Another Year Goes By, Another Miscarriage.

A second natural pregnancy. And a fourth miscarriage. I'm sorry to pop in again with this sort of update, but I feel compelled to add this event to our story of infertility and loss. I'll summarize.

In the months after miscarriage #3, I had irregular bleeding and spotting off and on until my post-partum cycles regulated. I don't know what of this bleeding to attribute to the miscarriage, getting my period back after having baby, changes in breastfeeding, or all of the above. By December 2014, my cycle seemed to regulate and we were 'casually trying' for another pregnancy.

Then this summer I actually got pregnant from sex! I made an appointment for an early ultrasound. But right around 6 weeks I had some bleeding and went in for a scan. The Nurse Practitioner who performed the u/s had a hard time identifying a yolk sac. I thought I might have seen something but was convinced it was a blighted ovum. We also saw some blood in between the sac and my cervix. She was way more optimistic than I was and told me it was too early, I probably ovulated later, etc, etc. She didn't take any measurements. We made a follow up appointment for the following week.

I was 7 weeks, based on my LMP, when I had the second scan. There was actually growth. The CRL measured 6w5d. There was a heartbeat but it was low. As low as 80 bpm. Very low. This time I had a CNM doing the u/s. She told me to be cautiously optimistic, that maybe the heart just started beating, that she has seen this situation go either way. I was more pragmatic. I know what the fetal heart rate should be when the CRL measures 6w5d. But still, I was shocked that there was growth and even more that there was a heartbeat. Wait another week.

I started getting more pregnancy symptoms in the days following the 7 week ultrasound. I was starting to get hopeful. And then my symptoms disappeared. When I went in for my third ultrasound at 8 weeks, the image showed no growth at all since the last scan and no heartbeat.

That was yesterday. I've decided to take misoprostol again to induce the actual miscarriage. I was almost leaning towards d/c, but this practice of OBs and CNMs recommend medical management when the pregnancy measures 8 weeks or under.

I'll check back in after the miscarriage is complete. Thanks for reading.