My Busy Birthday Weekend!

Oh boy! I had a very busy birthday weekend! Let’s see, where should I begin? I will pick up my journey from the time of my last post.

So after the cerclage, I was sent home with instructions of limited activity. Very hard to follow when you have a 6 year old boy at home! I tried to take it easy, no heavy lifting or strenuous activities. Or so I thought. Kaleb had just started T-ball; his first game was February 25th. He has practice on Mondays and games on Wednesdays and Saturdays every week. I of course wanted to be there for every practice and game. The games are very entertaining and lots of fun! You can’t buy that kind of entertainment anywhere!

I also had a birthday coming up (March 1st) and Phillip and I had planned to go shopping on Saturday, February 28th after Kaleb’s game. We had planned to go to the Ellenton Outlets in search of a new Coach purse from the Coach outlet and some cute maternity clothes from the Motherhood outlet. Then we had plans to meet up with his family for pizza night (we have pizza night every Sunday night with his parents) to celebrate my birthday instead of having it on Sunday. Sunday, for my birthday, we had brunch plans at a restaurant on the beach then dinner reservations at the Texas Cattle Company for a steak dinner. I was really looking forward to the steak dinner.

So we went to Kaleb’s game, and then came home to get dressed to head out to the outlet mall. We left at about 11:30 am and stopped at Applebee’s to grab lunch. We got to the outlet mall at around 1:00 pm and I headed straight to the Coach store. I was torn between so many choices; I couldn’t make up my mind. So off we went to another store. We stopped and looked in several stores before we came upon Motherhood. I had so much fun trying on preggo clothes and found a few good pieces to purchase. Then off we went in search of shoes and cleats for Kaleb. We finally found some good buys at the Nike outlet. We got a baseball glove for Phillip, some shoes for Kaleb and a new baseball bag for him and his cousin Chase. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any cleats in Kaleb’s size. As we stood in the checkout line, I felt a warm gush and knew I needed to get to a bathroom and soon. So I left Phillip in line and went to the restroom. I was so scared at what I saw next. There was blood, bright red blood just gushing out. I cleaned up as best as I could then went back to tell Phillip. I called the afterhours to my OB and one of my OB’s called me back right away. He told me to hang up and call 911 and have an ambulance take me to the nearest hospital since we were about 45 minutes away from home. I decided that I really didn’t want to be that far away from my family and my own doctors, so we decided to go ahead and drive back home and go to the emergency room at out hospital so we can be closer to our family and our doctors.

We were on the interstate in no time, and on our way to the hospital (where I will be delivering). We arrived there in half the time it would normally take us to drive. Phillip was speeding down the highway; I could tell he was nervous and scared. Honestly, so was I. I just didn’t want him to see it because I knew it would just make him that much more scared. As soon as we got to the ER, it was about 3:45 pm, I registered at the front desk while Phillip parked the car. I was taken in by the triage nurse and she put all my information in to the system. We were sent to the lobby to wait for an available room. Phillip wheeled me into the lobby (yes, I was sitting in a wheel chair) and we waited. And waited. And waited. Every time I had to go potty, there was still lots of blood, so I tried not to move around or get up much. The on-call Dr. from the OB practice I go to called me several times to check and see how I was and if I had been seen yet, of course I told him I was still bleeding, and no, I have not yet been seen. He was so mad! He told me he was finishing up a few things and that he was close by, but would meet me at the ER. He personally wanted to check me and not have to rely on the ER doctors. Shortly before I was taken back to an exam room, my doctor called me to let me know he had arrived to the ER. It was 7:00 pm when I was finally taken to an exam room. The nurse started an IV immediately after I dressed into a gown. I explained to the nurse that my doctor would be coming to check me personally, but she did not believe me. She told me that’s not how things work in the ER. The ER doctor came in and asked me a few questions, then did an internal exam to check and see if the cerclage was still in place, which it was, thank goodness! As soon as he left the room, my doctor came in and surprised the nurse! He asked her for some supplies, as she went to get them he asked me a few questions. He also mentioned to me that it took him calling the Head Nurse to get them to take me back to an exam room. He explained to me that he would be looking at my cervix through a speculum (a plastic tool used in a pap smear). He walked me through everything he was looking at and how things looked. The cerclage was still intact and there were signs of heavy bleeding, but it appeared that the active bleeding had finally stopped! He removed a couple of blood clots, and yes, they looked gross! I’m not gonna lie, the exam was very painful! I still cringe just thinking of it. He went on to explain that he ordered an ultrasound and that someone should be coming shortly to take me to the u/s room, and he would be back to let me know the results.

