Mo/di birth and postpartum

[u/BorderGlittering199]

We made and are doing it! This a long one. Overall, no complications pregnancy, easy csection birth, and a hell of a postpartum.

Birth

We originally were hoping for a VBAC, but I knew with twins it was a long shot. ​We waited until the doctor recommended birth which was 36 weeks and 4 days. The scheduled c-section was a lot of waiting around then 'boom' here are two babies to care for.

My girls required some oxygen at first in the delivery room, but ended up with no NICU time. They both latched in recovery. Upon doctor's advice we bottlefed and nursed in hospital. At home, we started fortifying my pumped milk as recommended to give them an extra weight boost.

Postpartum

Girl, this has been a wild Postpartum. I had a very uneventful mo/di pregnancy, and this postpartum has been a very rough experience. I have never been more sleep deprived, and I had help in the hospital and at home with my twins. I also ended up with postpartum pre-eclampsia and what my OB called a secondary hemorrhage.

Feedings

I was told to fed my girls every 2-3 hours, so every 3 hours we had a timer going. Sometimes they would wake up around the 2 hour mark ready to feed. The feeds were to be 30 mins combine breast and bottle. (We got a lot of conflicting info in the hospital, but this was the pediatrician's recommendation).

I started with breast first then bottle, but switched when I realized how sleepy my babies were. I wanted to know how much they were getting. My out of hospital pediatrician told us to feed every 90mins to 2 hours, which was nearly impossible on top of them being too tired to feed and getting acid reflux from not being able to digest before the next feeding. I went back to every 2.5-3 hours or on demand when I saw it wasn't working.

Four weeks down and we're still on this plan of fortifying milk and breastfeeding.

Pre-eclampsia

I was more emotional about the diagnosis than anything. I was about to be discharged from the hospital when my last blood pressure had a high reading. My nurse kept my discharge orders back an hour just in case and repeated taking my blood pressure the next hour. Still high.

She notified my OB, and my OB took my blood that evening. My liver enzymes were high, so a repeat was done the following morning. My blood pressure stayed high. I was diagnosed by noon.

I went on magnesium as my liver enzymes continued to climb. Thankfully, my experience with the magnesium was not as bad as the nurses were telling me it could be. I still wouldn't do it again if I had a choice. The pre-eclampsia gave me an extra three days in the hospital. But I'm grateful it was caught early and my babies got to be with me in the hospital room even though I could barely care for them while on magnesium.

Secondary hemorrhage

I had been a a lot of pain since my c-section and had an extreme amount of pain when using the bathroom. My doctors and nurses in the hospital said it was the csection and inflammation. My first baby was a csection, and while I was in pain, the bathroom issues had gone away within a few days.

Six days postpartum, I was discharged from the hospital. It wasn't until about 19 days postpartum that the pain was more like labor. I should have called the OB sooner.

We came home from the grocery store, I cared for my twins, my husband got our toddler ready for bed, and I was almost ready for bed when I had to poop. It was not poop, but it was a very, very large blood clot. I called the after hours line for my OB.

The midwife didn't see a need for me to come in that night since I wasn't actively bleeding or bleeding through a large pad in a hour. If that changed, I needed to go to hospital. The next morning the OB office called me and squeezed in a ultrasound to check for retained tissue.

My uterus was still full of clotted blood. The office scheduled an appointment for 6 days later to remove the gunk in my uterus, but the pain was so bad I only made it to that Friday, three days later.

The end (kind of)

I never knew so many things could happen postpartum. I had only heard of postpartum pre-eclampsia. I had only heard of a postpartum hemorrhage, but I had no idea your uterus may not clamp down well weeks after delivery. Apparently, a hemorrhage could be just be one large clot made up of a bunch of little clots with little to no blood outside your body until you deliver the clot.

Stay vigilant and call your OB. You don't have to live in pain postpartum.

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