Zion Chandler and Natural Miscarriage

We decided on a name for Munchkin: Zion Chandler. Zion is from the Bible and means "heaven." Chandler is a family name. Every couple has to make their own decisions, but I like having names for all my babies--no matter how long they live all our babies are part of our family. A name is something solid to remember, and to reference. So much more personal than "my third pregnancy" or "it."

A few words about natural miscarriage for those who want to know (if not just stop reading now.) We found out at seven weeks that Zion was not growing; this was confirmed with another ultrasound at eight weeks. My doctor offered us options of surgery (D&C), pills, or waiting it out. I didn't even have to think about it, I knew I would prefer a natural miscarriage. Again, this is something that is different for every woman, but these were my reasons. 1) lower chance of complications (surgery and the pills are generally safe, but in the rare event that things go wrong, they can go really, really wrong, resulting in problems with later pregnancies or even loss of fertility. not to say things can't go wrong naturally, but it typically happens more slowly and there is time for medical intervention if necessary) 2) eliminates any doubt about whether or not the pregnancy was viable and you opted for surgery or pills when the baby would have been okay (again, rare but it does happen and I couldn't live with the what-ifs) 3) waiting it out gave me time to emotionally accept Zion's loss and prepare for it before the physical loss occurred. When I opted to wait I knew I could be in for a wait of several weeks, though miscarriages generally occur by week twelve. I thought at first it would be hard to wait but it really wasn't. At ten weeks I started spotting and miscarried a couple of days later (April 20). I had some cramping and heavy bleeding for about an hour and that was it. It really wasn't bad at all. I've definitely had worse menstrual cramping and compared to natural childbirth it was nothing. I'm still spotting a little and that should taper off in a few days.

About trying again . . . my doctor said whenever we are ready, no medical reason to wait the 1-3 months that used to be the standard recommendation. We aren't at any higher risk in future pregnancies (three miscarriages in a row is when doctors start to get concerned). The statistics keep changing, but the latest study I saw suggested miscarriage rates as high as 40% of all pregnancies (lots of those occur really early, before you even know you're pregnant), and most miscarriages are because of severe genetic defects. Both of our miscarriages are assumed to be in that category, especially since I've carried one pregnancy to term.

Anything I forgot to answer? I tried to be honest but not overwhelm with detail. :)