The other night

Tuesday evening was like any other day. We ate supper, put the boys down for the night, and then Kevin and I settled in to watch a movie. About thirty minutes into the movie I started feeling hard Braxton Hicks and Kevin mentioned it was too early for me to be feeling them that strong. The boys and I had spent a good chunk of the day outside so I figured I may just be a little dehydrated. Kevin got me a glass of water and after I finished it I knew that emptying my bladder (sorry, tmi) would relieve some of the pressure on my uterus. As soon as I stood up to go to the bathroom I felt a gush and once I was in the bathroom I saw it. Blood. Lots of it. Kevin called my mom to come over and I called my ob who sent me straight to the ER. The drive to the hospital was mostly silent. We both spent a lot of time in quiet prayer and I spent time inside my head and heart trying to prepare myself for what I knew was happening. The prayer on my heart was "you're the God of my sorrow, you're the God of my joy. Whether tonight is sorrowful or joyful, you're still my God". Once at the hospital we were joined by some very precious and steadfast people (one of which was my dad). They not only went to battle for our baby through prayer but also offered a wonderful distraction while we waited to be seen.

After what seemed like an eternity I was finally given a room where we just ended up waiting even longer for an ultrasound. Finally I was transported to the ultrasound tech who was very nice but very silent during the first fifteen minutes of the process (silence never seems like a good thing during times like these). Finally she zoomed in on what I had been looking for, a flicker. A sign of life. My baby's heartbeat. It was the same as it had been at my appointment the previous week, 162 bpm. Kevin cried and I cried even harder. She then let us take a few moments just to look at the baby and he/she was going to town in there, probably wondering why the heck mommy's heart was pounding so hard. One hurdle jumped successfully, but we still had to wait on radiology to look over the pictures and determine where the bleeding was coming from. I was rolled back to my cell room to wait another hour or so and I was still bleeding pretty heavily. I prayed a lot and made a bargain with the baby that I would fight if it would fight. Finally a doctor came in and told me that the baby  looked wonderful and after she checked me she said my cervix was tightly closed and not effaced. She asked me to follow up with my ob the next day because she still didn't know where the bleeding was coming from.

Kevin and I finally got home going on 3:00 and although I was exhausted it was so hard to sleep. I was anxious to speak to my doctor. Fortunately most of my fears were relieved by the news that morning. After having their ultrasound tech review my pictures from the night before she confirmed that the baby was excellent and measuring a week ahead of date. They did find a subchorionic hemorrhage (blood clot) that caused a small part of the placenta to tear away from my uterus. It is not uncommon and has a very small loss rate (1-3%) and should heal itself soon if I take it easy.

Once again many prayers were sent up for our little babe and once again God answered them with mercy. He assembled a team of friends around us to display his grace through prayer and support. He's blessed me with a brother who called out for prayer from friends. He's blessed me with a dad that stayed up way past his bedtime to wait on news and a mom who has selflessly and tirelessly taken care of my children and doing chores so that I could stay off of my feet. He's blessed me with a husband who has, once again, proven to be my rock and he's blessed us with another compassionate answer to prayer concerning this baby.