Worried - Is this a Normal Miscarriage?

[ericaz]

6 days after finding out we were going to lose this pregnancy (9w but growth of only 5w at us) I started to miscarry. It happened at dinner time and I had about an hour and a half of hard labor combined with some bad bowel movements. Finally I passed a round clot, about the size of a marachino cherry. The pain subsided and I was able to sleep. The following day (yesterday) I felt really sore inside all day and felt as though my digestive system was implicated. I was hopeful that the worst of it was over even though I had anticipated much more heavy bleeding. Around dinner time of the second day I started having major sharp pains in my rectum. Shortly thereafter the labor pains started again. It was so intense and incredibly painful for about two hours. I finally called my midwife who I used with dd (I had planned to use a different midwife this time around because my former one does not do homebirths and this new one does...only I felt like this new one was blowing me off during this whole miscarriage process) and she told me to start dosing up on some Motrin - 800mg at a shot. She suspected I still had more clots to pass, especially considering that I only passed one. After taking some Motrin I was able to get on top of the pain and the bleeding increased - but no clots....just some tiny pieces of tissue. Around midnight I was able to go to sleep (even though my dd wanted to nurse constantly :rolleyes). Today the bleeding has subsided again...it's 2 PM and I have not had to change my pad since last night. I'm having occasional cramping and am soooooo worried that I have not been able to pass every bit of what's left. I'm afraid I'll have a repeat of the last two nights once again tonight and I'll have no choice but to head over to the ER.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what's going on? Should I head over to the ER now (would rather not have to go to the hospital at all, natch) or wait it out???

[Naughty Dingo]

Hi Mama, I am sorry this has happened to you.

With mine, I had most of the pain centered around a few hour labor. With that said, I did have then several weeks of bleeding where I would have heavy gushing bleeding and cramps. My body seemed to need to do the miscarriage in stages. I passed many clots at the beginning, and then the baby and placenta a couple days after my labor-like episode. I had vomiting and diarrhea during my miscarriage. It is a labor of sorts and the rest of the abdominal organs will of course be affected by all the prostaglandins and inflammatory mediators involved in the process.

I am sorry that your midwife isn't meeting your needs. It is possible you have the placenta or a big clot that needs to work itself out of the cervix and that is what is causing the recurrent contractions and intermittent bleeding.

I don't have advice for you on whether to go in to the ER or not. Can you get in with the old midwife for an exam?

Edited to add, it took me about 6 weeks to fully pass everything, but the first few days were the only ones that were physically hard in terms of contractions.

Take good care Mama

ND

[ericaz]

Thanks, ND. I can't even imagine having to go through this twice. You must be one heck of a strong woman.

I was under the impression that whatever needed to come out of me would be quite small, considering all that was seen on the us was a sac and some cells. Would there even be a placenta at that point?

My former midwife isn't on call this weekend and will be going out of town on Monday. She told me I could call her partner if it gets bad again, although I don't know her all that well (she was out on Maternity leave when I was pregnant with Isadora). If that's the case I might as well call the hb midwife I was planning to use this time around or just shoot over to the hospital.

I guess I just want to know if this is normal. I've been worried even before this whole process started that I wouldn't be able to pass the whole thing and I'd need to have it surgically removed. After having my dd I had to have laser surgery on my cervix (LEEP) and since then I have had a very difficult time getting Pap smears...in fact, one practitioner failed to get into my cervix entirely. So, I'm fearful that there's some scar tissue there. I had intended to have the midwife check it out but when I started spotting she didn't want to do an internal....
In any case, I wonder if my cervix could be preventing it all from flowing out. :crap

[Naughty Dingo]

Erica, sometimes when the baby stops growing, the placenta and sac will still keep growing. That is what happened to me. It was amazing to see it, even though I was so very sad about it all.

I think anything can be normal. It seems that each woman has a unique experience with miscarriage so it is hard to say what is normal and what isn't. I think when a woman has a lot of hemmorhage that can be a problem. They say if you are soaking more than one pad every half to one hour then that is too much and to seek medical attention. Otherwise, I am not sure.

As far as your cervix. Hmmm, that is something to think about. Yeah, when women have scarring it can have problems dilating.

