Vasa Previa: medical stuff on hospital bed rest

It’s Thursday and I’ve been in the hospital since Monday afternoon. I’ll admit, Monday was pretty terrible for me. I was an emotional wreck. Although I was completely relieved to be admitted because of the contractions (they’d come even when I was taking it easy and they hurt) I felt like I was going into prison. I didn’t want to leave my family for longer than I had to and it just seemed awful. I cried a lot.

Luckily, after a good night’s rest I felt much better Tuesday. I woke up with a better attitude and tried to get into a vacation mindset. I’ve felt pretty good emotionally ever since.I’ve received a lot of kind words and support from everyone. Joel’s bosses are great and he’s able to work from home while I’m here. We also have tons of people willing to help him with that and to watch the kids when he needs to go in for a meeting or just needs a break.

Now for the medical stuff for anyone who might be faced with this in their future:

• I am on bed rest. I have bathroom privileges and can sit in a chair a couple times a day and go around the hospital in a wheelchair. If it weren’t for the contractions, there’s a good chance I wouldn’t be on actual bed rest. Darn.
• I have some of those leg compression things that I need to wear any time I’m not up. They were annoying at first, but then I tried to think of them as leg massages. It helped some. Now I barely notice them.
• I have an IV line start in my hand. They’ll change it every 3 days. They flush it at least 2 times a day to make sure it doesn’t clot up. It’s there so that if there’s an emergency c-section it’s ready to go.
• They also have a bin of fluids and papers and everything else they’d need in the case of an emergency c-section. It’s right by my bed and every new nurse is told that’s where it is. They’re prepared to have me ready for the section in a matter of a minute or two. For now I can wear my own clothes, but if there are any signs that a c-section could be coming they’ll probably have me wear a hospital gown.
• I take a medicine called Nifedipine to stop the contractions. I take it every 6 hours and it can’t be missed. I still have the occasional contraction, but they aren’t painful or consistent. If contractions start “breaking through” we’ll most likely just do a c-section, even if my cervix isn’t changing. You just never know when one of those contractions will be a real one.
• They do a non stress test (NST) once a day. They’ll do it more if I want. Baby’s heart is looking good so far.
• I am also taking a prenatal and stool softener (sorry, TMI, but when you’re in bed and not moving they want you to take it – I want people to know what they can expect).
• I was given a second round of steroid shots. The first on Tuesday and the second Wednesday. Seriously, ouch! But I’m so glad to have them. They can make a huge difference for sweet babies.
• They do basic stats every morning and evening (listen to heart, lungs, check feet, temperature, things like that. They take my blood pressure before giving me Nifedipine each time. It’s a blood pressure lowering medicine, so they have to make sure my blood pressure isn’t too low (it is a calcium blocker and I guess the cervix needs calcium, so it helps it to not contract).

I think that’s about it. My regular OB comes in to check on me every morning. I actually get good sleep here, too. I take my Nifedipine on the 12’s and 6’s and they don’t wake me up otherwise. I was woken up more often from kids at home.

As far as getting bored here, goes, it hasn’t happened yet. In fact, I feel really busy. I brought tons of projects to do and have hardly gotten to any of them. Between nurses coming in and chatting with them, my family coming 1-2 times a day, phone calls, meals, Skype, responding to texts, etc. I really don’t have a ton of down time. I checked facebook and instagram way more when I was at home than I do here. Hopefully this can last till delivery time .