Monday was an eventful day. Lemme’ back up…
On Sunday morning (which was Easter), I spent the majority
of the time in the kitchen. I made a French toast bake the night before that I
popped into the oven, I was unmolding the Jell-o eggs, and making almost a
dozen deviled eggs (or should I say almost two dozen because I halved them; not
sure on the correct term there). After breakfast I showered and got ready for
the day. The last thing I did to get ready was try to squeeze into some
maternity jeans that I got for $5 at a consignment sale, that were clearly too
small for me.
Right before we go to walk out the door, I remind myself to
pee first (because let’s face it, I go every half an hour and who knows if I’d
be in agony on our 15 minute car ride). Low and behold, what did I see when I
sat down??? Blood. I panicked for a bit. “Is that really blood? Could it be
something else? When did I feel the baby move last? Oh God, has she moved all
morning!?!”
I ran into the bedroom and laid on my side (well-known
position to feel baby kicks) as I called the OB’s emergency line. My message to
them sounded something like “My name is ___, date of birth is ____, I’m 30
weeks along and I’m bleeding. It’s old blood, not fresh, but I didn’t have this
with my first one. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do from here.” As soon as
I hung up I felt the baby kick. Whew!
Not even 30 seconds later, the phone rang and it was a doctor
out of the office (there are three doctors at the location I go to). I’m sure
she heard the shaking in my voice. She asked me a lot of questions about my
recent activities, and I think all of them were “no.” I then explained that I
overdid it at the zoo the day before (felt some cramping and pressure in my abdomen;
almost like I pulled a muscle), I was on my feet for a few hours Saturday night
as well baking an Easter cake, and I did some hopping around the house
squeezing into a too-small pair of pants just 20 minutes earlier. She said I
shouldn’t be too concerned and bleeding is normal during pregnancy, much to my
surprise. I thought maybe early on, but this late?
She told me to watch for fresh blood, or more of it. She
said I need to take it easy and stay off my feet. Watch for pressure when I’m
standing or walking (ummm, I’ve had that for MONTHS now), look for changes in
my body like swelling, headaches, fever, etc. That was it. The rest of Sunday
was boring really since I couldn’t do much. Everyone all day was all “don’t
pick her up, don’t walk down the stairs, sit back down and take it easy…” It
made things pretty dull for the most part. I did get to catch up with Aunt
Sharon, and it was nice huddling around the dining room table watching Emma
open all her eggs.
By Sunday night, most of the bleeding had stopped. Whew!
Just a blip.
Monday morning, the blood was done. No more. Yay! I got
ready and went to work. It seemed to be the start of a great day. However, I
parked in my normal parking spot, walked inside the office building, set my
stuff down, and I felt a lot of pressure. I actually felt it once I got to the
top of the hill outside, but once I reached the top of the stairs I was
dragging! I swear a foot could have been out or something. I went to the
restroom, and the blood was back… and intense!
I got done what needed to be done right away, and then I
called the doctor around 10:30 am. She said I should go to the evaluation unit
on the maternity ward level of the hospital. So at 11:00 am I left work and
headed there.
Once I got to the hospital, the evaluation unit was closed.
CLOSED!?!?! I went to the maternity ward, and they said that since they didn’t
have any patients, they closed that unit and they admitted any patients going
there, into the ward instead. Oh joy. So I got to wear the great hospital gown,
got a bed and room all to myself, hospital bracelet and all. At that point, I
knew it would be an all-day event.
The nurses moved quickly since there weren’t many women
there that day. By 12:30 pm I was already having the speculum test done to
check for fluid and such. It was at that time that the nurse made a comment
something like “wow, that’s some different blood.” To save you the gross
details, I'll just say that it was stringy at this point. The nurse kept asking me to cough (and
that hurts when the speculum is there and all), and she noticed that when I
cough I bleed more. At that point, she had to leave the room and call the
doctor to let her know what she saw.
She came back about 45 minutes later, and let me know that
my bag of waters wasn’t broken at all, but the bleeding and the amount of blood
was puzzling everyone. So I needed to have an ultrasound done. It wasn’t a
surprise though when she told me it would be at least a three hour wait to get
in for the ultrasound since there wasn’t anything life-threatening going on.
I updated everyone on my status, and Gene felt bad that he
wasn’t there with me so he left work and got there about 2:00 pm. I watched some good tv until I was wheeled
away for the ultrasound. A student doctor followed us to watch, which was fine
by me, and actually worked out better because they looked the baby all over to
show her all the organs and everything on the baby. Hey, if I’m going to pay
out the wazoo for this ultrasound, at least I’m getting some good looks! We
even got to have a couple 4D images of her!
The fetal-monitoring doctor came in and talked to me about
the possibilities. They didn’t see any clotting, and nothing going on with the
placenta or cervix. I asked how they could tell about the back side of
everything and that’s when she told me that she can’t. At 30 weeks, the baby is
too big and the bones are no longer frail, so they are unable to see through
her to the back of the placenta. So she said that there was a chance that there
could be a small detachment on the back that we wouldn’t know about. That had
me worried.
They wheeled me back to the room, and the nurse called my
doctor to go over the results of the ultrasound and where to go from there. It
was rather quick from there on out. She came back and said that my doctor
thinks it’s my cervix and isn’t worried about the placenta. I guess it’s normal
for your cervix to bleed (I forget the term they used to say that it bleeds a
lot, it started with an “f”). I was told to watch for the same things, as well
as others like vision impairment, contractions, etc. I have my standing
appointment with my doctor on the 21st, so they said no “hanky panky,”
no heavy lifting, no exercising (ha!), don’t stand too long, don’t sit too
long, and rest while at home until I see her then.
I’ve been trying to take it easy, but it’s so hard! The baby’s
room isn’t done, the house is a mess, the chores never stop, and I still have a
full-time job of course! I have been doing things as normal since the bleeding
stopped (Tuesday afternoon), but I’m taking breaks often to make sure that I’m
not overdoing it. I have a cough that won’t seem to go away, so I cough most of
the day, which pulls on my stomach muscles and for the last day and a half
every time I walk on my right foot I feel a slight pull in my lower abdomen. But
I’m really trying. I cut down my trips up and down the stairs at work, I take
breaks more at home, I get up and walk more at work, etc.
I’ve got less than NINE weeks to go now, and as much as I
want her here, this baby girl needs to keep cooking in there for now. I want
her to come out strong!
So that was my eventful Monday. I forgot to mention that I
couldn’t eat or drink the entire time in the hospital, so as soon as we left
(5:45 pm), we hit up Olive Garden! Yum!
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