Sofia Richie Grainge’s pregnancy with her daughter, Eloise, was easy — “until it wasn’t.”
“I had a great pregnancy up until about 32 weeks,” Richie Grainge, 26, explained on the Tuesday, October 15, episode of the “SHE MD” podcast. “At 32 weeks I woke up and I was like, ‘Hey, I woke up and I’m really tired today. My back really hurts. I feel a little crampy.’ And I really thought it was going to be another one of those, ‘Yeah, babe, that’s pregnancy. You’re going to be fine, but you can come in if you want me to check you’ type situations.”
Dr. Thais Aliabadi (a.k.a. Dr. A) advised her to see a fetal specialist “to make sure that everything’s OK.” Upon doing so, Richie Grainge discovered she was in active labor and was sent to the hospital.
“What was meant to be just, like, a few hours, actually ended up being, like, a six-night stay,” she recalled, adding that she was “really terrified.”
After six days in the hospital, Richie Grainge was released and began a “waiting game” to give birth. She was induced at 38 weeks.
“I had a fantastic delivery. Dr. A’s the best. She’s like a football coach in there. I was like, ‘Let’s do this,’” Richie Grainge said. Dr. A, meanwhile praised the model by stating, “She’s amazing. This girl does not complain, by the way. What she went through, it was really traumatic. Six weeks she was having contractions.”
Following her “emotionally draining” birth experience, Richie Grainge said she “blew up like a balloon” due to swelling shortly after returning home. “I felt very ill. … So, [Dr. A] sent over her wonderful nurse, and my blood pressure was 165 over 103.”
According to Dr. A, Richie Grainge was diagnosed with postpartum preeclampsia. “We don’t know what causes it, but what happens is your blood pressure goes up,” Dr. A explained. “And as that blood pressure goes up — it could be during pregnancy, it could be up to six weeks postpartum and it can put you at risk for seizures. So, it’s a very, very dangerous condition. If you completely ignore it, you can have strokes from it.”
Richie Grainge said it was the “hardest thing” to “leave my daughter two days postpartum” and go back to the hospital. “My poor husband was like, ‘I have to get you to the hospital because Dr. A’s saying it’s just not safe. It’s just not safe that you’re home.’ So, I spent 24 hours in the hospital, and it was really, really, really hard.”
She went on to note that her “mom guilt kicked in” during her health struggles, which included taking “really hard” blood pressure medication for six to eight weeks postpartum. “From the second Eloise was born, I was like, ‘I can’t miss an awake time. I can’t miss a moment. I don’t want someone else taking care of my kid,’” Richie Grainge shared.
She continued: “[I] was like, ‘Yes, I feel so blessed and fortunate to be able to have people help me and to be able to have support, but I also am not interested in someone raising my kid.’ I wouldn’t have had a kid if I wasn’t ready to take that on. My mom guilt has been balancing those two things.”
Three-and-a-half months after welcoming Eloise, Richie Grainge said she’s gotten to a place “where I’m like, ‘I can take care of my daughter by myself and I’m confident in that.’” Her husband, Elliot Grainge, has been loving his role as a “super dad” and a “girl dad.”
Richie Grainge announced she had given birth to the couple’s first child on May 20 via Instagram earlier this year. Richie Grainge rang in her 26th birthday with her baby by her side in August.
“Celebrating 26 years and 3 months 🌻,” she captioned sweet Instagram pics of herself holding Eloise on August 24.