Every Day Counts

So many of you know, that I ran into a few complications with this pregnancy a couple of weeks ago. I finally got Rob out of the house so I can sit at the computer and update my blog...( Yep, just to be on the computer I am breaking Dr's orders and Rob always puts me in place). It all started the week of Valentines Day, when I woke up around 1:30 in the morning to pee. Yep, the baby moved right to my bladder... :) When I got to the bathroom, I realized that I was bleeding and not just urinating.... Then to scare me more, I hear a few drops hit the water and splash where some clotting was making an exit... Of course I know that bleeding when preggo is totally not a good thing, especially at only 25 weeks along, so I freaked out, and woke up Rob. Since it was in the middle of the night, I figured I would just go lay back down and keep my feet up and wait until morning and call my midwife very 1st thing.... So, I wait, and wait.... Needless to say, I didn't really get any sleep after that cuz I was worried about what was happening. Luckily, by morning, we had the bleeding pretty much stopped and the contractions were ceasing. But to be on the safe side at 8:00 that next morning I called my midwife, which surprise, she was out of town for a family emergency for that week.... so I had to deal with one of the other midwifes in her practice who I have never met before. She just wanted me to go in to the hospital to Labor and Delivery to be hooked up to monitors for a while and have another ultrasound done. So we got around, took Maysie to the sitters, and drove into the hospital. It took forever, (Well only like 30 minutes) to get checked into the hospital which I am still not sure why we had to do that before we even went upstairs to the Labor and Delivery floor? I seriously thought we would only be there for 2 or 3 hours and then go home on bed rest of course. But contrary to my thinking, things were worse than what I thought that they were. During the ultrasound they found out that I have placenta previa right now where the placenta is close to my cervix. The bad thing is that the placenta was wrapped up against my spine so it was on both the right side and the left side of my uterus which isn't common at all and then the umbilical cord was hanging down the middle and actually touching the cervix which is probably what caused some of the bleeding. Now the fact that I had clotting along with the bleeding, is signs that I have had a possible abruption of my placenta too, yet since the way my placenta was sitting, they couldn't tell for sure so instead of just having a basic ultrasound, I got an internal ultrasound too, (weird) but that didn't do much good either cuz they didn't want me to start bleeding again so they couldn't really do it much. Since my case was getting too complicated for just a midwife to handle, I moved up the chain of command and saw an ob, then it was too complicated for them that I moved up to a specialist. The specialist was way concerned and started telling us that we needed to go to the IMC hospital in Murray right away and be there for 7 days or so, yada, yada, yada. We checked out her Mickey Mouse drawings (yep we got pictures to explain what was going on with my body but I think it just confused us more) and listened to her expertise and of course started freaking out even more cuz, we seriously thought that it was not a big deal especially since we got the bleeding under control and such. So all this talk about C-Sections and long hospital stays were overwhelming at this point. So as all of my Dr's conversed they hooked me back up to the monitors and let me sit there. Rob's Dad, and his little brother Willey, came up to the hospital to see us and then when his Mom and little sister Orlean got off work, they went to the hospital too. So every one was gathered around when the parade of Dr's came into the room and was trying to get me to go by ambulance to the other hospital.... Seriously, an ambulance. That's like $1000.00 and plus ambulance's are for like life and death situations right??? We were also advised to give the baby some steroid shots to help build up the baby's lungs in case he is born early. Um, ok. I really wasn't expecting him to come for many more months, but sure, I would rather be safe than sorry. I have heard stories about my brother being born a month early with pre-mature lungs and I didn't want to go through what my parents did. So the process of these shots it to get one shot in you hip and be idle for 24 hours, and then 24 hours later, you get another shot of it in the other hip, then you wait on complete bed rest for another 24 hours and by then it should be to the baby and working miracles. :) So after having all this info given to us in such a short period of time, Rob and I decided to get the steroid shots and we would go to the other hospital since it was equip for preemies but we would not take the ambulance. So as they came in to put me in the wheel chair to let me go to the other hospital, they were still trying to get me to go by ambulance... Seriously was