Was your second pregnancy different after preeclampsia?

[cgoodi1]

Hi. I recently lost my baby girl at 21 weeks gestation due to preeclampsia and what I am sure was IUGR. I want to try again as soon as the doctors say I can which will be between 6-12 months from now. I know that with my pregnancy I had a lot of trouble even in the beginning. Around weeks 4-6 I was bleeding a bit, I had a lot of nausea in the first trimester, always felt extremely tired and sick. Later in the pregnancy around the second trimester I would get chest pains, flu like symptoms, and major swelling. Now I know that those last ones are signs of preeclampsia but at the time I did not. I was just wondering if perhaps people had the same early signs as I did. My baby also measured very small on the 6 week ultrasound and my 20 week ultrasound (two weeks behind on the 20 week one) and again I didn't know if these were signs or not. I had assumed at the time everything was good because the doctors said she had a strong heart beat. When you tried again what did you do differently and did you end up with PE? I have been doing a lot of reading. I've read about LDA, Lovenox, vitamin D pills, fish oil pills, exercise, etc. I have some questions below and was wondering if a few of you would answer them to help me with my next pregnancy and to answer some more questions I'm having about the disease. Thank you!

QUESTIONS FOR YOU
Did you have bleeding in the beginning of your PE pregnancy? What about your PE free pregnancies?
Did you ever feel bad or sick with either pregnancy? How did each pregnancy differ?
Did your baby measure small on ultrasounds when you had PE? What about when you didn't have it?
Were you healthy before you got PE?
If you lost your baby, how far along were you when this happened? Was it a severe or mild case of PE? Did you have other complications?
When you tried again for another child did you end up with PE?
What did you do differently in this pregnancy to help you to have a normal pregnancy?

[lennoxlm1]

Did you have bleeding in the beginning of your PE pregnancy? I never had any bleeding during my pregnancy with my son, or my girls
Did you ever feel bad or sick with either pregnancy? I has some morning sickness with our boy, I came down with extremely painful migraines during his pregnancy I was in and out of the hospital with the headache, they couldn't figure out what was going on.
How did each pregnancy differ? these last three I have had painful migraines that the doctors cant take care of, with our first we had a normal pregnancy without really any major problems,
Did your baby measure small on ultrasounds when you had PE? actually with my son he was huge even at 36 weeks he was 8 pounds, I didn't have GD either, he was just really big.
What about when you didn't have it? with my girls they were average to small size.
Were you healthy before you got PE? yes, I was at a healthy weight, exercising, and eating a healthy diet.
When you tried again for another child did you end up with PE? We started to develop PE again but the doctor was quick to note it and induced at 37 weeks, they are getting ready to induce with this one at any time now.
What did you do differently in this pregnancy to help you to have a normal pregnancy? I haven't changed anything, I eat healthy, exercise, I try to relax and sleep as much as I can, I work from home for only a few hours a day, the doctors have told me there is nothing I can do to prevent it from happening again and I am learning to accept this thing I can't change.
Best of luck to you!

[jean]

Did you have bleeding in the beginning of your PE pregnancy?no
What about your PE free pregnancies?no
Did you ever feel bad or sick with either pregnancy? yes, with the HELLP I was very ill
How did each pregnancy differ? I didn't get sick at all with my 2nd pg
Did your baby measure small on ultrasounds when you had PE? Yes, he was a week behind in growth
What about when you didn't have it? Nope, he actually measured ahead for awhile
Were you healthy before you got PE? yes
If you lost your baby, how far along were you when this happened? 29 weeks
Was it a severe or mild case of PE? HELLP..I was in bad shape
Did you have other complications? no
When you tried again for another child did you end up with PE? no
What did you do differently in this pregnancy to help you to have a normal pregnancy? LDA, and got pg 13 mos after our first son was born.

[angieb]

Did you have bleeding in the beginning of your PE pregnancy? What about your PE free pregnancies? No in both.
Did you ever feel bad or sick with either pregnancy? How did each pregnancy differ? I had morning sickness and bad colds with both pregnancies. In my first pregnancy I also got severe pre-e/HELLP, and our daughter had severe IUGR. In my second pregnancy I had a very healthy, above average sized little boy, I also had gestational diabetes in my second pregnancy but not in my first.
Did your baby measure small on ultrasounds when you had PE? What about when you didn't have it? Yes, our daughter was severely growth restricted, like 2-3 weeks behind. Our son was a 7.4 lb 36 weeker.
Were you healthy before you got PE? Yes, I actually weighed less for my HELLP pregnancy than I did for my healthy pregnancy. I did not have hypertension with either.
If you lost your baby, how far along were you when this happened? Was it a severe or mild case of PE? Did you have other complications? 23 weeks, severe HELLP (I think anyone who lost their baby to PREE can say it's a severe case generally.) I ended up starting to get better just in time before blood transfusions were necessary but my platelets dropped pretty low (40,000) and they were really worried for awhile. It took 2 days of magnesium sulfate before my labs finally started improving.
When you tried again for another child did you end up with PE? No
What did you do differently in this pregnancy to help you to have a normal pregnancy? I was on lovenox, low dose aspirin, and very closely monitored. I didn't work and took it easy. Not sure if it really helped or was coincidental. I got pregnant 11 months after my first pregnancy ended.

[cmccaffrey]

Did you have bleeding in the beginning of your PE pregnancy? What about your PE free pregnancies? I did not have any bleeding in my PE pregnancy, however, in my PE free pregnancy I had a few instances of spotting.
Did you ever feel bad or sick with either pregnancy? How did each pregnancy differ? with both pregnancies I had terrible morning sickness up until about 20 weeks... the morning sickness was worse with my PE free pregnancy.
Did your baby measure small on ultrasounds when you had PE? What about when you didn't have it? My PE baby had pretty severe IUGR at his birth, but had been growing pretty normally until 26 weeks. My second baby was small (30th percentile), but was continually growing. I guess My husband and I are fairly small as well... so doctors were not concerned.
Were you healthy before you got PE? I was pretty healthy before I got PE. Normal weight, healthy diet, light exercise. I became pretty hardcore about exercising before I became pregnant the 2nd time was on a strict diet. I worked out my entire 2nd pregnancy.
If you lost your baby, how far along were you when this happened? Was it a severe or mild case of PE? Did you have other complications? I developed PE around 26ish weeks and had a emergency c-section at 30 weeks. Our baby passed away a few days later. My doctors described my PE as pretty severe and I developed a blood clot(DVT) a week later and had to have other medical attention.
When you tried again for another child did you end up with PE? No... I started having varying blood pressures at the high end of normal and also had lower AFIs, but no preeclampsia.
What did you do differently in this pregnancy to help you to have a normal pregnancy? I met with a perinatologist/MFM before I got pregnant who told me to start on baby aspirin before getting pregnant. I became more health conscious, lost baby weight and more, exercised frequently and when I finally got pregnant I was put on lovenox daily in addition to baby aspirin and also folic acid. I kept up with the exercising and healthy diet and added a little yoga and acupuncture to help with the stress.