How my first pregnancy went so wrong. What PUPPP during pregnancy really looks like!

Bringing a child into this world is one of the most wonderful things a woman and her body can do. I loved being pregnant but hated it at the same time. Even with my first child. This is the story of how my first pregnancy went so wrong in so many different ways and what a PUPPP Pregnancy really looks like.

I was young, at the age of 19 finding out that I was pregnant with my boyfriend of a short two months (now husband of 6 1/2 years). We were crazy, young and in love. It all started off great. Aside from telling parents, figuring out a new life and becoming a soon to be mom, joining a new family (a huge family) everything seemed to be falling into place. We will leave all that for another time.

When did it all go wrong? At about 15 weeks I was sitting in my doctor’s office getting my routine checkup when the doctor was listening to my baby’s heart beat. That’s when the first sign of something wrong happened. “His heartbeat was abnormal,” she said. The worst thing a new mom can hear. “Something is wrong; I’m going to send you to a specialist.” After a terrifying night, I woke up and headed to see the specialist. As much as I hated having to go, I also loved being able to see my baby up on the big screen. And because of having an “at-risk pregnancy” we got see our baby via sonogram all throughout the pregnancy. We were sitting in a dark room with a massive 50 inch TV, which showed the sonogram. After a few minutes (what felt like hours) the doctor came in and checked out his heart. “Everything looks like it should,” she said. After a huge sigh of relief and about six more visits, we got the all clear. My baby was growing and healthy, thank you, Jesus.

For the next couple of months, everything with my pregnancy went perfectly. No sickness, I planned my wedding, got married, and continued to enjoy creating the life inside me that would change my world forever.

Me at my wedding

It wasn’t until I was 32 weeks along that things took a turn for the worst. I had one stretch mark. ONE! I was ok with it; this is what happens when having a baby, right? Well, that one stretch mark which happens to be where my belly button ring use to be started to itch. Itching more than anything I had ever experienced. Stretch marks itching is normal I thought. I scratched even though I was told not to because I would get more. Within two days my belly was covered, but not only was it covered with stretch marks but I also had what I can only describe as small blister like bubbles all over my belly. Within a week, I not only had this rash on my stomach, but also on the back of my arms, legs and back. The itching never went away. I had called my doctor, and she said it PUPPP. PUPPP (Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy) is a rare rash where only 1 percent of pregnant women develop, but not only does 1 percent of women get this it also has to be your first pregnancy, and you have to be pregnant with a boy. It develops during your third trimester. And there is no cure other than to have the baby.

My belly covered in PUPPP

My doctor gave me some meds that didn’t work. The only thing that ended my misery was to take a bath (I took about ten a day) and have my husband rub me down with lotion, but this only seemed to work for at most 15 minutes before the itching returned. I had called her many times to complain in which she would return to me and tell me there was nothing to do about it, to just continue to rub lotion on the problem areas and she would see me at my next appointment.

If you notice the PUPPP is on my side and back of my arms.

The back of my arms!

My next appointment was at 35 weeks. I had been suffering for three weeks by the time I saw her again. When she walked in I showed her right away what I was dealing with. Her face dropped and told me “why didn’t I tell her it was this bad?”. I wanted to slap her right then and there.

This moment is where things took a turn for the worst; I started to hate my doctor.

At that same appointment in which my sister-n-law was with me due to my husband being at work. She looked at me and told me we were having a baby today. I will never forget her words. “Your baby has a 50/50 chance of survival if we leave him in.” I was terrified. My first baby, I was 35 weeks (too early to deliver safely), and my husband wasn’t with me. She leaves me for a second, I called my husband and told him the news, we prayed and when she walked back in she said how she wanted to send me to the specialist, for an amniocentesis. To make sure the baby was ok for delivery.

This is not just stretch marks but the rash that covered my body!

Back to the specialist, I went.

If you have never had an amniocentesis, I strongly suggest you never get one unless you absolutely have too. That needle was massive and scary. She stuck a huge needle into my belly and took some of my amniotic fluid. Checked to see if his lungs were ready for delivery which they weren’t. Oh, let’s not forget how she told me that I was lying to her when I told her my doctor told me my baby had a 50/50 chance of living. Because having PUPPP is not something that is or ever will be harmful to the baby. In any way.

They gave me two more weeks for help him develop more to be stronger at delivery.

TO BE CONTINUED…..

This short writing is a little preface that has nothing on my actual labor story. I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off a week of birth stories, make sure to subscribe and get your updates if you love birth stories.