Many of you have heard at least part of this story, but few of you know the whole thing, so I will attempt to sum up the events of the last two months of our pregnancy and bring you all up to date. My main reason in writing this post is actually for myself, to be able to look back and remember the faithfulness of the Lord and the miraculous way he provided for me and this yet unborn baby. John and I will have a very special birth story to tell this little one, about how God protected him/her even in the womb, and we are SO GRATEFUL for what God has done. It's going to be a long post, so fasten your seat belt, and here we go...
When I was 31 weeks pregnant, I suddenly started experiencing itching all over my body. I figured I was having an allergic reaction to a new supplement I had just started taking, so I quit that, and waited for the itch to leave. When it was still there after five days, we decided to quit another supplement that we thought might be the cause of the reaction. Another five days: nothing. So my midwife sent me to a doctor to get some blood work done and see what he thought.
A few days later, I was diagnosed with cholestasis of pregnancy, a rare, third trimester, pregnancy complication that only occurs in about 1 out of 1000 women (Yeah me!) Basically what happens is that because of all the pregnancy hormones, the liver is no longer able to flush out bile properly, and so bile starts to build up quickly because it has no where to go. This is what was causing the itching. It is maddening for the Mom throughout the pregnancy, but usually goes away shortly after delivery. However, it's so serious because of the effects of the bile levels on the baby. The levels can skyrocket within a matter of hours, and reach toxic levels, which causes a lot of stillbirths during the last weeks of pregnancy. Most women with this condition, in fact almost all, are induced as soon as they reach 37 weeks, some even before.
What followed was an agonizing month physically and emotionally, as the itching continued to increase, and we did more blood tests. Since the cause for the itching was internal, there was really nothing I could do to relieve it. Most nights, I could only get a couple of hours of sleep as I scratched and scratched and scratched. As we got more test results back, we were told that it was very unlikely that we would be able to pursue our dream of a home birth, and that we might have to rush to the hospital to be induced any day. At this point, we hadn't bought a single baby item, and my sleep-deprived brain was barely able to handle the sudden switch to a hospital birth.
However, it was during this really difficult time that the Lord stepped in and loved on us. Our love for our baby grew every day, as we prayed for his/her safety and realized how dangerous cholestasis can be. We were nervous (ok, honestly, terrified) to lose the last six weeks of preparation (both emotional and physical) and felt really overwhelmed by how fast things started moving, but at the same time, we became more and more excited to meet our baby. The verse, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9) became so real to me, because every time I reached the end of my rope, somehow the Lord gave me enough strength to continue a little longer. It seemed like some of those nights would never end, but the Lord carried me through them one by one in his goodness.
We were also blown away by the love of our family and friends during this time. Even though most of you don't live in Kansas City, every day people called, emailed, and texted to show us their love and support. Here in KC, our new community at IHOP rallied around us as well, praying for us, organizing baby donations, and being really flexible with John's school schedule. When I was at the height of my exhaustion, my Mom flew out for a few days to keep me company, help me clean the house, and make some purchases in preparation for the baby's birth. About a week later, my best friend Nikki came out for a few days, as well. Both of those visits were such blessings to me! To all our friends and family: thank you so much for your support!!
Finally, I'm so grateful for my midwife, Debbie Perry, and my labor team and doula. Debbie has delivered around 1000 babies, and I was her 1 cholestasis patient, but instead of just handing me off to the doctor (who, by the way, was very helpful and kind) because I became "high risk", she and her assistants stuck with me, prayed for me all the time, stayed in contact with the doctor, helped me make a birth plan, and looked for all kinds of solutions for me. They told me that they would come to the hospital if I had to be induced and would support me the whole way through. To everyone at Natural Birth KC, you guys are amazing, and made me feel loved and looked after as a person, not just a "patient."
I started taking dandelion root and milk thistle that both help with liver functions, and the doctor prescribed me Actigall, a medicine that most women with cholestasis take that actually helps break down the bile salts and that was supposed to decrease the itching (but within 2 weeks-- an insanely long time when you're scratching 24/7 and trying not to rip off and scar your skin... I'm not being melodramatic :) ). My midwife also put me on a healthy liver diet (no animal fats, no veggie oils, no sugar, and lots and lots of citrus and fresh veggies) and a "super fun" 3 day liver cleanse. Through these methods everyone was hoping to keep my bile levels from increasing, and to stall until I was 37 weeks to induce.
But the Lord had a different plan for our family. I started asking everyone I knew for prayer (even people I didn't know) for healing, knowing that God could heal me so easily if he chose. There are so many accounts in Scripture of supernatural healing, and I have heard stories and known a lot of people whom God has healed; now I wanted to experience it for myself. After many hours of prayer, clinging to the verse, "The Lord is my refuge, to whom I can always run." (Ps 71), and learning to trust God in a way we never had to before, we got more test results back...
My liver levels had not only decreased, they had gone back to normal!! For those of you, who, like myself, didn't know much about cholestasis, let me just say: this never happens. Sometimes the levels stay constant, sometimes they decrease a little, but you don't go back to normal until after the baby is born. God worked a complete miracle in my life, he saved this little baby from harm, and he showed John and I how faithful he is, and how he delights to give us good gifts! Since then, I have done more blood tests, and the results are the same: they show that I no longer have cholestasis of pregnancy!
I am now two days from my due date, almost 40 weeks, and having lots of practice contractions, so we know the big moment is drawing near... We have a birth tub set up in our bedroom, and are planning on going ahead with the home birth. It says in Scripture that if we commit our ways to the Lord, that he will give us the desires of our hearts. We are so grateful that he took us on this hard journey and brought us out on the other side. We have learned so much, and we praise God for what he has done! We will appreciate having a home birth even more now, and we're so excited to meet our little one!!
Thank you to all of you for your prayers, your gifts, and your words of encouragement. Hopefully, the next blog post will introduce you to the next generation of Sullivans and the newest member of our family... We're so excited!
