My Trip to L&D

18w 5d

This entry required about zero thinking. We had a bit of a scare last night. I got home around 6:00pm after a little trip to Target and shortly after I walked in the door, I went to the bathroom because I of course had to pee. I was totally not prepared for what I saw. I thought there was blood on my underwear, but I was wearing pink underwear and it was a little difficult to distinguish. So after I finished my business, I of course wiped and saw more bright red blood and what appeared to be a small clot. Doctors, baby books, etc will tell you that if the blood is brown, it is usually no cause for concern, but if it is bright red, to call your doctor ASAP. I called out to Paul to call the doctor because I was bleeding. I immediately started crying.

By the time I got out of the bathroom, the night nurse was on the phone asking me questions. She said she would have the on-call doctor call me back within 20 minutes. I just sat on the couch, pretending to be calm, watching a DVR'd The Hills, waiting for the call back. By the time the doctor called me, I had stopped crying, but as soon as he asked me to explain what was going on I was crying again. Paul, meanwhile had went upstairs to clean the bathroom (what he does best, and a defense mechanism I presume). The doctor told me to come the OB Triage (OB ER) in Labor and Delivery. I yelled up to Paul that we had to go to the hospital.

The car ride there was pretty quiet, only my sniffles and few words here and there. There was so much going through my head, and I am sure Paul's. Once we got to the hospital, I headed straight for the OB Triage and signed in while Paul parked the car. I met the doctor and waited for a girl that was in the room I needed to get out. She was in labor or something, she took forever. Geesh. I keed, I keed. Anywho, they cleaned up all of her fun stuff and sent me in. I have never had to put on a hospital gown before so that was fun and provided some comic relief. I did notice that the bleeding had stopped when I changed.

The nurse came in and did all the normal stuff, asking me questions, taking my blood pressure and then she grabbed the Doppler to look for the baby's heartbeat. I guess I am spoiled at my OB's office because I have never waited more than 15 seconds to hear the heart. It took about a minute (or what seemed like and hour) for the nurse to find it. But she did, and it sounded beautiful. She also ended it with a "active little sucker" as she put the Doppler away. I should also say that from the moment I saw the blood up until the waiting room, I had been feeling the baby kick me - probably because it was dinnertime and I was not eating, MOM WHY AREN'T YOU EATING?

Next a guy came in and did a pelvic exam and knew right away what was causing the bleeding - I had a small cervical polyp. This is pretty normal and there is really no cause for them except for cervical inflammation from something like, oh I don't know... being pregnant and having increased blood vessels around your cervix. The doctor said that the polyps will bleed, especially with the added blood flow in my body and that area. The cervix is very fragile and the littlest thing can irritate it during pregnancy. I figure that with all the walking I did this weekend and bouncing around in a car for 6 hours didn't help.

So all is well and I have not had any more bleeding, but lots of kicks. Paul loves that the baby is being really active now and constantly tells him to "kick your mom in the bladder". Gee thanks! After last night I will take kicks anywhere I can get them!