I have PCOS and a blocked Fallopian tube. I was always told I would have trouble conceiving and would probably need to take fertility drugs. Turns out, not so much. Our surprise baby was due 18 December, 2012, but that's where all the normal stuff ended.

We live in the Netherlands, where things are a bit different from other countries. Most women see a midwife practice, and about 25% deliver their babies at home. Insurance covers a home birth 100%, and all pregnant women receive a home birth kit with some of the necessary bits and pieces. Hospital births are not covered 100%, unless they're deemed medically necessary. I struggled with the decision of whether to have a home or hospital birth, until that decision was made for me at 24 weeks.

My pregnancy started out with a bit of a scare. At my dating ultrasound at 9 weeks, they saw a fairly large subchorionic hematoma. Two weeks later, I started bleeding and didn't stop for about 2 more weeks. At 14 weeks we had a scan to check the hematoma, and it was still there. Finally, by our anomaly scan at 20 weeks, it had resolved. I thought I was in the clear.

The standard of care here states that once your blood pressure reaches X/90, where X is any number, your care must be transferred to a hospital OB practice. My pressure had been flirting with that on and off since very early, but at my 24 week appointment it hit 90 and stayed there. I was transferred to hospital care and wouldn't see my original midwives again.

At the first appointment I had in the hospital, my pressure was back down to about 120/80, but when the doctor felt the baby she thought he was feeling a bit small. A growth ultrasound was ordered. He was, indeed, small. A followup was ordered three weeks later. He had dropped percentiles and wasn't growing well. From that point forward I was monitored for pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). At 28 weeks we started non-stress tests, and by 30 weeks we were doing weekly ultrasounds - one week would be a growth scan and biophysical profile, while the other week would just check cord flow and fluid levels. By 32 weeks I was going in three times a week for non-stress tests. I was taken off work at 30 weeks and spent most of my time glued to the couch guzzling water and protein to try to help fetal growth.

On the Monday of almost my 34th week of pregnancy I reported feeling a little dizzy, and they kept me overnight for observation. I was fine and they sent me home after another non-stress test on Tuesday. On Wednesday I had a normally scheduled test, where I noticed I was having rhythmic contractions. That was new. The baby's heartrate also dipped very low once or twice, but they monitored for a while longer and then said he was fine and sent me home. My next appointment was on Friday.

Thursday afternoon (I was 34 weeks and 2 days), after lunch, I was watching a really crappy scifi movie on TV when I realized I hadn't felt the baby move much at all that day. The last thing I could remember feeling was a few hiccups early that morning. I had been warned at EVERY SINGLE APPOINTMENT about decreased movement, so I started doing the things that always resulted in him moving. Nothing worked. I also realized at this point that I was feeling a little bit crampy. I drank a bunch of water and went to lay down on our hard bed, which almost always got him kicking. He didn't start moving, but I did feel a distinct "pop" near my cervix. I stood up and felt fluid run down my leg. I thought perhaps I had peed, so I went to the bathroom. There I found that I was covered in bloody fluid. I thought it was my water, so I started rushing around, throwing things in a bag, dripping fluid all over the floor and couch, calling my fiance to come home (it would take him 45 minutes), and calling the hospital. They told me to come in, but I foolishly decided to wait for my fiance. I'm glad that decision didn't end in something terrible happening. I was dripping blood/fluid everywhere, and filled a pad with pretty much one gush. At this point I also posted in BabyBumps while I was waiting for my fiance!

When we got to the hospital they put me on the monitor and were able to find his heartbeat. However, they quickly decided it wasn't my fluid, but was in fact simply blood coming out of me. I started to get more and more uncomfortable, and my uterus was very tense. At one point Tristan's heartrate plummeted, and they called an emergency. The room filled with doctors and nurses, who tried to figure out what was going on. A portable ultrasound showed plenty of fluid and no signs of a placental abruption, but I had all the clinical signs of one. They decided to perform an emergency c-section.

I was rushed down to the OR. My fiance got scrubs on and joined me. The anesthesiologist placed the spinal, which hurt a LOT less than when they tried to place an IV and stuck me, unsuccessfully, about 6 times. Ow. Apparently he also tried to place an epidural for post-surgical pain relief, but was unable to do so. They asked if I could feel when they pinched, and I said yes, but was told that was fine as long as it didn't hurt. They began the surgery, and the anesthesiologist spoke in English, telling my fiance when to look. A nurse had our camera (which I remembered to pack in my frantic preparation!) and took pictures from the other side of the curtain.

Unfortunately, I was able to feel a lot of the surgery. It was quite painful, especially when they were going through the muscle. Once they broke the water (apparently there was a TON of water - the doctor said it was like a fountain) and pulled the baby out, I felt a lot of relief. The doctor immediately handed the baby over to the NICU team rather than holding him up for me to see. I found out later that he was blue and floppy and she was concerned about his condition. His Apgar at birth was 4 and he weighed 2020 grams - about 4 lbs. 7 oz.

The strangest thing was that there was no sign of a placental abruption. Nobody knows where the bleeding was coming from, what the pop I felt was, or why I had all the other symptoms. Still, it was better to get him out when they did - while some of his labs were great, his blood oxygen was low, so he was in distress.

Tristan spent 20 days in the NICU. He was unable to digest anything for the first week or more of his life and lost a lot of weight. He needed IV nutrition and antibiotics. I spent 8 days in the hospital with him; 5 were medically necessary, and for 3 I was a "lodger," so my insurance paid for my stay. I could have stayed longer, but the hospital didn't have the space. It was hard leaving my baby behind!

Today Tristan is 11 months old and doing great. For any future pregnancy I'll be immediately considered high risk, but I hold out hope that I can have a VBAC. They expect me to suffer from high blood pressure again (I don't have hypertension outside of pregnancy), but hope that it will hold off until later in the pregnancy.