The Dupuis Family: First Scary Visit to Labor and Delivery!

We had quite a scare this week, on Thursday I was at work and my belly had been feeling quite heavy all day and I went to the bathroom and there was red blood when I wiped. I was really scared, because I know that is one of the warning signs that something may be wrong. I called the doctor immediately, and told my boss I was probably going to head out to get checked out. We had a big snowstorm that day, and I work an hour from the hospital. I finally got a call back from the doctor's office and they told me I should go in to the hospital to get checked out. I called Richard who was at home from work last week, and Savannah happened to be staying with my parents.

I drove home and picked up Richard and we drove to the hospital. They gave me an ultrasound right away and said that the baby looked fine (PHEW!) Then the doctor gave me a trans - vaginal ultrasound and found that I have a low - lying placenta (placenta previa)
The below pic shows the difference between a normal placenta and placenta previa.

Luckily, mine appears to be the marginal placenta previa. He couldn't explain exactly where the bleeding had come from, but that was his best guess. Luckily, there was only one occurrence of the bleeding. It never came back. After the ultrasound, I was hooked up to the fetal monitor and they found that I was having some contractions. They gave me some nifedipene which is a blood pressure medication to stop the contractions. My blood pressure was also very high which is extremely unusual for me. I think it was the stress!! The contractions stopped, but I had quite a reaction to the medication. My legs turned bright red and my pulse was racing. I felt like I was going to pass out when I would have to get up to walk to the bathroom!

They decided to admit me over night so they could give me two doses of celestone which is a steroid to help the baby's lungs mature in case of a preterm delivery. They needed to be 24 hours apart, and man did they hurt! They had to be injected right into the muscle. I was transferred to a private room which was very nice, Richard had a cot that he was able to (try) to sleep on. He was not feeling well, so it was a rough night for both of us. The next morning, I got to have another ultrasound to check her growth. We found that she is measuring pretty small, around the 25th percentile. The doctor told me that I should avoid commuting to work for the next 2 weeks to be safe. Once I am 35 weeks along, he said that it will be safer to deliver and I should be all set to be back at work.

We are home and resting now, both Savannah and Richard have some kind of flu, and are doing a lot of coughing. Luckily I haven't caught that yet.

Here is one of the ultrasound pics of Delaney that we had taken! She definitely has my lips :)