Amnio

After a week on the couch, I went in for the amnio. It was not an easy decision to make. The amnio could have caused me to miscarry. The doctor would not offer a recommendation on if she thought it was safe. I know she didn’t want to tell me the wrong thing.

I needed to know if there was reallly something wrong with my baby so I could know what to do. I was quickly approaching the maximum gestational age for termination. So, we decided to go for it.

I closed my eyes, lay back on the table, and held my breath. The long needle was inserted into my abdomen an inch to the left of my navel. I felt the long, hard needle penetrate skin, fat, muscle, uterus. It was so scary.

As the doctor drew the amniotic fluid from my womb, she commented on how terrible it looked. I bawled, hating that I wasn’t producing a healthy environment for my baby.

Once it was over, we were sent home to wait it out for ten days until the results came in. I went back to work the next day. I began to gush blood at work. I was hysterical, thinking I killed my baby. Wasn’t that what I was planning to do, anyway? I went to the doctor, and an ultrasound showed my baby was alive. I had a placental abruption. I was in bed for another week.