effect and added a lot of discomfort to the entire process.  James, my Mom and my Mother-in-Law were absolutely amazing during the week and took great care of Liam and I.  Poor Liam was handed around and his whole routine was interrupted, but like he always does, he handled everything in stride and made us very proud.

So what now?  Are you cool?

I am good, alive & well – so is the baby.  Where are we today in the pregnancy?  25 weeks, 1 day pregnant and so far all is looking very good!  At 22 weeks I was put on progesterone to help stabilize my cervix and combined with the stitch they are doing their jobs and my cervix is measuring longer than expected.  While it is not as long as normal, it sure isn’t as short as my doctor has seen, so we are all optimistic that little girl will make it to full term.  Because of the stitch being in place a second c section is required and will happen around 37 weeks, so we are looking for her to be here sometime in late October.  We will have another baby just in time for the holidays!

While I plan to write about the remaining weeks of the pregnancy, I hope this is the most clinical post I have to write.  The rest will be the decorating of the nursery, which has already begun and we are really loving so far.  So much of the nursery is DIY projects, so I will link to the instructions to all of our projects just in case anyone else needs some projects to take up ALL of their free time. (HA)

If you came to our site by looking for information on Transabdominal Cerclage or pregnancy after LEEPS, please reach out to me and I will share more of my experience with you.  While doing my own research before my procedure I found there isn’t a ton of personal stories and was desperate to find someone to talk with.  I would love to help support others that are in my situation.

1 thought on “And Then There Were Four”

  1. I did not know about your stomach muscles being seen together! That is CRAZY!!! So glad your almost to your due date and Mila will be here soon!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


*