Difficult Ending = Beautiful Beginning

First I have to share the love and support from all over. Especially to Hope for Accreta Foundation, Gina. She sent me this. Such a beautiful surprise to see the signatures of survivors from all over the world. Very humbling. Probably the biggest and most humbling gifts I've received thus far are cards with words of encouragement. I've received birthday cards, etc but these cards are different...or maybe my perspective is changing.  This past week I don't look at my children the same. When I hold my youngest, I inhale his sweet, sticky and sometimes unidentifiable (depends what substance he's sporting) smell. I look at my two youngest and truly look into their deep blue eyes, trying to count the various shades of blue. I watch their movements. I stare in wonder how my 3 yr old knows almost all the words to Frozen, complete with hand gestures and facial expressions. How observant she is...what has she observed from me over the 3 short years of her beautiful life? W...

Plans are in place for our travel to Houston. I'm nervous. While I'm thrilled for the sun and heat I know I won't be leaving that state the same person, ever . That's a bit frightening. My husband and I leave in 10 days. I've plan a little babymoon while we are there. I booked our timeshare in Galveston. We've never had one...we've never had a honeymoon either! Our whole marriage has been about children and babies. I think we're over do for some time away ;) . I've made a baby bucket list. One was a babymoon, henna, maternity pics and up cycle some furniture for a changing table.  The other day my friends held a little blessing way for me. I got a henna and belly cast. I've never had either before! What a great experience! I was prayed over, prayed for and was given a prayer shawl that was made and prayed over while it was being made. Just truly amazing, in every way. I've never received such love and attention, ever. I'm so thankfu...

We are at the point of viability!! Whew, what a relief that is :) Went to the northern VA perinatal assoc yesterday. As soon as the tech started the u/s my husband and both said, "wow". Neither of us were expecting to see how 'holy' my placenta was. We just had an u/s 3.5 wks ago and actually expected to not see anything change and hoping to be told I didn't have accreta. But it's not meant to be. The veins measured .9cm, varying in size.  The previous peri we went to was looking at a spot on my scar by my abdominal wall. The accreta spot is not there. It's actually up against my bladder. It has embedded itself through my uterine muscle and it's up against my uterine wall (but the new peri didn't call it increta because it didn't go through the wall..which is percreta but since she said it's increta, that's what I will call it). It now looks like a 'bulge in a balloon'. I have 10 wks until delivery. A lot has changed in ju...

When "counseling" us on vbacs, OB's usually always reference to uterine rupture. But do they tell you that with 1 c section we have a .24% of developing accreta. Or a .57% chance after 3 c sections...or a 2.33% after 5 c sections. I'm guessing by the time one reaches 3+ sections, the vbac talk is non exsistent. When deciding between a vbac or rcs (repeat c section) we need to ask ourselves "will there be future pg(s)", "is there permanent birth control in place?" Keep in mind, yes there was a study done in this, 49% unplanned pregnancy rate! (Per CDC 2012, Guise 2012) Women have a 6.4% chance of placenta previa after 1 c section according to a study done by Silver 2006.  And if you have previa your chances dramatically increase for accreta. 3.3% (1 c/s), 11% (2 c/s), 40% (3 c/s) and levels off to 67% with 5 or more sections.  Now if your chances for uterine rupture are .09% to 3.7% which carries a 5% maternal death rate, one would say h...

I didn't get pics of my "holy" placenta but I plan to but here's some pics. This is the baby's feet and the placenta above and to the left of them. The dark spots on the top left of the pic are some of the veins, in a different angle they are much bigger.  Above the 5 you can see a "hole" or dark circle, that's another vein.  UPDATE: I found a short video online that shows exactly what my placenta (placenta lakes) looked like:

At 19wks I learned that I had complete placenta previa (cpp) as well as placenta accreta, if not percreta. Accreta is a general term to define accreta (the placenta attaches to the uterine wall), increta (the placenta attaches through to the outer layer of the uterine muscle) and percreta (the placenta grows outside of the uterus, usually attaching itself to the bladder, pelvic wall, bowels, etc). The placenta will have a 'swiss cheese' or 'lakey' appearance. Delivery for these types of conditions is at 34 weeks. Although some OB's have pushed it back to 35-36wks. It has been shown the longer a woman with accreta is pg passed 34 the increased chances of bleeding occurs (I have a graph per Baylor College of Medicine that I need to dig up and upload). An excerpt from ACOG : ABSTRACT: Placenta accreta is a potentially life-threatening obstetric condition that requires a multidisciplinary approach to management. The incidence of placenta accreta has increased and see...

My first born is almost 20. I got pg when I was 16, had her when I was 17. That was all it took for me to become enthralled with fertility, pregnancy and child birth. I've had 6 vaginal births and 3 c sections, no vbacs. My vaginal births were all induced. If I would've known then what I know now...such is life, right? The one time (read beautiful!) I did go into labor on my own, it was with my 2nd surrogate son. It was amazing, intense but not painful like my pitocin inductions. That labor landed me my 1st c section. The baby's heart rate declined about 15mins after my epidural...why I got the epidural? Because I was afraid of the pain to come, as if I could predict the future. OB was afraid of a placental abruption. Not sure why he thought this but I have my suspicions. No oxygen, I had to ask for it, they didn't tell me to turn to my left, I asked them if I should. They didn't turn off the epidural to see if that was the problem. No hands and knees position as I ...