THE NEW "NORMAL"

So after the "25 week terror" docs monitored and assessed my situation hour by hour.  They told me after 72 hours of no bleeding they would give me a plan. The plan is for me to stay here in the hospital until at least 32 weeks or until I deliver. I'm on week 3 of being here. I'm on complete bed rest. Meaning, for me, I can get up to use the restroom, I can take a 10 minute shower, and I can go on a 20 minute wheelchair ride. I also have to spend more time lying down than sitting. It's too risky for doctors to send me home at this point after having such a big/bad episode. Receiving two blood transfusions is usually a sure sign that you will become acquainted with all hospital staff before you deliver. Even if I was released they would ask me to be somewhere close to emergency medical care and home health would come to me. There really hasn't been too much talk about that at this point. If I can make it into the 30's everyone will breath a little easier. Even Hunter. 

So far it hasn't been boring. I know that's the first thing everyone thinks "oh how boring". What I have realized is that this is the most down time I've had in 4 years and may be the last down time I have for the next 18 years. My desire to be up and about is kept at bay with the understanding that I am doing this for a bigger purpose. I am doing this to save my son's life. I'm doing this to save my own life. That may not be the case for every bed rest patient. I had a nurse explain it to me that way, and I decided to embrace what I'm doing. I have to take deep breaths when I feel cooped up, and I look at all positives first. When people ask how I'm doing I tell them I'm doing good. Considering where I was 3 weeks ago I am doing great! Sure there are things I could tell them to make them feel sorry for my situation, but mind over matter. Have I been better, yes. Would I prefer to be at home with my family having a normal pregnancy, yes. But dwelling on those things won't heal me. Generally speaking, I am doing good and that's my story.

I have watched a lot of HGTV and really insane "reality" shows. I have watched my favorite channel from when we had cable, TBS. Mark and I finished Season 5 of Breaking Bad and the latest season of Parenthood. We also keep up with our all time favorite Big Brother. I've read to completion 2 books and 2 magazines. I've done a little bit of computer work, and of course I don't miss a beat on Facebook or Instagram. I decided right now is not the time to take a break from social media.  I can do that when little man arrives. ;) I also spend a lot of time in meditation and prayer. Spending time praying for others, our family and praising an almighty God has kept me in a good mental state. 

I am usually awakened a lot in the night for vitals, IV flushes, and blood work. So, as you can imagine I don't sleep very well at night. I thought maybe it would help if I did't sleep during the day, but the nurses have all advised me to just sleep when I'm tired because you never know when you're going to need those extra hours of rest. So I do. I nap for 30 minutes to an hour or so in the day. They bring me breakfast, lunch and dinner. Terrible terrible food for anyone trying to recover from anything. It's all carbs, sugar and questionable meat. Mark has been supplementing me with a stash from WholeFoods and Central Market. They also bring by a "healthy" snack of chips and rice krispy treats about an hour before dinner. My oh my. Really though that's the ONLY thing I can complain about. This place is incredible.  

The nurses put baby boy on the monitor for an hour a day to monitor his heart rate and they also monitor me for signs of labor. I have had one or two contractions in 20 days and both were due to a full bladder. Nothing to worry about at all. Little man kind of hates the belly bands and monitoring. When they go on he decides to hide from the machine, box the bands or play kickball. He is definitely an active boy. On Thursdays I see the Perinatologist. She does a sono to check his growth and check the Placenta Previa for placement and signs of bleeding. All three of those appointments have been great news about Hunter. Little man is growing big and strong! Unfortunately, the placenta is still right above the cervix. There have been no signs of positive movement. It will likely stay right where it is. Keeping me a high risk patient. BUT she hasn't seen any signs of bleeding the past couple of appointments. With Placenta Previa that could change at any second, but so far so good.

So what is my body going through in such a sedentary state? Well, my legs get sore and I have to use the muscle compressors to stimulate blood flow. Some people hate them, but I like them. They feel like a good leg massage to me. I make sure to turn over a lot and not spend too much time on one side. I don't have bed sores. I get up enough and move enough right now that those have been prevented. My skin is dryer and it seems like my hair is shedding more. All very typical to bed rest. Even though I'm not really doing any physical activity I am still hungry every thirty minutes. The crazy hunger reminds me that even though I'm down I'm still growing a baby!

As for my precious family, they are here Arlington with me. The girls are staying at Mark's parents house. They only live about 10 minutes from here. Mark spends his day coordinating with his Mom and Dad so that he can work and someone can be with them at all times. He takes the girls to the park, he takes them swimming, he feeds them lunch, he goes to meetings and does computer work, he gets them down for a nap, he dresses them and bathes them, he does their hair, etc. He usually brings them to see me once a day. After he gets them down for bed he comes back up here and spends the night with me but wakes early to be back so he can make the girls breakfast. HE IS SUPER DAD!! He's the glue holding all of us together right now. I mean not only does he have the stress of his wife and unborn son in the hospital, but he has work and FULL parental duties. All girls need to find a man who would do what he is doing if you were ever in my situation. God has shown me favor, and I am honored to be married to such a strong leader and man.

I also can’t say enough about the support we are getting from our parents. My parents came and kept the girls for the first week since we had no idea what the future held. It helped us wrap our minds around this journey and get some things sorted out. Mark’s parents have taken us in and have been the day to day support we need. I can only hope to parent my kids the way ours have parented us. We honestly don’t know how this would work without them. I praise God for them everyday. 

