Pregnancy & Birth Story

Welcome to the world Juliann Irene ♥♥

On January 24, of this year I gave birth to our third little girl, Juliann. I was so excited and relived that she was finally here. My pregnancy with her was extremely rough. I had a tear in my placenta as well as placenta previa, so bed rest it was for nearly 4 months. I was scared that I would lose her almost everyday. I begged God constantly to let me carry her because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing another baby. Children are such a joy and I couldn’t wait until I could hold her and know that she was in safe in my arms versus my body. I kept telling myself just make it to 26 weeks and maybe the nicu could take care of her better than I could. I have always been a heathy person and never had any major problems.  I felt like my own body was turning against our precious little girl.

I had never heard of placenta previa up until about a month before I got pregnant. I was reading a book about a lady that had gotten pregnant when her third baby was only a month old and she ended up being hospitalized for placenta previa. She laid flat on her back for months and I believe that they had to give her blood regularly because of how much she was losing. I do not remember if placenta previa was the sole cause of her blood loss.

I started bleeding when I was 9 weeks pregnant. I had went to church on a Wednesday night and before the service could start, I left and went straight to ER. I knew that that was too much blood to be losing. They checked me over and assured me many times that they believed the baby was fine, but they could not find where the blood was coming from. They sent me home and told me to see my doctor as soon as possible. I went in the next day still bleeding and had been all night. As soon as I saw my doctor she sent me straight to the ultrasound tech’s office. As soon as she swished it over my belly she found the heartbeat. I was so thankful that my baby was ok. My doctor came back in to see me and decided that light duty was best. I mostly stayed on the sofa, or sat in a chair outside so the girls could play. Everything seemed to be going great until I hit 11 weeks. I got up one morning and I knew as soon as I stood up what was going on. I called the doctor and went back in. They completed another ultrasound to check on baby and to find the source of bleeding. They finally found a spot that looked like blood, but they couldn’t really find the exact cause of the bleeding. I was put on bedrest for another two weeks and I was scheduled to come in weekly, but I was actually coming in almost daily. I was bleeding everyday and all the time. Every time I would stand up I would get a gush and back to the doctor I would go. I’m sure your thinking why do I keep going back, but I had to know that the baby was ok. I finally purchased a Doppler so that I could reassure myself.

This continued until week 26 or 27 and the bleeding just stopped. The doctor had said my placenta had finally moved to the right place and the bleeding was gone. We never did exactly figure out what caused all the bleeding. I was finally told that some women just bleed when they are pregnant and as scary as that is, there is nothing that you can do.

My older girls had been staying with my mom or my husbands mom the whole time I was on bedrest. They would come stay a day or two, but then go back. I was so glad to finally have my girls back home with me. I felt like my self again. I was doing light cleaning, cooking meals which I had missed and just really, really enjoyed being with the girls.

I had a few scares after I hit 30 weeks, but nothing serious. The day I had Julie I had been scrubbing the house top to bottom. I started contracting irregularly around 1 pm and by 8 that night they were pretty regular. Finally around 1 am I told my husband we needed to head to the hospital. Everything was going slow once I arrived and they suggested I walk some. I was hurting pretty good after an hour walk and they wanted to give me a pain shot to see if y contractions went away. I slept for about 30 minutes and they came back in to check on me. They formally admitted me and sent me to my room. After my epidural I slept on and off until 3:30 when they called my doctor down. I had a sweet 7lb. 5oz baby girl at 4:01 pm.

I couldn’t be more pleased that our little Juliann (Jewel) is here. She is certainly a precious gift from God and a jewel from Him above. We must never forget to praise Him for all he does for us. All to Him I owe!