A Scare...

Today we had a scare with the baby...I was at work and started bleeding. Not like spotting, it was full blown, gushing, dark red bleeding...a total mess! I immediately called my doctor and they had me come right in. My doctor wasn't at the office so I saw her nurse practioner, Kaye. She came in asked what was going on and then felt my tummy and then grabbed the doppler. A rush of fear came over me, I wanted to know, but I didn't want to know - thankfully she found the baby's heartbeat fairly quickly and also said the baby was moving around.

She next did a vaginal exam and determined that the bleeding wasn't urinary, like she had thought/hoped, but that it was coming from the vagina. She said she couldn't tell why I was bleeding from the exam and that I needed an ultrasound done over at the hospital. So I got dressed (oh and Chris was out of town working, but on his way back so he wasn't at the doctor's office) and was then given my "stat" order to take to the hospital at 1pm (it was 11am when I left the doctor's office...so much for "stat"...)

My mom was on her way in town and we met at my house and then headed back to the hospital for my appointment and Chris met us there. I think I was pretty numb at this point, not really thinking one way or the other about what was potentially going on. Kaye made sure that I knew it was a good thing that we heard the baby's heartbeat, but that it also didn't mean that we were in the clear. I was definitely on auto-pilot. I expected our ultrasound to be one of those where they don't talk to you, don't show you the screen, that they would just do their thing and send Kaye the report. Thankfully our ultrasound tech was awesome! I wish I would have gotten her name! As soon as she saw the heartbeat she turned the screen to where we could see and walked us through the whole ultrasound - it was just like our "big" 20 week ultrasound with Jack, she took all the measurements and pointed out all the body parts and organs for us. Now, when she started she asked if Kaye had said what she thought might have been the problem, and I said she just said that sometimes the placenta can be too low and cause bleeding. She paused the screen and said, well I think she is right and it was clear as day that the placenta was sitting, covering my entire cervix! I immediately felt a bit of relief, the ultrasound tech said that she sees this alot and that more times then not she sees that the placenta will move on its own as the pregnancy progresses! Which is good news! She also said she was pretty sure the worst case scenario is that if the placenta didn't move it would mean a c-section at delivery - I was thinking, if that's the worse I'll take it!

Now, most of the time ultrasound techs aren't supposed to give so much info, but I appreciated it and after we talked to the doctor she confirmed everything the tech had said so that was nice! So what does all this mean? For now I'm on a "modified" bed rest I guess you can say...I can go to work and come home and that's pretty much it. No exercise, I'm on pelvic rest (if you know what I mean!), and can't lift Jack (we'll see how that one goes, I think I'll just have to be selective about when it's absolutely necessary to lift him b/c Chris travels and he has to get in his crib somehow...). We have another ultrasound scheduled in 2 weeks on September 8th to check the placenta's position.

The doctor did confirm that there were no tears in the placenta, that it was fully attached to the uterin wall and that my cervix was closed - all good things! She did say I should expect more bleeding off and on and it would probably tie with how active I was being. If I do start bleeding I'm supposed to call the doctor and let them know so that they can note it in my file.

Everything I have read (which I tried not to Google too much b/c somehow you always manage to find the worst case scenario) has said that if you are diagnosed with Placenta Previa (the technical term) prior to 20 weeks (we are almost 16) then only a small percentage of women still have the condition at the time of delivery! I did read that it can lead to pre-mature delivery in some cases if the bleeding is heavy and uncontrollable and lasts for a prolonged period, so that really makes me want to take it easy and PRAY that the placenta will move on it's own!

The best part of the day was definitely getting to see the baby AND finding out the gender! But I'm not telling just yet, I want confirmation in 2 weeks at the next ultrasound! :-)

xoxo