WEEK 38 : Week by Week Incompetent Cervix Pregnancy Guide - The Little Rainbow Behind The Storm

NOTE : For the regular advice on Week 38, I suppose there are hundreds of other websites to tell you how it goes. This blog serves to supplement those sites, my personal favourites being What To Expect, Baby Centre UK and Parents. Do take note, however that I am not a professional physician, I practise law for a living and the only thing I know about incompetent cervix is through my own experience as a mother of 2 and a 36 week old baking in the oven! :)  The purpose of this blog then is just to simply share the joys and heartaches, the blessings and curses, the sadness and happiness and the disappointments and the pleasant surprises of our journey as a mom with an incompetent cervix.
      
Well what do you know? It's week 38! Let's recap based solely on my own experience :

Baby No.1 : I almost lost him at 23w4d, with no measurable cervix left and dilation of 2cm.  It was an emergency transvaginal cerclage, and I came across the term "incompetent cervix" for the 1st time.  Was on strict bedrest till 37 weeks when TVC was removed (scheduled for 38 weeks but uterus was very irritable by then).  Baby came by at 3.2kgs 10 days later after waterbag burst without any regular contractions but induced by pitocin.

Baby No.2 : A preventive TVC was placed at Week 15, strict bedrest for a month after which I went on with normal activities (except gym, heavy lifting, sexual intercourse and any other pelvic activities) including carolling during Christmas! TVC removed at Week 38, baby was getting too big by 40th week. Due to be induced a day after 40 weeks, but baby decided to make an appearance on due date.

Baby No. 3 : Totally unplanned for baby (I have PCOS and conceiving was always with few rounds of Clomid - so this one is a blessing from God). Preventive TVC was placed at Week 14, at which OBGYN observed a lot of scar tissues around my cervix due to multiple TVCs.  Went on strict bedrest but effaced 100% with no measurable cervix left by Week 17.  Lots of prayers and continued bedrest, and twice daily progesterone suppositories - by Week 20 cervix condition reversed. All went well ever since - as at the time this is written, am waiting for TVC to be removed on the 16th of March, 11 days from today.

 I have been blessed thus far, and I am sure we can all beat the odds and do this.  Be it PCOS, an incompetent cervix (well, we are not all that incompetent are we? We have gone through so much yet we braved through the proverbial storm) or anything else thrown at us throughout our journey to motherhood, we are finally here. A mom. Yes, a MOM.

We IC mommies take it by milestones... first, to the point where our pregnancy is viable enough for a cerclage to be placed.  Then the 24 week mark.  Then we take it day by day thereafter... till we have our little rainbow in our arms.  Some of us do not make it through all the way, but we pick ourselves up and go through it all over again.  We don't have to do it alone, as we have others to be there for us.  The main purpose I started this blog was because I was sick and tired reading through those regular "week by week pregnancy guide" websites which tell us "your 2nd trimester is your honeymoon month, it's time to go have that babymoon".  Well, guess what? The only time I had that babymoon it was with my 1st baby.  And I almost lost him. Thank God for my very capable, very professional and very caring doctor, Dr Narinder Singh Shadan from Island Hospital, Penang, Malaysia.  Today I am a mother of 2 (well, almost 3).

I will end this series of blog here today. The rest of the weeks - Week 39 through to the day baby is finally born - well, it's just waiting. And there are hundreds of regular websites which will tell you what to do and what to expect.  I have mentioned before in one of the previous weeks - the only difference is perhaps we will not, IRONICALLY, dilate when the time comes.  It makes sense - the cervix is no longer in its natural condition after the stitch.  So more often than not, we may need to be induced.  

I will miss being pregnant (I'm very sure, and so does hubby) but all I can say is... it's been an exciting journey.  I thank God everyday for the babies, the friends I made all over the world (Do check out the Facebook Incompetent Cervix Awareness Group- the ladies are non judgmental, always caring, always listening), the true friends and family who stuck by me through the journeys (the blessing of the incompetent cervix found me true friends, and of course, made me realise there are many fair weathered friends hanging around too).  What a great filter indeed!  

So I would end this by saying... The incompetent cervix journeys have been more a blessing than it is a curse.  Sure, I may sound insensitive towards some of you IC mommies who may have lost a baby (or several) before, and I apologise in advance.  But whatever it is, we are all sisters, connected in the most intimate way - our desire to be a mother no matter what.

Take care, and don't forget to share my blog with whoever you think may need a friend to listen to.  I welcome comments and questions, but like I said, I am not a professional medical person. Or have any expertise or paper qualifications medically.  I practise law by profession, and I'm ... JUST A MOM.