I was just barely six weeks along when late at night I went to the bathroom and found bright red blood.
Red blood is never a good sign during pregnancy. For about two full weeks before this day, I had been spotting regularly every day. I knew that was slightly abnormal, but the color of the blood was not alarming nor the amount, so I ruled it off. (after notifying my doctor who told me not to worry unless the color changes)
The moment I saw the blood, I broke down in tears. We’d been trying for this baby for some time, and we were so excited to know that we were pregnant. How could this be happening?
The only reason I didn’t go to the ER was because I wasn’t experiencing cramping and I knew they couldn’t do much of anything for me, but I called my doctor the very next morning. They got me in right away. My doctor spoke to me for a little bit before taking me in for an ultrasound. He wasn’t sure what he would find, but he was preparing me for the worst.
But the ultrasound showed a little tiny nugget baby with a strong heartbeat… I was so relieved. My baby was still there.
There are a lot of things during this pregnancy that I strongly believe God took control of. He’s been very determined to bring this baby to this earth so much so that He intercepted on many occasions. Let me take you through the list of things that I don’t believe were coincidences.
Normally doctors find a diagnosis of Trisomy 18 early on in pregnancy, but this wasn’t the case for us. At 18 weeks they found a few cysts on my baby’s brain (a common marker for a genetic disorder but NOT uncommon in healthy babies) and I did basic bloodwork to see what the odds would be of our baby having a genetic disorder. The odds came out very low in our favor so there wasn’t much to worry about. Within a few weeks the cysts were gone. All seemed well enough.
Aside from this, my doctor put me on a Vitamin D supplement for a solid eight weeks as well as progesterone (I was put on this after the bleeding issue to help strengthen the lining of my uterus and stop the bleeding/prevent miscarriage). The Vitamin D was because I was low in that area (I don’t consume much dairy) and I look back now feeling so grateful I took those because I know they helped strengthened my baby more than I realized.
Due to delays in scheduling and such, Maggie’s “issues“ weren’t discovered until 28 weeks along. This is crazy because I was already in the third trimester and everything had already been looking great before then. 28 weeks is when everything started to go downhill as it became one thing after another.
But I felt that everything was happening for a reason, when it was supposed to, on God’s time. For some reason that only He truly understands, we didn’t discover her problems until 28 weeks.
Before they knew specifically that it was Trisomy 18, they just knew there could be a risk of delivering early, so I got my first round of Betamethasone shots which helps strengthen the baby's lungs (which don’t normally finish developing until very close to full term). I got my second dose of these shots at 34 weeks (you can only get 2 rounds in a pregnancy, and they don’t normally give them after 32 weeks). I feel so blessed to have been able to get two rounds! I know they are going to seriously help my baby at birth.
I ended up switching OB care (both high risk and regular) because a great Trisomy 18 friendly doctor had been recommended to me. I was reluctant to do this at 32 weeks because I was already so far along, but for some reason, it felt like the right thing to do. Sometimes I still wonder how different my care would be if I had stayed with my previous doctors. They certainly weren’t as empathetic nor as well versed as the doctor I have now.
I truly believe God is in charge of all things as He’s been watching over our baby Maggie since day one. I know this more than ever now.
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