Erica's Story

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2001

My first pregnancy started out as uneventful as it could get. There were minimal symptoms and I didn't have a complaint in the world.

I did everything I was supposed to do. I scheduled my doctor's visit, I took my vitamins everyday, rested etc., etc. At 16 weeks 7 days I had an appointment, all was well. I had an u/s, the baby looked great...strong heartbeat, moving around, everything was absolutely PERFECT. After I left my appt I started feeling a tightening feeling in my abdomen, I thought nothing of it because I figured it was from the doctor pressing down for the u/s. I went home and just rested, still feeling the same. I woke about 11pm and went to the bathroom only to feel a gush of bright red blood on my underwear. I freaked out and called the doctor as I called the doctor, my water broke. Everytime I had a contraction my water would gush out. My doctor met me at the hospital and checked me. The u/s showed my baby moving around w/ a strong heartbeat but not enough fluid for my baby to survive or to continue the pregnancy. My baby boy, Isaac, was born at 7 am on October 19, 2001 weighing 2.5 oz. He was perfect! Everything happened so fast it was registering, less than 24 hrs ago everything was fine. I was mad, sad, just a bag of emotions.

At my follow-up visit my doctor said I had Incompetent Cervix and would need a cerclage for my next pregnancy.

2008

My second pregnancy started out the same as my first, uneventful. Of course I was freaking out because you never forget something like the loss of a child.

This time around I had a different set of doctors due to insurance reasons. I have to say the staff and doctors were FANTASTIC. I explained, in detail, my previous loss to them. They didn't think it was IC because I had contractions. IC is "painless" dilation of the cervix. So they went ahead and diagnosed me w/ Pre-term Labor and continued to monitor me w/ transvaginal u/s every 2 wks. All of my u/s looked great my cervix was actually getting longer. Also, the pathology reports from my previous loss stated that my pregnancy was infected. So I lost my baby due to an infection....but was the infection caused by a cervix that had been dilated for a certain amount of time? Anyway, at 22 weeks my cervix was funneled to 1.7cm and 1cm dilated. I received an emergency cerclage that night and put on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy with weekly progesterone shots. At 29 weeks I was admitted to the hospital for 3 weeks to receive steroid shots because my cervix managed to dilate to 3cm w/ the cerclage in place. My 3 weeks in the hospital were uneventful, I was monitored closely and only had 1 contraction, which I didn't feel, while I was there. I had my cerclage removed at exactly 35weeks and had my baby almost 2wks later at 36w5d. Carlos Antonio entered the world on February 19, 2008 weighing 5lbs 5oz. The delivery went rather smoothly and our favorite doctor was there, which we were really happy about.

The wierd thing is that I got pregnant around the same time. My due dates for both were exactly 2 weeks apart. Carlos arrived 3 weeks early on the 19th of February and his brother was born on October 19th. Both are even number months too. There were also other coincidences w/ the pregnancy, they were both VERY SIMILAR in so many ways.

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