Me and My Stupid Heart Shaped Uterus

My mom delivered both my sister and I two weeks late and my sister had two full-term babies. I assumed that I too would see my due date come and pass. This, however, was not the case with my first pregnancy. I could go into details about how it all went down, but the summary is that out of nowhere I went into labor right at 36 weeks.

In the time of “too posh to push” and early scheduled inductions, I was happily prepared to go the long haul.

So when I went into pre-term labor, I was scared. But, luckily, out came a healthy (in preterm weight) 6 lbs. 9 ounce baby boy who didn’t spend a moment in the NICU.

With everything going on, I never had a chance to ask my doctor: “Why?” Or maybe I was just so happy to have a healthy baby, it didn’t seem important at the time.

Why did I have a premature baby? Was it something I did, or didn’t do?

This time around, now 19 weeks pregnant, I’m feeling much more confident as a veteran pregnant lady and I’m all about the questions. Luckily, my doctor is all about the answers.

During my first ultrasound, she discovered that I have a bicorunate uterus (aka: heart-shaped uterus). Basically, what this means is that my uterus is somewhat split.

The theory is that my son (like 25% of babies delivered from heart-shaped uteruses) got stuck in one of the sides, got uncomfortable and chose to evacuate early. Which was obvious by his EXTREME cone head the first couple of days of his life.

Luckily, I’m passed the miscarriage stage, but we are still going to watch closely to make sure that baby #2 is located in a desirable area of my uterus. So, during my third trimester, I’ll get an ultrasound every visit and come in more often. For some reason it’s hard for me to say that I’m a “high risk” pregnancy, but that’s exactly what it is.

In the meantime, I’m trying to stay as healthy as possible to keep stress off of my body. Like, not gain as much weight this time (doh!).

My hope is to be one of those pregnant ladies that is complaining that the “baby doesn’t want to come out!”

There is something about a chubby, full-term baby that just looks like they’re supposed to be out in the world. My son, though healthy, was skinny (for the first couple of weeks, I fattened him up pretty quick—breastmilk is amazing stuff) and resembled an old man instead of a newborn.

Did I mention I was born at 10 lbs. 8 ounces and my husband at 10 lbs. 2 ounces? Be careful what you wish for, right?!?