Yesterday around 4:30pm I went to the bathroom and noticed I was bleeding. My heart sunk and I started praying right then and there. I want to share here what happened so that this could hopefully help someone who might deal with the same thing. This wasn't just spotting but a lot of blood. I knew something was not right and of course my mind went to the worst case thinking I was having a miscarriage at 16 weeks. I was frozen there in the bathroom looking at the blood and thinking "this can't be happening." I could hear Mark, Lulu and Levi out in the living room laughing and playing. My shock turned to fear, how was I going to tell Mark and there was no way I could tell Lulu. So I went out to the living room and told Lulu to go sit at her chair in the dining room and I asked Mark to put Levi in his highchair. Mark knew something was not right and followed me down the hall into the bathroom. He saw the blood and he just held me and started praying. We then called my midwife and she then asked me a list of questions. My head was spinning and I had to ask her to repeat herself a few times because I could not understand anything she was saying not because she was speaking medical talk but because I was just not with it. My body started shaking and I sat on the floor of our bedroom trying to write down what she was telling me. I started feeling cramping and bit like the very first parts of labor. This concerned my midwife and she told me to go to the ER to see if I had a urinary tract infection. If I did this could cause a miscarriage and I would need to get on antibiotics right away. Also, she was hoping they could have and ultrasound done to see what was going on and why I was bleeding and cramping. So my mom quickly came over to watch Lulu and Levi while Mark and I headed to the ER. This was around 6:45pm. After a semi-long wait which could have been much longer since the ER was full and the waiting room was beyond full I know God's hand was working in that because I got in and the doctor saw me quickly. Then a nurse came in to see if she could find a heart beat. After searching around my belly a bit we finally heard the fast little heart beat that was our baby's! The heart beat was in the 160's, Praise Jesus! So now to only try to figure out why I was bleeding so much. The ER doc was very nice and helpful but he wanted to do a pelvic exam to see if my cervix was open or closed, the difference between an obvious miscarriage (open) or not (closed.) Mark spoke up and said "no, we want and ultrasound done first." Mark really felt led by the Holy Spirit to not have a pelvic exam done. We found out later this was a very wise decision Mark made. So since we declined this there was not much else for the ER to do for me or our baby since it was protocol to not do an ultrasound without doing the pelvic exam first. The ER doc told us that we could have an ultra sound the next day on our own but in the ER they couldn't do this. So that's what we decided to do. We went home and went to bed, still bleeding and not knowing why. My bleeding was not enough to be a concern for the ER but if it picked up they told me to come right back in. The ER doc did tell me I did not have a UTI so we were able to rule that out. Today I was able to get an emergency ultrasound done with the office that I always go to for my ultrasounds. Another huge blessing because this office books up quickly and has excellent doctors. So today I had my ultrasound and the doctor I saw today said he saw nothing of concern and quickly reassured me that everything was fine and I could relax. I was not miscarrying and our baby girl is very healthy and so am I. So the reason I was still bleeding is because I have a very common issues where my placenta is very close to the cervix (mild placenta previa) that when I lift anything heavy or do much of anything to aggravate it, it bleeds. He also said that there are many blood vessels in that area that could be breaking and causing the bleeding. Which is all normal and he wants me to take it easy for the next month. The doctor feels very confident that my placenta will move further away from my cervix as I continue to grow this next month. But the amazing thing that we learned today from the doctor I saw was that he told us that it was a very wise decision not to have the pelvic exam done in the ER. If the ER doc did that exam and felt my cervix he could have punctured the placenta not knowing I had a placenta previa. This would be very serious. There is no way they could have know where the placenta was without doing an ultrasound first and the doctor was surprised that the ER doc didn't realize this. So a huge lesson learned that never to allow a doc to do something just because. Listen to your gut feelings and pray about EVERYTHING!
We are rejoicing that we have a sweet baby girl who is healthy!