I that much of a risk? I think not! :) So we drove down to Murray to IMC for my hospital stay. The 1st night, I was in labor and delivery hooked up to monitors. My brother-in-law and one of his neighbors came and gave me a Priesthood blessing which calmed most of my fears and made me feel so much better. I am so grateful for the power of the Priesthood. One interesting thing that was said in this blessing, was that this baby was created to bring all the family together and to strengthen our relationships with each other. Heaven knows we were really surprised to be having this baby so soon after Maysie and it took some time for it to really sink in, but what a special being this little boy is to our whole family. Heavenly Father has a special plan for us and we just have to trust Him. All I could say was I was so hungry, by this point and I knew that you don't get food on the labor and delivery floor.... Errr. The IV's weren't cutting the cravings of food and I was getting rumbly in my tummy hardcore. Finally at like 11:00 that night, once they were convinced that I wasn't going to have this baby that day, they let me eat a light lunch.... When you don't really eat for 24 hours, that was the best meal ever! :) The next morning, they let me go to the post pardon floor for the rest of my stay.... You can get lots more rest on that floor.... At night you hardly even see your nurses! It was awesome. The whole time I was in the hospital I was just worried about Maysie. This was the 1st time we left her for a long period of time, and overnight. Every time we would talk to her on the phone she just kept saying," Momma, Daddy home!" and cry. Everyone said that she would just go get her coat and stand next to the door waiting to go. My heart would just break since we were not prepared to leave her that long at all. So after 3 days in the hospital, we were able to leave as long as I stayed on strict bed rest with only bathroom privileges. I am allowed to go up the stairs to my room at night and then in the morning I can go down the stairs to sit in the lazy boy. I have to keep my back propped up and I can't sit strait up in a chair and my feet have to be up too. There is now no lifting anything heavier than the remote control, a book, or a pen, and no bending at all. So I get to be lazy lazy for the next 3 months or until the Dr's take away one of the restrictions. I have to say, breakfast in bed is really nice but I do miss eating all the other meals at the table and I miss really playing with Maysie. We are so grateful that it is Rob's slow season so he is able to stay home 24/7 with me and man the house. He is quickly discovering that it isn't the easiest thing to keep a clean house all the time and even fix meals. Yet he is trying his hardest and does it with a smile on his face. My ward has been wonderful and they bring in meals Monday-Thursday and we have had a parade of people bring me books to read and even some come teach me how to crochet just to help me pass time. Rob's family helps out alot on weekends with meals and even just coming to visit. My sister comes out once a week and visits me too. I definitely see the family become closer with this trial. I now get to go to the Dr once a week for Non-Stress Tests (NST) and I will have ultrasounds at least once a month until the baby is born and I still get my regular pre-natal visits. Since I am on bed rest, all of this is combined to one day a week. The NST is where they measure the fluid levels and hook you up to monitors for so long to make sure the baby is ok. You have to have a steady heartbeat on the baby for at least 20 minutes before you can go. Yesterday, we went to our 2nd NST appointment and we were going to have another ultrasound done but they decided that it was too close to the one done in the hospital that there wouldn't be much difference in the result so we didn't have to really have one. We learned that the baby moved from the breech position to being head down over the course of the week. Yay, good news. Now if the placenta moves some then I can have my vaginal delivery instead of a C-section. But then it seems like with every piece of good news comes bad with this baby now, so the bad news is that my blood pressure was high and they found protein in my urine which is all signs of pre eclampsia/ toxemia. So I had to go get some blood drawn and I have to do a 24 hours urine test today (Which means that I have to collect all my urine for 24 hours and keep in this jug thing and put it in the refrigerator then take it back on Friday to have them test it) - gross. When I take back the urine test then I have to have more blood drawn and then they have to take my blood pressure again to make sure it isn't high. So wish me luck so I don't have to go back to Labor and Delivery for a while. (That was the threat yesterday but my blood pressure went down some by the end of my visit). But the baby looks wonderful and is growing right and I can stick with the bed rest for as long as it takes because I know that every day that he can stay inside of me will make a huge difference!