Birth Story Part 2

So Thursday the 9th of October I went in to my 39 week prenatal appointment . About a week and a half prior I developed what I thought were normal stretch marks on my stomach but they were extremely itchy. However, on the 9th the itch started to spread.  At that appointment they asked if the rash on my stomach was bothering me and I told them yes it was and that the night before I started to itch in other spots as well but I told them I thought they were just bug bites.

 Went home that day and washed my sheets, bought a new matress pad, etc cause I thought if could be bed bugs or something. Later that day I noticed red bumps so I thought for sure they had to be bug bites of some sort. After a few days went by and Darin still didn't even have one bite we decided it had to be a rash and had to be the same thing that was making my stomach so itchy. Sleeping at night became so hard cause I would itch myself awake and I swore I was becoming an insomniac. Sunday night was the worst sleep I probably got the whole pregnancy so I decided to call the midwives the next day after my bff Kaitlyn told me it would be a good idea to let them know what's up. 

The next day (day before due date) I called and they told me it was most likely PUPPPS which is a pregnancy induced rash and the only way it was going to start to improve was to get the baby out. They told me that I needed to go get bloodwork that day and if the bloodwork told us it's pregnancy related that they would check to see how far dilated and ready for labor I was and talk about inducing me. PUPPPS isn't harmful to mom or baby but just in case it wasn't PUPPPS it was safer to get baby out. I had a minor freak out but at the same time I was filled with excitement that we may get to meet our little guy sooner than we were expecting.

So I went and did my bloodwork and then headed into the office for them to take a look. They did an ultrasound just to make sure baby Cohen was okay and they said amniotic fluid was looking good and that he was probably around 6 pounds 6 ounces or so. They took a look at my rash and said "oh that's gotta be PUPPPS" and they did my first cervical check and I was dilated to a 3 and the bag of waters was bulging. They said that we needed to talk induction and asked if I wanted to go in that night or the next morning. I was totally caught off guard and asked if we could wait until the next morning because there were still things I needed to do around the house before we were ready for him to arrive. I was really expecting Cohen to be at least a week overdue.

That night Darin and I did some walking and I listened to my hypnobabies script called "Come Out, Baby" that's supposed to help with natural induction. I was really hoping to go into labor on my own that night. That didn't happen but whatever we did helped me to progress to a 4 the next day :) 

That night was another awful night of itching and I was anxious too so that made for another long night without much sleep. 

The next morning we packed our last minute things, grabbed a piece of toast, and hit the road to our long awaited adventure. 

So there you have it. The reason for induction. Luckily they only had to break my water and there was no medications given to speed up labor and we were so grateful for that. 

In case you are wondering about if the PUPPPS has gone away, it has but it lasted a good 10 days after delivery during which hydrocortisone and I became best friends. It only happens to one out of every 200 or so pregnant woman and it is more common in first time moms, moms carrying boys, or moms carrying twins. 

Here's a link with some more general information on PUPPPS:

http://www.pregnancycorner.com/being-pregnant/complications/pupps.html

Can't believe a month has already gone by since this all happened! It's been such a wonderful month!