After having light bleeding for a week, and some more serious cramping on and off starting on Thursday, it finally happened today - the long-awaited miscarriage.

Thankfully it happened while I was home and not during my daughter's birthday party on Friday. Even better, my daughter napped through the worst of it. It lasted four hours from start to finish, and I was in pain for about three hours. Now, five hours later, I'm currently feeling a little sore in the abdomen area and having only light bleeding. From what I saw and felt, I believe that the miscarriage is complete.

I will now go on to describe what happened during those four hours. I read a lot of horror stories involving miscarriage while waiting for mine to happen, but not many good ones that had much detail. I've decided to record mine here. Feel free to stop here if you don't want to read the gory details.

A little before 3:00 this afternoon I started getting some cramping. I took one ibuprofen, thinking I would take another if one wasn't enough. After putting my daughter to bed for her nap, I felt more cramping. I took another ibuprofen about half an hour after the first.

At just before 4:00 the pain had gotten worse, so I decided to call the doctor's office. I left a message with a nurse to see what additional pain relief I could get. At that point I hadn't had any significant bleeding, but within a half an hour I did start to bleed, but only when I went to the toilet and pushed. Soon after the bleeding started a blob of mucusy reddish tissue slightly smaller than a golf ball came out while I was sitting on the toilet. I had to detach it from my body with a tissue. Another blob of something, that felt similar in size as the first dropped out right afterwards into the toilet, but I was unable see it. It seemed too soon to be the actual miscarriage, but I wondered.

At 4:20 I decided to call my husband at work to tell him I was in pain, that I thought the miscarriage was starting, and that I may need him to pick up something for supper. He said he'd come home first, and we could then decide what to get for food.

At 4:40 the doctor's office called back, and I spoke with a nurse. She offered to get me a prescription for a stronger pain medication. My pain hadn't gotten much worst since I first called, but I told her I would be okay for now as long as it didn't get worse. She said if I did decide I wanted something I could all the emergency number after 5:00 and the doctor on call could precribe me something. She told me to keep physically active, as it would help with the pain. I didn't feel like being active. I just wanted to curl up on the couch or sit on the toilet. I went to the toilet every 10 minutes or so and would push out more blood (drops or a small stream). Sometimes I found a small amount of small clots when I wiped (not much bigger around than a spaghetti noodle). I actually never saw the "clots and more clots" that the midwife warned me about.

Anyway, since the nurse suggested being physically active to help with the pain, I decided to prepare dinner. It was an easy one: grilled frozen marinated pork, frozen broccoli, and reheated potatoes. While preparing dinner the cramping only got worse. By 4:50 I decided to call for pain medication at 5:00. I called at five and was told that the doctor on call would return my call in 15-20 minutes. She called back in ten minutes and said she would call in a prescription for Tylenol with codeine at the pharmacy or if it was really bad I could just go to the emergency room. I opted for the Tylenol. By then it had been two hours since my daughter started her nap. Through God's providence, she kept sleeping, even through the phone calls.

Hubby arrived home at 5:20, upset about things going on at work. At that point I couldn't really console him, as I was quickly approaching what would become the climax of the pain. He left to pick up my medicine, and while he was gone, the pain only got worse. I took trips to the toilet every few minutes as it seemed like something had to come out. At some point during the process it seemed like I was dripping clear liquid. I remember that the midwife said the sack could stay intact or be broken and drained. It seemed like it was draining.

I can only compare the worsening pain to two past events in my life.

When I had my first period after my wedding, I skipped my period during our honeymoon by not taking the placebo pills of my birth control pills. When the following cycle started, I had a very painful period. That pain was different because it consisted of short painful twinges, not constant intense pain like I had today.

The other painful event was at the end of my HSG (hystersalpingogram) several years ago. This pain lasted five minutes or so, and the pain was so intense that it made me cry. I had taken pain medication before the procedure.

At 5:40 the pain was really bad, and I no longer knew how to cope. I thought of the people I had read about who had vomited or had other catastrophes, and I wondered how worse it could get. I hoped hubby would return soon with the medicine. Five minutes later, after an unproductive trip to the toilet, I lay down still on the couch, and noticed that the intense pain was gone. For 15 minutes I lied there, waiting for the pain to come back, but it didn't. I only had very mild cramping. I decided that it must be over, but I still wondered if I had passed the baby yet.

A little after 6:00 I decided that I felt pretty good. It had been almost three hours since I put my daughter to bed, and she still hadn't stirred. Occassionally she will take a three hour nap, and it had been three hours. I decided to check on her. She still slept when I opened the door, and didn't wake until I sat on her bed. She woke up quickly and wanted me to play with her and her stuffed animals.

I phoned hubby not knowing that he was just arriving home. I thought that if he was still at the pharmacy, he should know that he didn't need to rush as the pain had subsided. We sat down to our supper. The meat and potatoes tasted good, but the broccoli after sitting on the stove for an hour was mushy and looked almost gray. Oh well, at least I was well enough to eat.

At about 7:00 hubby left with our daughter to run some errands. I took one Tylenol and headed to the bathroom to see how much I had bled in the last hour since my last trip. I really wasn't in any pain. I was feeling tenderness more than anything, but I figured one pill wouldn't hurt. While on the toilet, I pushed and a big blob of tissue slipped out. I had already done a fair amount of wiping, so the blob landed on tissue and remained near the surface of the water. I spend a minute or two looking at it and poking it with a plastic hair pick. To me it seemed like "the baby" or "the products of conception" or whatever you want to call it. It was circular with a fringed bloody edge, and was about 4 inches in diameter. It was flat, and had parts in the middle that were slightly more than a half inch thick. It had different colors in it, blue, red, gray, and white and felt firm when I prodded it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to see the baby. It was only � inch at 6 weeks.

Soon afterwards I decided to call my mother-in-law to let her know what was happening. It seems as though hers and my sister-in-law's miscarriages were more tramatic and also both incomplete. Both of them ended up getting a D & C. I'm hoping that all the tissue has now passed. I really don't want surgery.

At 8:00 I had a little bit more bleeding, but there hasn't been much of anything since then. I haven't taken any more pain medication either. Maybe I'll take one before I head to bed. My midwife appointment is scheduled for Wednesday, but I'll call tomorrow to see what they want me to do.