Retaining Placenta, every hormonal new mom's dream

I swear, that after this post I will have been officially caught up and will no longer be writing 1000 word essays...

Warning: lots of TMI here. I have no shame.

8 days postpartum I woke up around 8 PM from a late, but much needed nap and went to use the bathroom. As I pulled down my pants I noticed what can only be described as a large, bloody mass coming out of my lady area. Needless to say I freaked and yelled for my mom. She came up, took a look and yelled for my husband to call 911. Neither of us had any idea what it was but mom's first thought was that I had a prolapsed uterus.

I worked my over to the toilet and very carefully sat down and waited for the ambulance to come. When the paramedics and firemen showed up (all 6 of them, I think, it was a real party) none of them knew what to do and one paramedic had to call the hospital for instructions. the one female firefighter helped me get myself back together without dislodging the mass and off we went to the hospital on the coldest night of the year.

Once there, I waited what seemed like 2 hours after first being taken to the ER, then being told that since I was less than 6 weeks PP I had to go to L&D. I'm sure I only waited 10 minutes at most for a nurse in the triage room at L&D and once she came in she whipped off my pants and misc padding. The mass came off along with everything else and the nurse assured me after glancing at it that it was just a large chunk of placenta. I was so freaking relieved! Of course, by this point I had realized that if it was in fact a prolapsed uterus they probably would have wheeled me right to surgery.

After a really fun ultrasound with a dildo-cam (remember I was only 8 days PP, and had a 2nd degree tear and lots of stitches) the on call Dr. decided I needed to stay overnight. They put me on a PIT and antibiotic drip to see if any remaining masses could be expelled without a D&C. I finally got a private room, one of the newly remodeled ones at that (when I had Amelia apparently every other pregnant women in the city had her baby at the same time and I got stuck in one of the 3 semi-private maternity rooms in the hospital). My mom had to stay the night with me so that Amelia could stay too.

The next morning I had another ultrasound (thankfully of the non-dildo-cam variety) and after viewing the results, the Dr. declared that I was all clear and could go home. Best news ever, I swear! And to this date we have yet to receive a bill for the second hospital stay. I'm assuming this is because it was as a result of some negligence on the part of the Dr. who attended my delivery. Who knows? I was just glad to have the whole (unnecessary) experience behind me.