It all started when I went to the bathroom at 4:00 on Thursday before dropping Liam off at his dad's. I started peeing and the pee felt warm and when I looked down the toilet was full of blood. I screamed, without even knowing, no no no!
I have had my hospital bag packed since 18 weeks, so it was already in my car. I grabbed my insurance card, and a book off the counter, pulled all my blinds down and walked to the car with Liam, shaking. In the car ride to Matt's I called my doctor and waited for a call back. I explained the situation to Liam, that I might be going to the hospital that night and might be in the hospital for a few days or even a few weeks. I gave him a big hug when I dropped him off at Matt's and an extra hug 💗💗
Tom was working, so I drove myself to the hospital in Frederick. I called Jill and she talked to me during the whole ride down to distract me and keep me cheerful. I knew I was bleeding, but I didn't know how bad it was until I got to the parking lot and stood up. I hobbled to the emergency room entrance and stood at the door, with blood running down my legs, saying that I needed a wheelchair. once they got my name and information they immediately took me off to labor and delivery.
at the labor and delivery triage room, they wheeled me in and gave me a hospital gown and told me to go into the bathroom to change. I warned her that there would be a lot of blood, and she said "Oh that's okay You can just change your pad afterwards." I said "are you sure?" And she said "Yeah you'll be fine.". I don't think she was prepared for what happened next as I stood up and bled all over myself, my shoes, and on the floor. She said "oh okay, no come with me now!" And helped me get over to one of the triage beds instead! To be truthful, when I glanced back at my path I was shocked that I had bled that much and wasn't passing out. But in recollection, a lot of it feels very hazy and I feel like I was pretty out of it at this point. There was the nurse and two assistants who got me changed, into the bed, and cleaned up. One of the assistants dedicated herself to my Crocs, which were filled with blood, and she promised me she would clean them all up.
As soon as they got me on the monitors, they could tell I was having contractions. I was in pain when the contractions came, but it wasn't very bad I just felt like I was losing my breath. Tom got there an hour later and the ultrasound team came to check on the baby. Luckily the baby was in good shape, and had a lot of amniotic fluid around him, there was no placental abruption thank God. But the subchoreonic hemorrhage looked huge. They needed to do a transvaginal ultrasound to check on the cervix. I really didn't want them to, but they called the doctor to verify and he said he needed to know if I was about to deliver the baby so the NICU was ready.
Thankfully, my cervix was 3.9 cm and closed.
However, after the ultrasound my contractions and bleeding took a turn for the worse, and got more intense. I had one massive gush of blood that was also watery on the pad, and the nurse warned me that she thought that I may have lost my water. The doctor came in and we came up with a plan: that I would be put on magnesium IV if the contractions got worse and I would be kept in the hospital for observation until things calmed down or until I have the baby. They brought the ultrasound machine back into check the fluid, and luckily he had not lost any fluid. Thank was a praise God moment, I had been so sure my water broke. My sub-chorionic hematoma measures 10 cm right now.
When they wheeled me into the labor and delivery floor and into my room, my contractions were getting considerably worse. I felt a little silly to be screaming from pain from contractions if I wasn't in real labor and my cervix wasn't open, but the nurse reminded me that contractions are painful contractions of your body, and I needed to just breathe through them. It's amazing the mental difference between contractions when you're in a planned labor and induction ( like I was with Liam), and with this one. Every contraction that I got that night was increasingly painful and surprisingly painful, I kept having to grab onto Tom's shirt to steady me. I could not talk through a contraction because of the pain. I was in the bathroom about to pee during a contraction but it hurt so bad that I couldn't sit down I just had to stand still and wait for it to pass.
I got back to bed and told the nurses that something was wrong, that this was not normal and that I was in a lot of discomfort and pain. The monitor showed I had three major back to back contractions. They called Dr Simmonds and he ordered a magnesium IV drip for me to stop the contractions. The relief I felt from the magnesium was almost immediate, within a few minutes the contractions were bearable and I was slowly more comfortable.
There was a flurry of activity at the same time, I had to get a catheter because of the magnesium. The NICU team came in with a warmer and a shuttle so in case I delivered the baby, he would immediately have a warm place to go. They were all very sweet to me, explaining that the warmer would be the one warmer he would stay in from delivery until the day he goes home 😍😍
Then they all left and I tried to get some sleep. The magnesium made me feel very worn out, the nurse said it was like a wet noodle feeling, which is accurate! However, I couldn't sleep. every time I closed my eyes my brain would think of something new to think about or something to do on my phone. So that's how I spent my night, glancing over at the heart monitor to make sure that Samuel's heart monitor was hooked up and his heart was beating at the right pace :-) checking the contraction monitor to make sure they were slowing down, which they were.
Tom left the hospital at 630. He wasn't comfortable and hasn't eaten anything since breakfast the day before.
So the next 24 hours were just a waiting game. I had a COVID test which was not the best feeling in the world (they hold the swab up your nose for 15 seconds and then swirl!). I was on a clear liquid diet because the magnesium slows down everything in my body so much that it isn't safe to eat food. I was actually fairly comfortable so I just relaxed in bed and watched TV. Thomas with Tommy all day so I was on my own which was totally awkward, trying to move around the bed and reach things with so many different monitors on my stomach, compression air socks on my legs, an IV and My pulse ox monitor... Not easy. But I've had amazing nurses and I'm very lucky :-)
Tom came back on Friday evening and brought my laptop. I was able to post my lessons for the following week just in case I was loopy or delivering the baby the next day. I got Benadryl from my nurse so I could sleep.
On Saturday they stopped my magnesium IV at 8:38am. They took out my catheter so I was able to walk to the bathroom again, thank goodness!! And eat!
I rested all day and ate half my meals so I wouldn't get overfull and have more contractions. My sister came and helped me with things around the room. I did some schoolwork on Schoology (we are doing the remote learning, this is the last week of activitiesfor students).
On Sunday I was able to go home at 11:30! Emily and Steve took me home because Tom had Tommy.
My random thoughts and experiences:
*In the hallway, they play the first two bars of the classic lullaby song whenever a baby is born. So cute!
856 off magnesium
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