Morgan’s 1st Pregnancy & Birth

Morgan has struggled with Early ovarian failure since she was 16. Her doctor was not even sure that she would be able to have babies, but Morgan prayed for it because being a Mom was the only thing she has always wanted to do. After Morgan and Doug got married in June 2015, they started trying to conceive. Thankfully, they were able to get pregnant on the first try, not even a month after they were married. 

Morgan’s pregnancy was pretty easy in the beginning, aside from morning sickness. At 26 weeks, Morgan woke up in horrible pain in the middle of the night. Doug was working as a diesel mechanic over an hour away, so she had her mom take her the the hospital which was about 45 minutes away. Morgan found out she was passing a lot of kidney stones (she has struggled with a kidney disease since high school- it is a rare genetic condition). Throughout the rest of her pregnancy, Morgan passed kidney stones every couple of days. During this time, Morgan was a Senior in college, finishing up her Education degree. 

Morgan was due the Tuesday of Spring Break, and told her doctor that the baby HAD to come during spring break so she could finish student-teaching. Monday morning of her spring break, Morgan and Doug drove to the doctor’s office (45 minutes away). When she got checked, Morgan was dilated to 2cm and 100% effaced so she was able to get her membranes stripped to help things get started. She and Doug drove home and labored most of the day. Side note – Morgan passed a giant kidney stone 10 minutes before they left for the hospital.

After contractions started to get about 8 minutes apart, they headed to the hospital and settled into the OB unit. Baby looked good and so did Morgan’s blood pressure so they let her labor in the tub and on the ball. Morgan had been very committed to having an unmedicated birth because she didn’t want to be the first person in her family to have an epidural. Unfortunately, Morgan’s body was not able to relax enough after being in active labor from 10 am to 11:45pm. Morgan hadn’t progressed past a 4 and the doctor who was going to be delivering the baby told her she was either going to get an epidural or he would take her in for a c-section. After a half-hour of crying and feeling devastated, Morgan got the epidural. After the epidural was placed, Morgan was finally able to take a short nap. At about 4am, the nurse came into the room to check the baby, catheter, etc., and as she started to leave Morgan felt a giant pop/gush. It was definitely her water. At 6:30 am, Morgan was finally ready to push. The doctor came back in and Morgan was able to push the baby out in less than 30 minutes. Baby was a surprise gender, and Morgan and Doug met their baby GIRL, Emerson Lee, on her due date after 29 hours of labor.

After they got home, Morgan became really sick. She had a high fever and her skin hurt so badly she would cry every time she nursed. Morgan thought she had mastitis so she went in to see a lactation specialist and was able to rule out mastitis. Morgan was then sent over to her OB  where she was checked out and found out that she had a very bad uterine infection. After a round of IV and at home antibiotics, she was feeling so much better and was able to settle into the journey of motherhood. 

Morgan’s 2nd Pregnancy & Birth

In April 2018, Morgan ended up having a ministroke that was completely random and not really understood why. She spent 3 weeks in the ICU and Hospital learning how to reuse her left side. Shortly after she recovered, Morgan found out that she was pregnant again. She was completely shocked because she had just been through a huge medical issue and was not mentally or physically very healthy. Still, Morgan and her husband were very excited. Morgan was sick during the entire pregnancy with baby no. 2. She ended up losing almost 50 pounds at the beginning of the pregnancy just from being so sick, and getting off a lot of the stroke related meds. 

At 28 weeks, Morgan ended up back in the hospital with horrible kidney pain, fever, sick, dehydrated, etc. They did an ultrasound and found 4 stones that were backed up and infected. She ended up going into emergency surgery at 28 weeks pregnant to remove the infected stones. She and the baby came out of it great and the rest of the pregnancy was mostly normal. 

At 36 weeks, Morgan’s blood pressure was high at her appointment so she was monitored at the hospital. They were able to get her blood pressure under control and she was able to go home. Morgan was scheduled to come back into the office two days later on the day she was 37 weeks along. At that appointment, she had a bad headache, her blood pressure read very high continually for an hour, so the doctor that she was seeing at the time decided that they were going to have to admit her and deliver the baby because of preeclampsia. The doctor stripped her membranes, and then Morgan was immediately sent to the hospital and hooked up to magnesium and started her on the cytotec pill. At 8am the next morning, she was only dilated to a 3 but they broke her water and started a very high dose of pitocin. After 26 hours in labor and not a lot of progress she decided to get an epidural that ended up being very ineffective. After the epidural was placed, Morgan’s blood pressure ended up dropping as low as it could without being dead, and they lost the baby’s heartbeat. Once they had everything back under control, she had to labor without medication or epidural. After 37 hours, she ended up delivering their surprise baby boy. 

