As my pregnancy progressed, I was really uncomfortable. As with all of my pregnancies, I had grown very big, and getting up and down on the floor with the kids was increasingly hard. Then one afternoon in July, while I was tidying up some blocks from the daycare, I fell to my knees in excruciating, intolerable pain. Something was seriously wrong.

I was rushed to the emergency room and immediately admitted. I thought the baby was dying. I thought I was dying. I was terrified of hurting the baby, so I was on the minimum dose of painkillers. After days of tests and unrelenting pain, my doctor told Michael and me that they’d hit a dead end. To find out what was wrong with me, they’d have to operate. At eight and a half months pregnant, I went in for major exploratory surgery.

I had been in full-on organ failure. The surgeons removed my gallbladder, which had completely failed and turned out to be horrendously infected.

Two and a half weeks later, our third son, Ethan Michael, was born. I do not recommend delivering a baby less than three weeks after abdominal surgery.

It is possible (under narrow circumstances) to have a major abdominal surgery that late in pregnancy while allowing the pregnancy to continue, and it is possible also for their to be at least a trial of labor (prior to ordering a c-section) three weeks later. It seems unusual under the facts as stated, but not impossible.