Blogging from Bed Rest

Yep, I'm now facing the thing pregnant women dread: bed rest. Ick.

Here's the Cliff Notes version of how I got here. I had a normal checkup and sono on Monday (35 weeks), and there were no signs of trouble. But Tuesday afternoon I started bleeding. It was pretty heavy, so it was very scary. I called my doctor and she had me come in to the hospital. The bleeding was slowing down by the time I got there (it pretty much completely stopped by that evening). The nurse got me on the baby monitor, and I was obviously very relieved when we heard the heart beat. I'd been having just a few contractions, but when my doctor checked me I was dilated 3-4 cm. We did a couple more sonograms and the baby looks totally fine.

They were able to determine that I had a small placenta abruption, meaning it tore away from the uterine wall just a little bit. My doctor used the analogy of old wallpaper that starts peeling at the corners. The sonograms were also able to show that the baby was still getting plenty of blood flow from the umbilical cord. So once we knew the baby was fine and still being "fed" normally, they determined that the baby was not going to be born that day.

They kept me in the hospital two nights for observation and rest, and I got to come home yesterday morning. I'm on bed rest for now, and we'll just wait and see what happens. Being on bed rest should help the tear heal and prevent future bleeding. I'm technically a month from my due date, so we still need to keep the baby inside as long as possible. I have weekly checkups from here on out, and I may be able to add slight activity as we go along.

I am so thankful for all the help we received. Dave's family jumped into action to help with Charlie, his coworkers accommodated him having to miss the broadcast on Tuesday at the last minute, and my mom flew in Wednesday to stay with us at least through Christmas. It was great to come home yesterday, but it was also strange to just be sitting here watching everyone else buzz around me. It breaks my heart that I won't be Charlie's primary caregiver for a while. When I first got home yesterday, he seemed a little fussy because I think he was confused as to why I wasn't getting up to play with him and why I wasn't picking him up. But eventually he had fun rolling around next to me on the hide-a-bed in the family room.

So keep us in your prayers the next couple weeks. Pray that I can carry the baby as long as possible, and pray for Dave and Charlie, as this impacts them the most.