It's Over

Well the miscarriage is over. It happened last night. One of the things that helped me through this most was other women sharing exactly what happened to them. Knowing what to expect kept me from panicking throughout this process. That being said I want to record as much as I can so I can help others. This post will be way too much information, so you might want to stop reading here if you are not interested in everything that a miscarriage entails.

Stats:
Conception: about June 4 2010
Positive pregnancy test: June 19--faint line, June 20 digital test that said pregnant
Ultrasound: July 29 at exactly 10 weeks
Missed Miscarriage diagnosed: July 30, baby died at 8 weeks approx July 15
Natural Miscarriage: August 7, one major cramp and pink tinged spotting. August 8, spotting blood began, occasional major cramp (contraction?), Aug 9 continued. Complete Miscarriage August 10 "contractions" a few times an hour starting at 4 PM, Passing tissue began at 10:15 PM, majority passed by 12 AM but continued until approx 4 AM.
Bleeding continued until : August 21, 2010

Helpful Items:
Shower &tub
Bucket (in case you have to throw up while on the toilet)
Ginger Ale
Crackers
Wet Washcloth
*Pain killer (mine did not help because I threw it up)
Something to hold on to...I used a towel
Heating Pad
Overnight Superlong Maxi Pads
My husband--he emptied the vomit bucket and got me crackers and ginger ale. He was willing to do whatever he could to help. I love him.

The Experience

Pink (not blood like at all) spotting began on Saturday while I was out shopping. I had one big bad cramp with a hot flash and went to the restroom.

On Sunday I began spotting blood an which continued into Monday. It was hardly enough to collect on a pad but it was there every time I wipe.

Monday afternoon I began to have what can best be compared to contractions around 4 PM, although I have never gone through labor and delivery so I don't know exactly what they are like. They would come about every 20 minutes and they really hurt, but were comparable to cramps I've had during some periods. Around 9:30 they were coming every 10 minutes but about the same intensity. At 10 the pains came about every 3 minutes, no major bleeding at this point. At 10:15 the pain got worse and I went to the bathroom.

The pain intensified over the next half hour. I stayed in the bathroom. Around 10:45 I began to pass some blood...and when I say pass I mean basically it felt and looked like I was peeing blood (only a short burst...not like hold your bladder all day pee). Around 11 I began passing tissue. At this point the pain was exactly the same as the pain I had when my ovarian cyst ruptured in spring of '09, and just like then, it made me throw up. I vomited everything I had eaten all day...which probably added to me feeling faint during the last episode I describe. I passed a large clot that looked and felt (density wise) just like a bing cherry. I happened to get that while I was wiping, most of it just fell into the toilet.

It was A LOT of blood. By a lot I mean I flushed a toilet that was totally red with blood about 4 times during that hour. The majority of the pain had passed by 11:25 PM. The contractions subsided. I wiped and found I had passed the baby. It was grayish and there was blood covering part of him. I could see it was babyshaped and I am pretty sure I saw what looked like an umbilical cord. This is the point where I started to cry and sort of froze. Doug got me a baggie and we put the baby into it...I just couldn't flush it, the baby was in my hand I couldn't put it into the toilet. We will be burying it.

At this point I decided to try to get some sleep. I put on a monster sized pad and got in bed with the heating pad. I laid there for about an hour before I became extremely uncomfortable...I had some occasional cramps, but then there was a really bad one. So I went back to the bathroom and passed another large clot. I was pretty uncomfortable so I kept thinking a bath would really help, but I recalled I read somewhere that soaking in a tub could cause infection. I got into the shower. The water and heat alleviated a lot of the pain, however I was uncomfortable standing. I knelt down in the shower so the water would hit my back and rested my head on the back of the the tub. A few minutes later I leaned against the back of the tub and put my feet up allowing the water fall on my stomach. This brought a lot of relief. After what I am guessing was 45 minutes of this I decided to try to go to bed again. I should note that I was still bleeding during this time.

I repeated the same process as before and again around 1:45 I got up , hit the toilet, passed some clots, and got in the shower. Once again I thought I finally might be able to sleep.

Around 3:45 in the morning I had some intense pain I went to the bathroom but not much was leaving my body. I looked and saw some red tissue that was starting to come out. It was pretty big. I tried to move around, stand up, sit down, and twist from side to side to get it to pass but it just wouldn't budge. Again, I turned to the shower to help with the pain. This was the worst pain since the pain that made me vomit. I got in the shower and was noisy enough to wake up my husband. I was also feeling faint so I asked him to get me crackers and giner ale. It became obvious that the shower wasn't helping so I got out and went back to the toilet. Yes I ate crackers and drank ginger ale on the toilet...that may be gross but it helped. I finally passed the big clot which I am guessing was the placenta. I got in bed and was finally able to sleep with the aid of a heating pad. This ordeal was over around 4:45 AM.

Wednesday and Thursday the bleeding was still pretty heavy. By Friday the bleeding was like a normal period. It continued to taper off until it was more like spotting for about a week. The bleeding completely stopped altogether 11 days after the actual miscarriage.