A loss

I was finally pregnant! But I was still bleeding, at times very heavily. Needless to say, I was worried. When I got home from Texas, I had an ultrasound to check on the baby. I was seven weeks along and the baby was about half a centimeter long. But her (we found out she was a girl at the 20 week ultrasound) heart was beating along like crazy. It was so amazing to see on the screen and hear it pounding through the room. I had brought a videotape with me to record it. I love having that on tape to watch again and again.

At 8 weeks I had another ultrasound, to check her growth, which was exactly what it should be. I was still bleeding, but was assured this was normal and nothing looked wrong. I was released from the fertility clinic and sent to the general OB clinic.

At 10 weeks, I was bleeding very heavily and cramping hard, so I went into the urgent care clinic. I was given another ultrasound, and all they could find was an empty amniotic sac. Two doctors looked and looked and couldn't find a baby. I was sitting on the exam table crying and crying. I couldn't believe it was over so quickly. A third doctor heard the commotion and requested a look. I didn't much care who was doing what at that point, so I let him run the ultrasound too. All of a sudden we heard a heart beat. Completely separate from the empty sac, he found my baby, looking healthy and strong, in a sac of her own. I have never gone from tears of despair to tears of joy so quickly!

The only explanation we have is that at one point I was carrying twins that were either missed during my first two ultrasounds, or no baby ever developed in the second sac. Either way, it explained the bleeding. My body was trying to miscarry the empty sac while also holding on to the healthy baby. I continued to bleed part of the way into the second trimester, but we fortunately never had another scare like that.