A Background of What's Been Happening-19 weeks

Brian & I are expecting a baby girl who is due January 20th. Luckily, I have saved ALL of Aubrey's clothes. Aubrey is so very excited she's getting a sister, which is what she was hoping for. She wants to be able to play dress up with her everyday.

In July I began spotting. After going to the drs I was told I had a Lowline Placenta and that could have caused it. No big deal. They pretty much heal themselves with time. on Aug 10th I awoke with bad lower back pain. When I got to work that day, I realized I was spotting heavy & cramping. I went in to the Dr & she told me I have Placenta Previa. Previa is where the Placenta is covering the cervix.  http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/placenta-previa/DS00588
 Sometimes it moves away as the uterus gets bigger. But the dr was worried about the cramping & back pain because those are not symptoms of Previa. Previa can cause painless bleeding. So she was worried I was in Preterm labor.  She put me on bed rest & said we will see you next week. The next week I went back & things had gone from spotting to light bleeding for a couple days while on bed rest, which is strange since I was doing no activity. Our Dr became more concerned & told us it could still possibly be Preterm Labor or Chronic Abruption of the Placenta. Another week of bed rest. The next week she ruled out Chronic Abruption, THANK GOD! But told me to call her if my water breaks or start heavy bleeding & sent me for another sonogram at St Joe Hospital.

Brian had been at every single Drs visit & sonogram, (4th one at this point) missing alot of work so I had my Mom take me to this one. The visit had gone good. She saw no bleeding in the placenta, no contractions & my spotting was just brown old blood. On the way home, my Dad calls my Mom & says that their suspicions that he had a blood clot were getting worse. He was in pain & needed to be seen. So Mom takes me home & picks Dad up. They find out that not only does he have a thigh to ankle size blood clot in his leg, but 2 blood clots had already broke off, went up through his HEART & deposited into his lower lungs. 1 in each lung. So he was admitted to the hospital. The next day, Friday the 24th, I decided I needed to go be with my Daddy. His room was large & had a recliner & couch that folds into a bed.  I figured it would be no different than being at home, my Drs office is in the same building & I had a good week. I arrived at 8:30am. Brian had brought Aubrey up after school. We were all going to watch the Chiefs game together. Dad was having a nurse come in so Mom, Aubrey & I took the cue and went downstairs to the Cafeteria in the hospital to eat dinner.

When we stood up to go back to Dad's room, I thought I had started bleeding. After going to the restroom, there was no blood, just a clear liquid that did not smell like urine. So I called my Dr (who luckily happened to be on call that night!) She told me to go the the ER. After being there for hours with no resolve, the ER dr called my Dr & decided to have me admitted to Labor & Delivery. They tell you to go the the ER if you are under 20 weeks because its considered a miscarriage & over 20 weeks is considered a stillbirth. Babies are not viable until 24 weeks. I am reminded of that every week at my Drs visits. So I get to my room which is very sad. They have the delivery cart with diapers & a checklist that moms need to complete to go home with the baby. After a test they determined that I am not in labor but see more fluid. Dr wants me to stay overnight so they can check my Amniotic Fluid levels in the morning. So Brian got a trial run of the bed/couch. They said my levels were on the low side of normal, which was great news. And I was released on bed rest.

Come Tuesday, I decided since I live so close to Aubrey's school that I needed to go to Parents night. I had never met Aubs teacher as Brian had been doing everything. This night was just 30 min long & I would be sitting down the whole time. Afterwards, Aubrey & I went to spend the night with my parents. Mom was going to take Aubrey to school & I was going to lay in bed with Dad all day & let Mom take care of the both of us.

 I awoke around 5am with what they call women with Previa "the 1st bleed." It is heavy like a period. Went into the Dr at noon when they could get us in. I was told that since I had my 1st bleed so early that I will be delivering early. I asked if I would make it to the 3rd trimester and she said probably 24-28 weeks. I am 19 weeks now. She told me that on my next bleed I will be hospitalized until birth. And that each bleed will be heavier. I can hemorrhage & would need blood transfusions. I will have to be at St Luke's on the Plaza (where I delivered Miss Aubrey.) They are the only local hospital that can handle deliveries of babies under 30  weeks. I also had blood work done to see if I got a gene from my Dad that makes me susceptible to have blood clots, since him & his identical twin brother both had clots at a young age it could be genetic. Which she seemed very worried about. We wont have the results of that for another 2 weeks.
We were sent to a high risk pregnancy ultrasound place. They did our anatomy scan & said, just like every other time, that the baby looks great. Everything normal. She weighs 11oz. and is measuring ahead to 19 weeks 6 days. They could see bleeding in the placenta but could not tell where it is from. The Dr took us to his office & told us that my placenta is like a balloon rubbing on concrete.  My water is going to break & I will go into labor. So I am on strict bed rest. I will not be returning to work until after baby is born.
 My goal right now is to get to 30 weeks. I just had a girlfriend get to take home her precious baby boy today after 91 days in the NICU. He was born 2lbs at 27 weeks I believe. So I know miracles can happen. Just praying for ours.
Please pray that we get passed the 24 week mark so the baby can receive steroid shots to mature & that the bleeds stay away.