TWENTY FIVE WEEK TERROR

You may have read the post about Placenta Previa and all the risk factors. Well, until August 8th I knew these things but had no idea what I was facing. Some people have a previa diagnosis and it resolves. Others, like myself, have a previa diagnosis that just seems to get worse. After my 23 week appointment I learned that the placenta had not moved and the likelihood of it moving at this point wasn't good. However, the specialist only gave me a few restrictions; pelvic rest, no heavy lifting and limited physical activity. So, I went about my merry way in life. I still did a lot, but I listened to the doc too (except for the very occasional picking up a 2 year old).

To end our summer of fun we traveled to Bracketville, TX to visit Mark's Grandad. We had a great time being with some of the Rogers family. The girls had lots of fun swimming and riding the golf cart. After Bracketville we made a trip to Arlington so that Mark could work and the girls and I could have some more quality time with Jeff and Allison (who were visiting from NYC). The girls only get to see them a couple of times a year so we soak up every minute we can with them. Anyway, we arrived in Arlington on a Tuesday and had a relaxing evening. Wednesday was the planned day of fun. Yummy desserts were made and swim bags were packed to go over to a cookout at Allison's parents house. We went, we ate, we swam, we had a great time. That night after getting the girls to bed I watched some funny shows with Mark's Dad and then went to bed around midnight.

I slept until about 1am when I was awakened by a sensation to use the restroom. Much to my alarm it wasn't the right sensation, I was actually bleeding. I immediately woke Mark up and said, "Mark, wake up, I'm bleeding." He jumped up but thought it was going to be a similar to a small bleed incident I had at 21 weeks. He got up and followed me to the bathroom where we quickly realized this was much much much worse than what we had experienced at 21 weeks. As I instinctively decided to lay in the tub, he called our doc in Abilene. Dr. T told us to meet him at the ER, thinking we were still in Abilene. We weren't, we were in Arlington. He said, "get her to an ER." At that point I was starting to feel like I was going into shock. Everything was in slow motion, and I felt like I was worlds behind everyone around me. Mark decided it would be better to just call 911. I couldn't stop being scared that my girls would see the horrible scene. I just knew the ambulance and fire truck would wake them up. I was actually more worried about them than I was about me at that point. Why, you ask? Well, I could feel Hunter moving and I wasn't having contractions so I knew I wasn't in labor. I knew what was happening wasn't good, but feeling my little guy move gave me some teeny tiny comfort. So, I went to the next thing on my worry list and started worrying about the girls. Four EMT's and an ambulance ride later I was being admitted to Medical Center Arlington.

I stayed in the ER where they worked to stabilize me and get me hooked up with IV sites. They also prepped me for a 25 week c-section delivery. The OB Hospitalist  came in and told me I would probably deliver and gave me all the risks and information. We were speechless. Who in a million years after two almost perfect to term vaginal deliveries imagines themselves in this situation? No. One. Right before they moved me to Labor and Delivery they gave me a steroid shot. The shot was not for me. The shot was for my 25 week old baby's lungs. His little lungs that don't know what to do out of a Mommy's tummy.  After about 4 nurses tried and finally got an IV site they started to transport me. When I got to L&D a team of nurses got me hooked up to Magnesium Sulfate. Again, not for me. It was for my tiny baby boy's brain...to prevent bleeds after being delivered at 25 weeks. By this time it was about 3:20 am. I had been bleeding for almost 2 hours. That's not good. So the talks of a blood transfusion started. I'm really not sure what time it was or what really happened after the Magnesium Sulfate started but we waited in the wings of delivering our little boy for quite a few hours. At some point I stabilized and they stopped the talk of emergency c-section, at least for the moment. The next day was filled with high risk doctors, Neonatologists, OB's, Nurses and Perinatologists coming to give me info and ask me lots of questions. It was insanity. A good long 24 hours I never want to relive and wouldn't wish on my worst enemy (which happens to be Mylie Cyrus right now).

So there's all the terrible stuff about the story, but there were A LOT of blessings too. I'll list some of them...
1) We were in DFW...Abilene can't take a baby under 30 weeks in the NICU so IF I had delivered there my baby boy would have been transported here.
2) We were only 10ish minutes from a great hospital
3) My girls NEVER woke up to all the commotion. Did I mention we were all sleeping in the same room? Yep, we were. Angels surrounded their little sleeping bodies and kept them sleeping until morning.
4) We were in Arlington with Mark on a work trip, and I wasn't at home alone. Mark travels a lot and it's not standard for us to go with him. I can't even wrap my mind around this event happening had I been alone with the girls in Abilene.
5) Jeff and Allison were in town and dropped a lot of plans to help us out and take care of our girls.
6) My OB in Abilene prayed with Mark on the phone as he waited for the ambulance
7) The bleeding stopped and I stabilized
8) Hunter is happy and healthy in his womb. He is growing strong and endured no trauma or stress from the blood loss. He is perfect.
9) Hunter got some steroids for his lungs and some Magnesium Sulfate for his brain
10) We have families that will do anything for us.
11) We have been COVERED in prayer, gift baskets, food, visits, and cards. People love to help others in need and in this season we have a lot of need. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to those who have supported us and lifted us up.