a little scare

Late last night Jason and I went to the ER after I started having some light bleeding. I wasn't having any other symptoms (i.e. cramping, faintness, etc.) but it was late at night and so I made the call that it was better safe than sorry.

After a somewhat nerve wracking wait in triage I was able to give a urine sample and they started an IV to draw blood. I also had a visit from a rather strange guy named Jerry who needed to have me sign my life away and say I'd pay for it all if my insurance doesn't. He reminded me of Mr. Shooter in the movie, Secret Window.

The ER doctor came in finally and decided not to do a pelvic exam but did do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. Baby's heart rate was good (around 145-150 BPM) and everything seemed to be ok on the ultrasound except he noticed the placenta was very low. He believed that either my cervix was irritated just from normal pregnancy changes or that it was more sensitive to bleed because of a possible placenta previa. He sent me home with orders to stay on bed rest today until I went to see my primary doctor.

Placenta previa is where the placenta has implanted in the uterine wall where it is covering the cervical opening/canal and causes the cervix to be prone to bleeding. There are some serious complications that can occur with this such as hemorrhaging and miscarriage but on the other end of the spectrum, it can also resolve itself with a little bit of time as the uterus enlarges and stretches, pulling the placenta away from the cervix and then there's no other complications from it.

Jason and I went in to follow up with my regular OB/GYN, Dr. Lasley, this afternoon. She carefully did a pelvic exam to find no active bleeding but did say that my cervix did look pretty friable (meaning easily irritated which can cause bleeding). Since we already have our ultrasound scheduled for Monday, and her office was swamped, she sent me home and put me on strict pelvic rest from now until she says differently. She said it may be placenta previa but that it wouldn't make any difference to see that on the ultrasound today than it would to see it on the ultrasound on Monday. So even though Jason and I were secretly hoping we'd at least get an early gender determination out of the deal, we were sent home. I did feel MUCH better (mentally and emotionally) after seeing Dr. Lasley (the reason why I like her so much as my Doc is because she has a way of giving me all the facts without scaring me. She eases my worries and makes me as positive as possible about the outcome of almost every scenario).

So now I'm home, resting, trying to catch up on sleep, and hoping for the best. We will still have our ultrasound and follow up on Monday mid-morning.

The good news about last night is that we DID get to at least see our first ultrasound and did actually get to see our little baby in there alive and well. Jason was having trouble making out more than the head but I was definitely looking to see if there was any hint of gender. The only angles I could make out where there would have been a sign, baby was cross legged and then with it's back to us... it did kick at us before curling up it's legs and arms and laying on it's stomach. (it was 1:00am at this point so who can blame it for being a grumpy sleeper)