Practice at the hospital

I got to have a bit of "practice" at the hospital this week. Tuesday, at about 6 pm, I started bleeding. This was a bit alarming because the week before the doctors thought that I had a condition called "vasa previa" -- meaning that blood vessels from Baby A's placenta were covering my cervix. With this condition, bleeding is extremely dangerous for the baby.

Jamey wasn't home, so I called him and he started driving back here from the rental property. But it had been snowing all day and traffic was snarled. He didn't think he could get back here fast enough. So he called one of our neighbors and she and her daughter came over and called an ambulance to come get me.

So I got to ride in an ambulance! We didn't hit nearly as much traffic as they had expected and got there in the usual amount of time.

The bleeding actually stopped fairly quickly and never got very bad. But they put me on the baby monitors right away to make sure the babes were okay. And they were fabulous, as usual. They were moving around like crazy (a good sign that they are well oxygenated and healthy) and their heartbeats were right where they should be. I was having my usual amount of contractions.

The doctor, though, couldn't determine if it was vasa previa that caused the bleeding or something else. He said they needed a Level 2 ultrasound machine and the only one available to them was locked up in a perinatal office that had already closed for the day. So I would have to wait until Wednesday. He also wanted to continue monitoring me and the babies to make sure the bleeding didn't start again. If anything went wrong, we would be having a c-section that night!

So off we went to the birth unit to spend the night. Since we seemed to be doing just fine, Jamey went home around midnight, but neither one of us slept very well.

Wednesday they couldn't get me in for an ultrasound until nearly 2 pm. So I just had to lay around all morning (they did let me take a shower at least!).

The ultrasound showed no signs of vasa previa. But I seem to have some of my own blood vessels right near the cervix and apparently one of them ruptured when I was going to the bathroom! This isn't as much of a problem as vasa previa, especially since I'm having a c-section.

So we're back to the usual routine -- bedrest and hoping we can make it to Dec 31st. The doctors say the babies would be okay if born now, but they would be much, much better if we can get another couple weeks.