My sister Dana arrived to be with us at the exam room and that made me feel a bit better. It didn’t take long for someone to come and take me to the u/s room. Phillip couldn’t go with me because it was the u/s room in the ER, not the u/s room in Labor & Delivery. The technician was very nice. It was such a relief to see ‘Lil Bean moving around on the screen! And I saw ‘Lil Bean’s heart beating away strong! I couldn’t stop thanking God. She look at my ovaries, the placenta, my uterus and the baby to see if she if the bleeding was coming from any of them. Of course, she wouldn’t tell me what she saw. All she said was that my doctor would get a report and tell me. The u/s lasted probably only 10 minutes, but that was all I needed to finally start calming down. I was taken back to the exam room where Phillip and my sister were waiting for me. My doctor came soon enough to tell us what the u/s had revealed. He explained that the bleeding was not coming from anywhere in my uterus (placenta or baby) and that the bleeding was caused by the extensive walking I did that day. All the walking was too much on my cervix and cerclage, and he wanted to admit me for observation in the Labor & Delivery wing of the hospital for a day, maybe two. He wanted to make sure I would go 24 hours without any signs of bleeding before he would discharge me. It was 9:00 pm and our dogs needed to be let out. They have been pinned up since we left for the outlet mall! I sent Phillip home to get some things for me for our stay at the hospital, and to pick up some food. He made it back to the hospital by 10:30 pm, and my sister needed to get home. She left, and we were on our own.

At around 11:00 pm, I was taken to pre-admitting where we waited for our room to be prepared. The IV that I had was empty and I didn’t need another, but they left the hook-up in my arm just in case I needed more later on. I was starving by then. Phillip asked one of the nurses if I could eat and she looked at my chart and said “she sure can”. He walked out to the car to get the food he picked up (I wanted Chinese) and we finally ate! Not too long after we ate, we were taken up to our room. It was 11:57 pm when we got there. 3 minutes until my birthday! Phillip walked down to the car again to get all our supplies (toothbrush, tooth paste, contact lenses holder, pillows, etc.) and when he came back it was officially my birthday! The nurses all wished me “Happy Birthday”. My nurse came back and explained the dos and don’ts for me to abide by while I was there and what medication I could get, one of which was to help me sleep. After my vitals were taken and I brushed my teeth, I asked for the Ambien so I could sleep. Shortly after that, I was out until the tech came in to take my vitals again. I slept good ‘til morning with a few interruptions from the nurses and techs. My doctor came in to check me when he was doing his rounds and told us the news that he needed to keep me there for another day, maybe 2, until I stopped bleeding for 24 hours straight. Earlier that morning I had some spotting, and he said that was a risk he was not willing to send us home with. Phillip had to leave to let the dogs out after my sister Dana got there to bring me my birthday breakfast from Cracker Barrel. I wanted Chicken Fried Chicken so bad, and she brought me some! When Phillip returned, he had some goodies for me! He got me Pineapple Express to watch while we were there, a card and a BIG bag of peanut M&M’s! My nephew Brandon also came to see me that afternoon and brought me a Snickers Blizzard from Dairy Queen. A few more people came by to visit me. Sadie and Junior, my son’s grandparents came and brought some food. Phillip’s parents, his sister Denise and her son, Chase also came by and brought me a birthday cake! My birthday turned out wonderful! And Phillip even went to get me a prime rib from Jesse’s! It was so good! The same routine took place that night as the previous night. After I was given the Ambien, the nurse came in to try to listen to ‘Lil Bean’s hear rate, but was unsuccessful. She called for backup. Three more nurses came in to help until they finally decided to try with the belly monitor machine, but still was unsuccessful. These nurses tried for almost 2 hours, until finally I could no longer stay up. The Ambien kicked in and I was ready to go to sleep. So they finally left me alone to get some rest, and that I did.

Monday morning when I woke up, it was more of the same. We waited for our doctor to come and check in on me while doing her rounds and she came early, around 8:30 am. She gave us good news that I would get discharged by 1:00 pm if I didn’t show anymore signs of bleeding or spotting but I needed to remain on bed rest with bathroom privileges only until further notice, but most likely for the duration of the pregnancy. The nurse came back in to try to listen to the heartbeat, again unsuccessful. So she called my doctor and asked her if she wanted me to get an u/s before I left, and she of course said yes. So we were taken to the u/s room in the maternity wing and we got a Level II u/s. It was amazing! We got to see our ‘Lil Bean and all of baby’s body. We got to hear a strong heartbeat, see all parts of the legs, arms, head, brain, kidneys, all 4 chambers of the heart and much more! We were told our ‘Lil Bean is perfect measuring 6.5 inches and weighing approximately 4 ounces! Measuring a bit big for the gestational age, but considering that my 6 year old son was born 9 lbs 3 ozs, it’s ok. We got to take home a few profile pictures. It was still too early to find out the sex mainly because the baby had legs crossed the whole time. But we go for an anatomy u/s on March 25th, so it’s ok, hopefully we will find out then.

I was finally discharged and allowed to go home, which was a huge relief. There’s no place like home! I was so happy to be able to sleep in our bed and it felt so good! I pretty much stayed upstairs in our room lying in bed until Phillip came home from work. Tuesday was more of the same. On Wednesday, I had a follow-up appointment with my OB, which went very well. No more bleeding, but will remain on bed rest until my next appointment on the 25th then they will re-evaluate, but most likely I will stay on limited activity until ‘Lil Bean is born.

Now I’m just taking it a day at a time trying to get used to the idea that I can’t do any of the things that I’m supposed to be doing like sweeping, moping, dishes, cooking and laundry. I hate relying on others to do my work, but for now I will have to follow doctor’s orders. Please continue to pray for us and thank you for checking on us. I will post an update soon :)