bedrest at 15 weeks

As I’m writing this, I am sitting up in bed and I hear the noises of Joe eating a home-cooked meal and the chef herself washing my dishes.  When I woke up this morning, I didn’t expect to have Jenna feeding us, cleaning our house, and doing our dishes this evening, but the fact that she is means a great deal to us right now.

I’ll back up a bit in the story. Yesterday morning, I was carrying Sam on my hip and tripped on my computer cord.  I was walking really fast actually and didn’t notice the cord lying on the ground under the blanket.  Next thing I knew, Sam and I had crashed on the living room floor.  It was a really hard fall.  Sam’s head hit the hardwood floors leaving a bruised forehead, bloody lip, and scraped-up chin.  He was back to playing in about five minutes.  Kids are so resilient, aren’t they?  It took me at least that amount of time to remember that I was pregnant.

When we fell, Sam hit the floor on my right side and I fell partially on the floor and partially on the sharp corner of a diaper box that we had just brought home from the store.  As the day went on, my stomach began cramping more and more and the rest of my body started feeling like I had just been in a car wreck.  I called Joe at work and he suggested that I call my doctor and let her know what happened.

A couple hours later, I was in the doctor’s office listening to our baby’s slow, but steady, heartbeat.  My doctor said that she would feel more comfortable doing blood-work and giving me an ultrasound 24 hours after my fall, which brings us to this morning.

Joe took Sam to Musikgarten and I headed to my appointment by myself, confident that I wouldn’t need him to be there since I felt everything would be fine.

A few minutes into my ultrasound, I could tell that the technician was being very hesitant and quiet to share any details.  She explained to me that she found bleeding in at least 3-4 different areas and that she didn’t like the coloring of my uterus,  she wanted the doctor to come in and see the results and talk to me in person about the details.

The next twenty minutes were hard to say the least.  My doctor said that by looking at the ultrasound, she believed that my placenta had torn and that our baby could be losing blood.  The only way to confirm this, though, is to have a certain blood test done to see if they can detect any sign of fetal blood mixed with my blood.

One important thing I learned is that it would have been very dangerous for our baby if my blood type would have been O negative, we are especially thankful that my blood type did not pose any sort of additional threat to the life of our little one.

We received a phone call this afternoon from our doctor telling us that they did not find any fetal blood cells in my blood, which gives them good reason to believe that my placenta did not tear.  We could not be more thankful for this news.

However, I have been put on bed rest for at least one week in order for my bleeding to heal.  It is a great relief to know that the internal bleeding is most likely my blood and not our baby’s.  I will be monitored pretty closely from here on out and will have another ultrasound next Thursday to check on our baby and to see if the bleeding has subsided.

If we come to your mind in the next week or so, please pray that the Lord would protect our little baby, heal my body and prevent any blood clotting, and for grace to arrange the details of a full-time working dad, a stay-in-bed-all-day mom, and a very active little 19 month-old who wants his mom to pick him up, but can’t.

We have already been so blessed by those who have walked through this crazy day with us.  It is no small thing to have the love, support, and prayers of Christ’s body.  We will post updates as we know more.  Thank you for praying.

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