Adventures in Babygrowing

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I got the chance to get a first-hand glimpse of being a patient at the hospital I'll be delivering in.  At least, that's the positive side to the whole experience.

Friday night I was dozing on my couch, and got up to use the bathroom before heading to bed.  Much to my alarm, I saw quite a bit of bright pink blood.  I SO wanted to just head to bed (it was almost midnight), but thought with the issues I've had so far, I better call the clinic.  So I did, and when the on-call doc called me back, she advised me to head to the hospital to get everything checked out.  So I got dressed, gave my very bewildered pooch a snuggle, and left my house at midnight, calling my brother on the way so that someone knew where I was (he was heading home from work, so I knew he'd be awake). 

Thankfully mom and I had done a tour of the birth center a month ago, so I knew where to go.  I was a little emotional when I first got there, I think partly because I was still half-asleep!  The woman at the desk was super sweet and comforting, got me registered quickly and into a triage room.  Soon another very sweet nurse (NP or PA probably) came in, got me hooked up to the monitors, and I was much more relaxed.  She wrapped a belt type thing around me and found baby's heartbeat with a little probe, and I just lay there hooked up to that for awhile.  Heart rate was great, steadily around 145 and jumping up to the 160s when he moved around, which she said they like to see ("reactive" heart rate).  And zero contractions, so that was good too.

After awhile they were ready for me in the ultrasound room, so I got a wheelchair ride downstairs - quite the odd experience I gotta say.  (I might have ridden in one when I was 12, after an accident at the county fair when the greasy carney started a ride before my dad, brother and I were actually ON the ride, and we got thrown to the side and battered by flying fiberglass pods.  But my main memory from that was the ambulance ride.)  The very friendly sonographer got me all set up, and I once again got to see the little guy squirming inside me.  She was comforting when I mentioned a little concern about all the ultrasounds I'd been and will be getting, and said she looked at her little girl every week the last half of her pregnancy and she hasn't had any issues (she's over a year old).  Not that I'd advocate casual viewing, but it was reassuring and again, it does really feel like the benefits outweigh the risks.  Once again little dude looked just fine, and she even did an amnio measurement that came out slightly higher than my results at the perinatal clinic.  There's lots of variance between sonographers and equipment, but at least it didn't show me being a lot lower or anything.

So after being wheeled back up to the triage room, hooked on the heart rate monitors again and dozing for a little while, the nurse came in and said the results all looked good, she'd called the on-call doc and said to just head home, take it easy, no heavy lifting, etc, etc.  All good news, except no one seems to know why I keep spotting and/or bleeding!! And I know that is not all that rare, some women just bleed during pregnancy.  It's so hard to know the right course of action when it happens.  Knowing it's not that abnormal, it feels a little paranoid to rush in every time I see it.  Yet, I left it to the dr's call, and she's the one who recommended it.  And I've got a couple issues to be concerned about now, plus I'm high-risk just based on my age, so it's scary to ignore those kinds of things.  Next time, if the exact same thing happens, I'd maybe sleep on it and hold off on calling the clinic until the next morning, or at least a few hours later, to see if I was still bleeding (it stopped pretty quickly).  Yet there's always that fear that inaction could cause problems, and how horrible would I feel then?

Anyhoo, all seems fine now, I'm taking it easy all weekend, felt bad about canceling plans with friends last night but decided it was the best thing to do.  Unfortunately my house shows the signs of "taking it easy" and the housecleaning elves have yet to appear.  I'll do a few light tasks today though and hopefully make some progress gradually. 

There is definitely a comfort in being more familiar with the hospital now.  Everyone there was so great, and I think next time I go - whether it's for the big event, or a concern before then - I'll know more what to expect, and that's a calming thought.

When I got home about 3am Saturday to my yelping pooch (who had only been alone about a half hour before my brother got here), I came up to my room to find this evidence of his distress.  Thought I'd post so Jodie and Mom know what they might expect to find in my house, should I happen to go into labor and leave in the middle of the night when he's at my place. 

Thankfully he only destroyed August and September, but he sure did a number on the wire!