A Night at the Hospital

As several people have asked for details on what happened, there is really no way to avoid being a little graphic, so if you are (a) a guy or (b) easily grossed out, you might not want to read this.

I called my doctor Sunday morning after noticing about 2 tablespoons of reddish-brown discharge in the toilet after I had my morning tinkle. Luckily they had an answering service setup up for the weekends and an on-call doctor called me back within minutes. She informed me that my cervix might've started dilating and to go to the hospital's birthing center so that that they could monitor the baby's heartbeat as well as examine me to find out what was going on.

Without going into the play-by-play of the entire fiasco, I will say this: We arrived at the hospital around 10:30 a.m. and it wasn't until around 6:00 p.m. that we were told that I would be staying overnight. During this time frame, I was examined four different times. Twice by the nurse and twice by the on-call doctor I had spoken with over the phone. Both informed me that I had dilated one centimeter. Then, the on-call doctor explained to us that since I have had a cesarean in the past, they like to err on the side of caution since I was both bleeding and having cramps because those can be symptoms of something that they would need to act upon immediately. Apparently, sometimes the uterus can begin to separate from the placenta and in cases like that, one out of five babies die and mom loses a lot of blood. After finding that out, we weren't bothered anymore that I had to stay overnight. They ordered an Ultrasound to see what was going on with my uterus and placenta, hooked me up to an IV and gave me three rounds of antibiotics to "calm down the uterus" to prevent anymore cramping.  The nurses were telling us that if the bleeding and the cramping continued, my doctor would probably be delivering our baby the next morning.

I was so thrilled to see my doctor first thing the next morning, especially when he said that I could go home! He said that the baby is doing great and that he didn't have any cause for concern to keep me there any longer since the cramping and bleeding had stopped. I was bummed that I wasn't allowed to go back to work though. He said he wanted me to take it easy so that this baby doesn't come any sooner than he needs to. I am not allowed to drive, run errands, lift anything heavy or even keep myself busy around the house preparing the nursery. He suggested that I read a few good books or catch up on some movies while laying on the couch. UGH! It's going to be so hard for me.

While I was happy to be going home, Brandon was bummed. He was hoping that he'd finally get to meet Samuel. Dr. Johns explained that every day we get closer to my 39th week (May 24), it gives us back two days that Samuel would've have to spend in the ICU for being delivered too early. I think finding that out eased some of Brandon's disappointment because I honestly don't think he would've been able to leave Samuel in the hospital ICU while we went home and waited... So, stay in there Sam! You're not done cooking just yet!

*** A HUGE thanks goes out to Alan Pollard and my MIL who took Caden off of our hands while we sat around in the hospital all day - and to my step-mother, Cyndy, who kept him overnight for us. 

Here's (quite possibly) the last belly picture! Brandon took it May 1.