The Shocking Exit

In my last post I spoke about being concerned about exactly how long I could stay working - since most muscles in my body seemed to be malfunctioning. Well, cue story:

February 5th was the date picked for my baby shower. We picked something early so that I could be there, because, well, really - at 29.5 weeks, it seemed early enough to be "safe." My wonderful in-laws flew into town on Thursday night, and Friday I had off of work because we had a Dr. appointment. Before my Dr. appointment I decided to run off and get my hair cut (much-needed!!). I arrived around 10am at the local salon. Hair cut was going well - but all of the sudden, in the middle of it - I started feeling very hot, sweaty, nauseous, and like I might just pass out. So, I asked to get up to use the restroom, thinking I was just becoming overheated. I splashed some water on my face, took my time, and finished the haircut up with no problems.

On my way home I planned on stopping by the mall to replace the batteries in 2 of G's watches. I parked outside the nearest anchor store to the watch repair, scored a close spot - and started to walk in.

No sooner than hearing the door close behind me at the Macy's did I feel a common pregnancy feeling - a little "bubble" of discharge. No big deal. But then it kept going. One "bubble" after another. I took a few more steps forward, and immediately turned around to go back to my car. By this time I could feel that my pants were very wet. I covered myself with my coat and went back to the car.

When I got to the car, I looked down and saw that it was all blood. Bright. Red. Blood. I'm pretty sure this isn't a good sign - so I drove straight home. On my way I called my Dr. (my appointment was in 2 hours), and by the time I got off the phone I was home. She told me to come right in. It was 11:20. I went inside, as calm as I could muster, told my husband what happened, changed clothes, and we rushed off to see the doc. I'm sure we freaked out my poor in-laws as we rushed out - but we didn't want to panic anyone while we were trying not to panic ourselves.

So, we get to the doctor - she immediately sees us and then promptly sends us off to labor and delivery (her office is in a wing of the hospital). While we were leaving, I could hear her on the phone with L & D. It's not a good feeling when your Dr. uses the term "hemorrhaging" in reference to you. At 29 weeks pregnant. Oh, and I forgot to mention - I was feeling completely fine. No cramping, no pain, nothing out of the ordinary other than the bleeding. (Oh, and as a quick side note: G finally got to see - live and in person - the elusive speculum in a whole new way. Lovely.)

We arrive in L&D and after a short wait (at one point my Dr. came out to see why I was waiting) we were taken back to a room.

They ordered ultrasounds, the doctor did one in the room but wanted a more in-depth one. They hooked me up to an IV and 3 monitors - one for each baby and one for contractions (which, at this point, I wasn't having). We spent forever down in ultrasound - where they measured our girls and said everything looked great. They were moving around, and we were even able to see one of them blinking!

I returned to my room just in time to start having contractions. They checked my cervix, and I was about 1cm, which was 1cm more than an hour before in the dr.'s office. The on-call doctor came in with my usual doctor and they told me all about the dangers of magnesium - the drug they were thinking of putting me on to stop the contractions. With a lot of thought - they put me on it (through the IV), and then just kept up with the monitoring. The poor nurse had to just hang out with us to monitor the heartbeats - the babies were moving around so much she had to constantly move the little monitor pads!

I was put on a clear liquid diet. I was put on magnesium. I was given a steroid shot to help mature their lungs. The doctors were hoping that I could hold them in for at least 24 more hours - so that the steroid shot had a chance to work (even a bit).

They then had the NICU doctor come down and explain to us what would happen when I delivered.

Okay, this was getting scary. How could they be ready? They're not - I can feel them rolling around in there having a grand time - they're not ready. I'm not ready. We're not ready.

They never figured out what the bleed was from. They thought placental abruption - but I wasn't in any pain and the placentas looked intact and fine! Tear? None found.

And here I am - 2 weeks later - on bedrest at home and still pregnant. No more work for me - which explains my "shocking exit" from the workforce. I missed my baby shower, and spent the whole weekend in the hospital - but my girls are still safe and sound in utero.

That was our 29 week scare. Never a dull moment.