The title of this blog has absolutely nothing to do with anything Biblical, although the book of Revelations is probably the most disturbing and unnerving portion of the Bible, in my opinion. No, my own revelations have come to me over the past six weeks that I have spent laying on the couch or in my bed, only being allowed getting up to walk the short jaunt to the bathroom. That's right, folks. I ended up on complete bed rest this pregnancy. This blog is brought to you by the letter 'R', which in this case stands for...
Rest and Regression
I'll get to the regression part later. First of all, I need to rewind back six weeks and fill you all in on exactly what happened. It was a Friday morning, and Sprout had finally started perking back up after a trip to the Stollery following a wicked bout of gastroenteritis (stomach bug). I woke up feeling a little strange, and then began vomiting myself by around 8:30am. I didn't start feeling terrible until around 2:00pm, and then it really hit hard. By 6:00pm, I noticed that not only did I have anything to throw up anymore (especially when it was happening every 15 minutes), but I was also having contractions. Lots of them. About 6-8 per hour. I called the hospital and was informed that I needed to get there ASAP. My mom came out and brought me to the hospital, while my husband stayed here with our still-recovering Sprout to wait for any news.
The hospital trip was fairly uneventful - I was pumped full of IV fluids (a 3-bag bolus) immediately, given a medication called Indocid to try and slow my contractions, injected with Zofran (the miracle anti-nausea drug), and checked for cervical dilation. Seedling's heart rate was jumping up over 185bpm and then decelerating to around 75-80bpm during and between contractions, and my own resting rate was over 12o. I had dilated to 2 cm, lost my mucous plug, and the contractions were steady at every 2-3 minutes apart. It was soon decided that I needed to be at a hospital that could facilitate delivery at 29 weeks, should my body not decide to cooperate and kick Seedling out early.
I was taken by ambulance to the RAH, where they have a full NICU and neonatologists there all the time, and admitted into their labour and delivery unit. Luckily, something kicked in, and my labour started to slow down, followed by my heart rate lowering, and Seedling looking a little more cozy and less freaked out by what was going on. I was transferred to the antenatal unit, and taken for an ultrasound the following day to make sure everything was still okay with Seedling. Side comment about the new Lois Hole Hospital for Women at the RAH - unbelievably beautiful building. The unit where I had my ultrasound done was gorgeous, and I got to watch the entire ultrasound on a 46" flat screen TV mounted up on the wall across from where I had to lay. So awesome. It was at that ultrasound that I found out my cervix, which should have been at least 3-4cm long at that point, had shortened to 1.8cm following the stress of labour. What does that mean, you ask? Cervical shortening is one of the leading causes of preterm labour and preterm rupture of membranes (water breaking). So...I was put on complete bed rest. I spent 5 days in total at the hospital still contracting fairly regularly with a very irritated uterus before I was finally released and able to come home.
I'm not going to whine about the terms of my bed rest, but I will give a quick update. When I left the RAH, the OB I saw there predicted that I wouldn't make it to 34 weeks before delivering this baby. As of today, I am 34 weeks and 5 days. They will not stop my labour anymore (I've had to go in twice since I was released to have them stop contractions), and the baby is over 5lbs according to ultrasound measurements, which is a very decent size. Larger than average, actually. I am officially off bed rest in 3 days - SO EXCITING! The most difficult thing about bed rest has been watching Sprout regress in so many ways, and trying to 'fix' all of the problems that she seemed to develop in those 5 days I spent away from her in the hospital. That, I will talk about.
Sigh. Do you know what it feels like to have to sit back and watch someone else try to take care of your child, while you're in the room and can't really do anything to help? Or to have your normally sweet, cooperative little girl suddenly decide that if Mommy isn't changing her diaper, putting her to bed, feeding her, taking her to the potty, or playing with her, she's just going to scream, refuse to eat, refuse to nap or sleep at night, and start acting out for attention? I have to say that I felt completely torn in half already by my two children. On one hand, I had to stay on the couch for the safety of Seedling, who still needed more time to develop and grow inside of me, but on the other hand, I was sacrificing everything that Sprout knew to be normal, and she definitely noticed. Heartbreaking to hear your daughter screaming 'NO! Mommy!!' when someone else takes her to bed. I spent a lot of nights awake crying because I felt like I had completely failed and let both of my kids down. How could my body betray me (and them) like that?! Just because of a stupid stomach virus.
After six weeks of 'rehabilitation' and adjustment, we are finally back to eating normally, sleeping well (in her toddler bed, no less!), less tantrums, and a generally happy little girl, who talks and acts like she is 2 and a half, instead of 1 and a half! Her vocabulary astounds me - and it's not only the words she knows, because she is a parrot and will repeat anything - it's the comprehension and the retention. She got a pretend doctor kit from my mom the other day, and I only had to tell her the names of the 'tools' and what they were for ONCE. Then, she proceeded to tell all her animals to 'say AAAHHH' so she could look in their mouths, listened to their hearts and told me they sounded like 'boom boom boom', checked their temperatures under their arms (some had a 'fever', some didn't), and gave them 'medicine' from the syringe. Unbelievable. Not saying my kid is a super genius or anything, she just blows me away every day, and it was so hard seeing her so very unhappy and not herself. She can now tell you what sounds the letters A, B, C, D, H, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, and Y make (she figured that last one out herself...somehow), and a word that goes with each letter; she knows and will point out red, blue, purple, yellow, orange, green, pink, black, and white (if she's not too preoccupied), and she can almost count to 10 steadily. She likes to start with 'One, two....one, two...five...seven...nine...ten!' but if she really focuses, she knows the rest of them as well, in order. At this age, she really is a little sponge. She seems to fully retain every last tidbit of information I give her about anything, and loves to ask questions and wants to know more all the time. At this rate, she will be just like my smart little niece, who is currently completing kindergarten...but working on grade one material and reading at a level even above that!
I am so proud of her, and can't wait for everything to come in the next weeks. Every morning, she says 'hello' to her baby sibling, and gives my belly a snuggle, a pat, and a kiss. She loves to feel him/her move, and listen to the heartbeat if I take out my doppler, or the antenatal nurses are here to run a non-stress test (tomorrow is their last visit, but they've been seeing me at home for the past 5 weeks). Her most frequently asked question about the baby is if he/she can come 'out', but she always follows it up by saying 'No...too small...', which I told her when I came home from the hospital.
Life is going to change in so many ways, Sprout. Mommy can take you to the park next week, and pick you up for snuggles (finally!), and hopefully be able to spend some quality time with you before Seedling arrives. And when he/she does decide to make an appearance, it is going to be such a wonderful thing to see you as a proud big sister, which I already know you will be. I love you with all of my heart, and I hope you know how much it has been absolutely killing me to watch all the wonderful things you've been doing and not be able to be right there with you on the floor, playing and helping you learn. You are such a big girl, and I can't express how proud I am of you.
xoxoxo
Mommy
