It all started on Tuesday, September 29, 2026. I was going in for my anatomy scan like normal. Everything with the baby was great and normal. What wasn’t normal – was my cervix and where the placenta was located. The placenta is lying low, almost firmly attached to my uterus and super close to my bladder. My cervix was also very short. It was around the 1.3-1.77. And they would like at least a 2.5, they’d love a 3.0, but would be happy with a 2.5. So they refer me to Maternal Fetal Medicine. My first appt is Thursday, October 1st. My cervix was even shorter, it was around 0.9. So they prescribed Progesterone to help the cervix get stronger and not as short. Which, by the way, in case you didn’t know, a short cervix can cause early delivery and 22-24 weeks is the critical time to catch it and be able to do something about it.
My progesterone hadn’t gotten to my pharmacy yet, so I wasn’t able to get it till the next day, Friday. They had finally gotten it that morning, and so I gave it a few hours and would check on the status, the little auto-voice thing would always say “Still being worked on.” Well, it was around 4:30pm, and my pharmacy closes at 6pm and they aren’t open on the weekends. So I tried calling again. Same thing – “still being worked on.” Well, I kinda really needed the medicine, so I went over there to see if it really was “still being worked on.” So I get there, they say “it will be here Monday.” I was like, “Umm, I need that today. I actually needed it yesterday, but that’s beside the point.” The young girl, probably newer to the pharmacy, I don’t know though. But anyway, she decides to go look, and then says how insurance won’t cover it all and I have to pay X amount of dollars. I was like “I will pay as long as it is actually here.” So she tells me to go sit down while they look. Then another lady comes back, guessing from her break, and she sees me sitting down and asked if she can help me. So I tell her what I need, and she says, “Yeah, we have that.” I did still have to pay, but that’s okay. I was getting the medicine that I needed. My next appt was also on Monday, so I was hoping to have had at least some progress with the medicine by then.
Fast forward to Monday, October 5, 2026. Guess what? Still no progress. So then I was referred to the University Hospital. To when they could see me. Which they were able to get me in the next day. So I am having to drive to Louisville multiple times within a couple weeks and day after day. Which is about an hour drive from where I live. So anyway, I go on Tuesday, and they say that I will need to have a Cervical Cerclage. Which is basically a stitch in my cervix to close it and hopefully prevent early delivery. So after that appointment, they say that they will reach out and try to schedule something for this week or next. Preferably this week. So I looked at the dates and everyone’s work schedule and the kids being on Fall break this week, made it somewhat harder. So we finally got it scheduled for Friday, October 9. And they wanted me to be admitted the day/night before, so also trying to figure that all out with the kids and such. So we figured it out, they didn’t want me there till 8pm the night before, which helped a little bit with timing and such.
If you know me, I like to be early to things. And with driving to Louisville, there’s always traffic and car accidents and such, so we left early in case anything like that were to happen or slow us down, etc. So we get there about 6:40pm, they send us to the waiting room while they figure out where to put me and such. Which that was all a mess, because it was around shift change and they left it all a mess for the night shift. So we were in the waiting room till almost 9pm. They finally got us a room. But then they couldn’t the report from the doctor that said all what needed to be done the night/day before the procedure and such. So that took a couple hours. They finally found it. The person that we had as our nurse didn’t really seem happy to have us there. Because the room they put us in wasn’t the Labor and Delivery area. It was close to it but it wasn’t L&D. And if anything were to happen to me, basically they wouldn’t know what to do.
So anyway, we try to get some sleep, and I also can’t eat or drink anything after midnight, including water. So my last actual meal was probably around 4pm maybe. I’d had some snacks but nothing like an actual meal. I was awake shortly before midnight, so I took a drink of water, since I knew it’d be my last for awhile. And the nurses and techs kept coming in there to do their stuff; vitals, medicine, etc. So I got woken up about every 1-2 hours. Which was great. Not really. But anyway, then I got an MRI done around 5am or so. By the way, do not recommend! Unless you have to, of course. But I’d never gotten one before, and didn’t know how long it would take and such. So it took around 30-45 minutes. And I was sweating. And my head was starting to itch, and I couldn’t scratch it because I couldn’t move. It was miserable. After I was finally finished, the guy asked if I wanted to take the blanket that he’d put over me, with me – I was like, “Yeah, no, thank you!” I was literally sweating. You could see the sweat on my dark brown t-shirt. So yeah, I definitely did not need the blanket! And since October is my birthday month, the MRI tech said “Happy early birthday, by the way!” I was like “yeah, thanks. Just what I want to be doing shortly before my birthday!”
