Throughout our entire pregnancy we've been closely monitoring my bile acids for signs of ICP, and every week we were surprised by low levels- my liver was doing its job!
Around 36 weeks, I started getting nervous due to some serious itching on my belly and arms and occasional itching on the soles of my feet. Something was telling me that Casey needed to be born. Kevin and I started reading medical article after medical article on ICP trying to determine if it's possible to have ICP without symptoms or high bile acids (it is- it's called asymptomatic ICP) or how quickly bile acids could rise at the end of pregnancy (turns out- pretty damn quickly). Bile acid tests take 2 weeks to come back, so if my numbers jumped at the end, we wouldn't know and full term with ICP is VERY risky.
It felt as though no one at our practice really understood ICP and our concerns every visit were quieted with, "But your numbers look good, so you're fine." At our 37 week appointment we decided we'd ask to be seen by a high risk doctor to ask about realistic risks. Luckily, the obgyn we saw (not the high risk) took our concerns very seriously and called the high risk doctor. His response was, "If she had ICP once she'll probably have it again... if she has any itching anywhere she needs to deliver."
Our doctor came in and told us we could go to labor and delivery that night for a repeat c-section, or have the first spot the next day. We chose to do it in the morning, making Casey 37 weeks and 1 day when he was born.
The c-section and recovery went just about as well as it could with only a few set backs in recovery. Casey was born on Wednesday, 2/1/17 at 8:07 am weighing a whopping 7 pounds and 1 ounce. He had a little jaundice but nothing out of the ordinary for a munchkin born 3 weeks early.
At my first postpartum visit my midwife pulled my bile acid results from 1/26 and lo and behold, they were well on their way up. I cried for a few minutes just feeling so, so thankful that we listened to our gut feeling, and that we had an obgyn who took us seriously and our little "itch" is here safe and sound.
Declan has been an AMAZING big brother! He is incredibly helpful, wetting wipes and getting diapers when I need him to. He can't stop hugging and kissing Casey, which may be the sweetest thing I've ever laid my eyes on.
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