Vasa Previa Update: hospitalized

Well, unfortunately the contractions kept coming and I’m now in the hospital. Darn. That’s one week and two days earlier than the original plan of 32 weeks. Here’s what happened…

Sunday

Sunday I went to church and then came home and slept most of the day. After waking up and eating dinner I mostly relaxed, but also got my hospital bags packed up and ready. By the evening I was definitely having contractions. I got in the bath with Epsom salt (supposed to help stop labor) and a big glass of water to drink around 10:00 and the back contractions actually picked up. They were very painful!

When I’d gone to the hospital the Friday before, the nurse and doctor told me to first try different methods of stopping the contractions first, so that’s what I was doing. By the time I knew for sure they were contractions and that they weren’t going away it was 10:30. That’s the time we left for the hospital Friday. Thinking about repeating that night made me want to cry. I was exhausted and couldn’t imagine doing that again. I kept trying to get rid of them (walking, changing positions, heating pad, etc) so that I could hold off going in till Monday.

Around midnight I went downstairs to try different positions. I actually decided to lay upside down off of the couch in hopes that gravity would at least pull baby away from the blood vessel. Believe it or not, I felt almost immediate relief from the pressure in the pelvic area. That made me feel better, but the contractions were still happening. I was so so stressed out. I was worried I’d suddenly see blood and it’d be my fault because I didn’t want to go in. I finally decided to pray about it.

I prayed and pleaded with my Heavenly Father that either the contractions would stop and it would be okay to wait till morning to see the doctor or that I’d just know that I needed to go in. And that my baby would be safe. Even before I said “amen” my body felt tingly and relaxed for the first time in days. The pain completely went away. I knew that was my answer and that it would be okay for me to get some rest that night.

Monday

I slept great! And even though I went to bed at 1:00 and woke up around 4:45 (Logan had a bad dream) and I got up a little after 5:00 (contractions started again, though not as intense) I felt well rested and much better.

Once I could no longer sleep because of the contractions I got up to see if walking around would help them go away (with Braxton Hicks, that should help). They eased some, but were still there. I ate breakfast, got ready for the day, laid upside down again, and waited for the doctors office to open.

On the way to taking Logan to Joy School I called the perinatologist. I had an appointment for an NST at 1:30 that afternoon and I wanted to see if I could also have tests done to see how my cervix was doing and if I could do it earlier in the day. The doctor was in with a patient, but they said they had time at 1:00 for an ultrasound.

A few minutes later their office called back. They had talked to the doctor, who said come in as soon as I could for an ultrasound because with vasa previa I shouldn’t be having any contractions at all, even if they’re not “true labor.” That’s what I thought!

So I dropped Logan off, arranged for Joel’s mom to meet in the hospital parking lot to pick up Emma, and went and met Joel at work to head in to the doctor’s office (it’s at the hospital).

The doctor there was the only one of the 3 specialists at that practice I hadn’t met yet. Dr. Jeslen (sp?). She was very nice. We just did a quick ultrasound to check cervical length (4) and amniotic fluid. Baby looked good, but she felt me contracting just with her hand on my stomach, so she recommended I get admitted that day. She said I had time to gather things and eat lunch if I wanted (this was around 10:30). We set up admittance for 2:00.

Joel left to pick up Emma and Logan and I headed home to finish gathering my stuff and do all the last minute things I could before leaving for possibly a month.

Before going in we went out to eat at Zupa’s as a family, then Joel and all the kids took me in. We wanted the kids with me so that it would be less weird for them to suddenly come visit me there. I think it worked. All of them have been great about this.

So I came in 1 week and 2 days earlier than planned (just before 31 weeks), but it was such a relief to have the doctor say I needed to come in. As much as I hate being away from my family and being confined to my bed, it was freaking me out being at home with contractions.

This is already an insanely long post (what’s new with my vasa previa posts?), so I’ll do a new one detailing the medical stuff that’s going on and then maybe another about what it’s like to be here.