Anyway, so the nurse wheelchair-ed me back to the room, this was a little after 6:30am. Then we woke up about an hour later, the sun started peeking through the “curtains” in the room. So we basically just stayed up after, because we knew a nurse or tech would be coming in their shortly to do something. Sure enough, we were right!
So my procedure was scheduled for 8:30am. Who here, thinks that actually happened? Yeah, probably not very many. They even told us around 8am, that we were still good for 8:30am. We were supposed to have gotten discharged same day as procedure. That didn’t happen either. It was a very long couple of days. So we are waiting and waiting to hear when the procedure is going to start. We met probably 3 doctors who came into the room who introduced themselves, and said “I will be doing your procedure.” And you know what? Neither one of those doctors who came to the room and introduced themselves to me was the doctor that actually did my procedure! Crazy, right?! Anyway, they came in to do the start prep for the procedure, then they got called to go do a c-section first. So they went out and did that. Then about 9:30-10am, one of those 3 doctors came in and said we just got the call to take you for the procedure, so it’ll be about another 30 minutes………
It was NOT another 30 minutes…We didn’t go for the procedure till 2:30pm. They even said that the c-section had gone well with no complications. So why did it take 5-6 hours to get me in for my procedure? I guess we’ll never know. We would try to check in and see if there was any update as to when I would go for my procedure. I even cried some, because 1) I wanted to get home so I could be with my kids (and not in a hospital) and 2) I was hungry. So anyway, it was finally my turn. I got all completely done around 3:30pm is when I got to the recovery room and called my husband so he could be there with me. We were there for another 3-3.5 hours. Which they really only call for about 1-2 depending. They were having more issues with whatever it was. So they bring me dinner, since I can finally eat. Mind you, this is like 6-7pm, so around 24 hours since I’d eaten an actual meal and not just snacked on something small. So I may have been a bit hangry even before the procedure trying to get updates on when it was actually going to happen! Which some of them understood, and when one of the ladies came into the room and told us that they were at some kind of meeting and someone said “who do we need to prioritize?” One of them said me. Which they didn’t say what they actually said verbatim, but they said that Mrs. Key should be the one to go next. So FINALLY – we were really getting prepped for the procedure.
And for this procedure, they did a type of epidural/spinal tap, which did hurt a bit this time around. But once it took effect, they were placing my legs up in/on the holster things so they could get started. And then the doctor comes in and introduces herself and said “Hi, my name is Dr *** ( I don’t want to say her name on here, but she was great!) and I will be doing your procedure! Sorry, I didn’t have time to come introduce myself sooner!” And I actually believed this doctor, since she was actually in the OR with me! It didn’t take too crazy long. And thankfully, it did go well. I didn’t lose any crazy amount of blood, just a small thing of gauze in a small thick square. So nothing major at all. The doctor did say how I basically had no cervix left, and I was basically trying to dilate already. But they were able to get the stitch on the cervix and close it up. There is still concern that things could happen and cause me to go into early delivery, but we are hoping that those things don’t happen! Also, baby was unphased during the procedure! She was doing just fine afterwards!
So we are going to be doing weekly followups and such with them and hopefully we can make it to at least 34 weeks. That is our goal. But right now, we are hoping to make it another week, than a month and then just go on from there.
So because of not having the procedure till later, we ended up having to stay another night. Which was not what we had planned. But it was for the best, I guess. In case anything were to happen. We finally got discharge around 2:30pm Saturday, October 10th. I’m not on official bed rest, but I do have limitations, no heavy lifting, no exercise, don’t do a lot, basically. but yeah.
Also, I just want to say that I have the best husband in the world! In the middle of all this, and staying in a hospital room an extra night – not what he had planned for this week/weekend. He even carried all of our stuff, even my purse! Which isn’t like a normal purse, it’s like a crossbody fanny pack type thing, but a cute one! 🙂
Especially since it is a lot to read. Sorry about that! It was a lot happening the last couple of weeks!
If you have read all of this, I really appreciate it. Also, want to say – this is my fourth pregnancy. None of this happened in my other three pregnancies. So just remember – anything can happen, even if your other pregnancies were “great” compared to some. Having multiple c-sections can also cause something like this, but that may be a blog for another day. I don’t want to talk about that! But anyway, we are finally home, Saturday October 10, 2026! We took a shower after bringing our stuff and letting family know that we made it home! That shower was glorious! Felt so much better! So if you think about me and my family, please pray for us in that this baby doesn’t come before at least 34 weeks, preferably full term, but we would be happy with making it to 34 weeks! I’m currently 23 weeks. God can! This is a surrogate pregnancy and my last pregnancy. Thank you all for reading and following along! If you want to subscribe to, I’d love to have you!