Would you be brave enough to do a digital palpation of your cervix? Did you check your cervix when TTC? It would be like that. I read the thread in this forum where the Mamas tell about their miscarriages and I know there were several who had either a clot or the placenta "Stuck" in the cervix and were able to gently apply some traction to let it come out. I know that my vagina and cervix were very painful during my miscarriage and I didn't want to touch those parts of my body but if you don't have reservations you could kind of check it out and see if something like that is going on.

I hope that things progress for you soon Mama

:Hug, ND

[ericaz]

I have paged my current midwife twice now and she has yet to call me back. Very frustrating.

I'm beginning to think that I'm retaining something. The bleeding is almost nonexistant at this point...light brown and barely noticeable.

Remembering what happened with my recent pap smears I'm petrified of trying to dig in my cervix to pull something out. The paps were so painful I can't imagine this being any less so...

I've been reading that thread on mamas experiences with miscarriages. Horrible. Just horrible.

[theboysmama]

erica,
M/c are all so different. Yours does not sound abnormal. I have recently had two and they were like night and day. With my first I had a very heavy labor (more difficult than my live births) with lots and lots of bleeding and 4 hrs of pushing. Then nothing was out and I had to dig around for awhile. It was all behind the little bag of waters. Once that broke I was able to get everything out. I m/c at 12.5 wks but the fetus was 7 wks. My placenta had continued to grow and was the size of a quarter. it was really neat to see how my body was doing the right thing. You might want to go to get a u/s and see what has passed. I ended up passing a clot several days later.
My second m/c was real easy w/ light cramping and then I passed it and it was over.
Everyone adn every time is different.
Good luck adn pm me if you need to talk I know how horrible this is.
Nicole

[ELKMama]

Ericaz, So sorry to hear that this is so hard. I am thinking of you! I'm from the "still waiting" thread so I don't have any personal experience to share yet, but did want to pass on 2 things my mw told me. First, I am waiting to pass a sac that seemed to stop growing at 5-6 weeks too. She said it would like be the size of a small egg... but "the boysmama" approve her placenta was the size of a quarter. Sounds to me like there's a big range of normal! Second, maybe you'd feel a bit less anxious if you planned to go in for an ultrasound (to be sure all is passed) next week? I was told to schedule an u/s a few days after it happens and that I'd only need to go into the clinic or ER if I have a fever, fill >1 pad every hour for 4+ hours, or feel faint. Of course, go to the ER if that is what feels right...

The big thing I wanted to say was that I'm thinking of you...

[BethanyB]

Ericaz- Like the the ladies above said, every m/c is different, but I would imagine that if you were retaining any tissue or placenta, you would still be bleeding heavily. At least that's what my doc seemed to suggest. I would definately have an u/s in a few days or a week just to be sure (or sooner if you have a fever or anything). Also, about how much bleeding is o.k, my doc said if I went through more than 3 pads in an hour to go to the E.R. So I guess you can actually pass quite a bit of blood and have it be normal!
As far as how much placenta to expect to pass, mine is coming out in pieces, so I am not sure if I am done or not, although my bleeding is getting lighter. Visit "still waiting" like ELKmama said-there's alot of info there! :heartbeat -Brooke

[ericaz]

Thanks for everyone's kind words:)
I'm pretty sure I'm passed the worst part. I had a day of no pain whatsoever and then woke up the next morning and had moderate period-like pain (I have a history of endometriosis so I'm used to bad pain in that area). When I went to pee a few clots fell out and I felt a little better. The rest of the day I felt decent - well enough to go out for the day with my husband and daughter. I thought I was out of the woods. Then last night around dinner time (why does it always start at dinner time??!) I got heavy duty period cramps. That lasted for an hour or so. Today my stomach is all messed up from all the Motrin I've been taking. I'm sooooooooooo ready for all of this to be over!
ELKMama, I'll be thinking of you and hoping you have one of those not-so-painful experiences :)
ETA: My hb midwife never returned my pages so I've decided to transfer care to my former midwife and her partner - both of them have been SO wonderful to me throughout all of this. They didn't say anything about having an u/s, but do want me to have my hcg levels tested in a few weeks. Do I really need to ask them for an u/s?