Thursday August 4th

Just in case everyone was not aware yet.  As of today we are 23 weeks and 4 days along.  We were admited to the hospital on Tuesday August 2 after seeing the high risk OB.  Basically what is going on is we have a placental abruption.  There is some blood at the top of the uterus and also quite a bit blood and clots at the bottom covering the cervix.  They made the decision to put me in the hospital due to the fact the baby is almost viable and I am bleeding significantly.  We were seen in the ER here approximately 3 weeks ago.  At that time my Hemoglobin was 11, when I was admitted it was 8.8 and today it is 8.3.  They tell me normal is approx 10 and they will have to transfuse if I get down to 6.  The high risk OB said they will tranfuse as long as everything else is going ok until about 30 weeks.  The only good news through all of this is that this is not seem to be affecting the baby.  The ultrasound on Tuesday showed the baby was actually measuring ahead at 23w5d and was approx 1 lb 6oz and was in 67% for size.  The heartrate has remained normal, even through all of the blood gushes.  The plan the Dr's give me at this point in time is to just wait and monitor me and the baby.  As long as my bleeding stops every now and then and does  not continually gush, we will continue on and just treat me with blood transfusions.  They will be monitoring the baby to make sure he/she is growing appropriately and handeling the stress.  If either I start bleeding and they cannot get it to stop or if the baby shows signs of distress then they will do an emergency C-section.  I am scheduled to have another U/S tomorrow and they will give me my first shot of Betamethasone (steroid) which is given to help prevent brain bleeds in extremely premature babies.  At this point in time we just wait...and pray a lot...that is about all we can do.

Jen

Extra note on the girls***
I am sure everyone is wondering about the girls.  They seem to be doing fine right now.  Madigan was a little upset, but was in a much better spirit when she came to the hospital last night.  St Johns is very family friendly and the girls can go to the freezer to get ice cream and there is a family room here with games and crafts.  Last night the nurse even brought them some coloring books and crayons to the room for them.  The past few weeks both my mom and mikes mom have been taking turns watching the girls and taking care of things at the house for us.  Once my mom has to start the new school year, Dola will pretty much be living at our house.  Mike and I are so thankful and blessed for our wonderful families.  I do not know how we would do all of this without them.  It relieves a tremendous amout of stress to know the girls are taken care of very well.  They may be a little spoiled by the grandparents when all of this is done....but that we are very thankful for.