After delivery the baby did great in the hospital other than losing a lot of weight to start with. On the day that they were supposed to leave the hospital, Morgan woke up with a 107 degree fever, body aches, etc. Turns out she had another uterine infection and they were kept in the hospital an extra 2 days to be on IV antibiotics. 

Morgan’s 3rd Pregnancy & Birth

Morgan and Doug knew that they wanted another baby and figured it would take a while, so they started “trying but not really” when their son was about 7 months old. Morgan ended up having another mini stroke , was life flighted to a bigger hospital, and while they were in the hospital, they ended up sharing with them that they were pregnant. Morgan and Doug were very shocked but excited. 

Morgan ended up hiring a doula for this pregnancy to help her get through this pregnancy and birth since the first two were so long and somewhat traumatic. 

Morgan also struggles with a bad genetic Kidney disease that causes her to grow hundreds of Kidney stones in the tissue/lining of her kidneys that is not curable and not caused by diet, medications, etc. It is genetic and very painful. Because of this disease, the beginning of Morgan’s third pregnancy was very difficult. She spent the first almost 5 months in and out of the hospital for hydration issues, pain control, etc. She ended up having to have kidney surgery at 10 weeks and again at 28 weeks. Her stones at 28 weeks made her almost septic and they were scared they were going to lose the baby. 

After the surgeries Morgan and the baby were doing fine, but they had to go in for non-stress tests and ultrasounds once a week. 

At Morgans 34, 35, and 36 week appointments, the baby had been head down and very engaged, but when she went in for her 38 week appointment, (they were supposed to get membranes stripped and get labor going) the baby had turned its head up into Morgan’s hip. She had to do spinning babies, lay upside-down on an ironing board. She went back on that Friday (3 days later) and had an ultrasound and non stress test. They found out that the baby was engaged again, she was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced. They ended up stripping her membranes and sending her home. Morgan then labored at home for the rest of the day, and ended up going into the hospital that night. 

This pregnancy and labor were happening during the biggest flare up of the Covid-19, so the entire pregnancy had been very stressful for them, but they were also told that the Doula that Morgan had been so excited about, was not going to be allowed in the hospital with them. When they showed up at the hospital they spent almost an hour going through the check in process with the Covid Restrictions, all while Morgan was in active labor. 

Once they finally got upstairs, Morgan was admitted because she was contracting a heavy amount and showed signs of early preeclampsia again. 

Morgan labored all night with just her and her husband. At 5am she was hooked up to pitocin and the contractions started coming very hard and strong every 45 seconds. She decided to get an epidural, but they had to do it three different times and it ended up not even working. After she had a dose of Fentanyl, Morgan was able to take a little nap and woke up feeling huge pressure. Morgan ended up pushing their 3 surprise baby out in three pushes and met their new baby girl. She ended up having a little bit of postpartum hemorrhaging and then her baby girl was taken away to the nursery because her stats were not exactly where they wanted them.

Finally the baby was brought back to her. The baby (Willa Ruth) struggled to start nursing, but once they got started, they did a great job nursing together. Morgan was started on preemptive antibiotics for the uterine infection. The day that they were supposed to go home, Willa Ruth failed her bilirubin levels test and had to be placed under the lamp. Doug ended up being kicked out of the hospital because of Covid regulations and Morgan and Willa were stuck there by themselves for another three days. 

They were finally released and sent home, where they all settled in great to a family of five. 

Doug and Morgan are doing great. Emerson is now 4 years old, Sawyer will be 2 in January, and Willa Ruth is 5 months old. Morgan really wants another baby, but they have decided they will wait until Willa is almost 2 before they make their decision. They are loving life as a family of 5!

Morgan Watson Bio

Morgan is 26 years old, a middle school teacher in her home town of Athena, Oregon. Her and her husband have been together for 10 years and married this last June for 5 years. They have three kiddos, Emerson who is 4, Sawyer who is 1 (20 months), and Willa who is 4 months! Morgan’s husband is a farmer and works/owns part of their family farm which they live on, actually the same property as her Grandparents. 

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