week thirty one

(c) The Salty Peanut Photography

the day started out like any other wednesday. Harlee and i went to work, i did payroll and and such. we literally relaxed on the couch from the time we got home. around 7:30pm Harlee was falling asleep and i was pretty tired too. so i got up and let her outside to do her business. i went into my room, changed into my pj's and went to the bathroom. i got up and all i saw was red. such a strange feeling because i didn't feel anything but normal. i immediately called the midwives and the told me to come into the hospital. frantic and paranoid, fearing the worse. i put on my shoes, still in my pj's and drove myself to the hospital. it was less than a 10 minute drive across town, and i wanted to speed so bad, but had a cop in the next lane the entire way until we both pulled into the hospital. i parked in the ER entrance and a nurse was paged from labor & delivery. she came down with a wheel chair and asked me to sit. that's when i started to get nervous, and was having some mild pressure in my lady region (soon to find out later they were contractions). they brought me to a room, i changed into a hospital gown and was poked with IV's and had monitors strapped to my belly to watch my contractions and baby's heart rate. as they flushed me with fluids to help ease the contractions, an hour later i felt a small gush. i passed my first (quite large) blood clot. the rest of the night i stayed in the room, drifting in and out of sleep. by the next morning, after the doctors discussed my situation, i was strapped to a stretcher and was transported by ambulance to another larger hospital with a NICU. the hospital in my town didn't feel comfortable with babies anytime before 35/36 weeks.

my mom came up and spent the entire day with me at the new hospital, my sister the next day (spending her spring break with a bed-ridden sister). i was on a liquid diet for almost a day and a half because they didn't know if i was to deliver or not. i was then allowed solid foods and every morning i had to have an ultrasound of baby done to make sure they were doing their practice breathing, movements and blood levels were good. i literally spent the entire week in a hospital bed at first with no end if or when i'd be able to leave.  i got word that my placenta went from being marginal (meaning it was close to my cervix) to a placenta previa (meaning it covered my entire cervix). hence the reason why all the bleeding and blood clots.

it wasn't until that next tuesday that i was told i was here until baby arrives, which they were hoping that the babe would stay in until at least 36 weeks. which meant 4 more weeks of bedrest. something i needed to prepare myself for. little did i know the next day, everything would change.