An update from the hospital

Sorry, no pic for this post.

The internet connection has been intermittent here in the hospital and I'm taking this opportunity to quickly type this up. 

So, yeah. You read that post heading right. I'm in the hospital on bed rest. For how long you ask? Well, possibly for the next 6 to 7 weeks…if all goes well. If things do not "go well" it will be when the doctor deems that it is no longer safer for the baby to remain in the womb and needs to come out sooner rather than later. This most likely would be from placental abruption with bleeding within the womb or labor that cannot be stopped resulting in bleeding too much / hemorrhaging. With my last pregnancy, where I also had a complete placenta previa, Little Man was delivered at 32 weeks because of bleeding that led to contractions, which in turn led to more bleeding which led to more contractions…it turns into a vicious cycle that cannot be stopped. It really is completely unpredictable and it could be tonight, the next week or the next month.

I was admitted on December 27th early in the morning. I was not sleeping well that night because of stomach pain. I ended up catching the stomach bug that the kids had been going through. While still lying in bed I had felt something suspicious and went to the bathroom to check. Sure enough it was blood. Not a lot, but enough for me to have to call the doctor. I had already had my first spotting on Christmas Eve and was put on bed rest at home. Because of my high risk state I was already warned that I would be given only two bleeds/spotting before needing to go into the hospital. Mark drove me up at 4:30 in the morning on horribly foggy and icy roads. They first admitted me into the labor/delivery floor and kept me there for 3 days. Then after I showed no renewal of fresh bleeding they moved me to the postpartum ward where they have much more comfortable beds but a slower emergency response time. Hence the doctors reason for waiting to be sure I was stable before moving me there. For the first few days I was completely strapped down with an I.V. and baby monitors and nearly constant checks by the nurses. It was horrible and scary. But once I was moved they stopped the I.V. (I do still have a "buffalo cap", the I.V. tube is in place, but the bag of fluid is gone) and went to only monitoring the baby at every shift change. 

I'm not going to lie. This is hard. Probably the hardest life experience I've been through (not including the loss of loved ones). 

I've had some very dark moments. But I've also had some very grace-filled moments when I truly felt the peace of the Holy Spirit. This is the gift of your prayer, I know. The result is my experiencing Actual Grace from God. If you could, if I can ask you for just a little bit more, could you please offer some of your prayers for my family. Mark is managing the best he can…the man is a saint, I tell you, but he is overwhelmed and tired. He is back to work full time this week and the kids were scheduled to start their studies again the week of the 7th. He is receiving help from his mother and a few other relatives and the older kids have been a huge help to him in maintaining and holding down the fort. Honestly, we were not prepared for this as much as we should or could have been. I was doing so well and since it was over the holidays (which completely encompassed all our attention) we were a bit blindsided. 

As for myself, I'm taking one day at a time. If I think beyond that I become too overwhelmed and put myself into a panic attack. And really, sometimes it's one hour…one moment at a time. A priest was finally able to get to me today and I was able to receive the Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion. Thank you, God, for the sacraments and priests to administer them!! Another pretty cool thing is that I have known this priest since I was a child, though it had been years since I had last seen him. It was wonderful to be able to catch up with him and show him photos of my children and husband. Mark brought up some of my knitting, books, laptop and magazines. The knitting has been a real help to my sanity. I'm working on some bright and cheery yellow socks for my son and I'm just waiting for Mark to be able to bring up my newly arrived Madtosh light merino to begin a Sunday Sweater for the baby. I'm going to have to talk him through finding the pattern in my closet along with my needles. LOL, that should be interesting. He's been able to bring the kids to see me 3 or 4 times since my admittance and it does my heart such good to see them. Everyone tells me to enjoy my time away from the chaos, but I miss them all SO much. Anyway, I guess when it's your chaos it doesn't so much feel like chaos. It just feels like my life. 

Okay, well, that's it for now. My right hand (where the buff. cap is) is starting to ache from the typing and it's almost time for the nurse to come in and check my blood glucose levels. I'll try to update again later. I've been thinking about maybe having one of my blogging buddies be able to "hack" into my blog just incase something happens and I'm not able to update myself. I've come to rely on your prayers so much that I'd hate to go without them in an emergency situation. 

Wishing you God's blessing and lots of love to you and yours in the New Year.  

~Kelly

p.s. I apologize for any typos. I'm not going back over the post to check. I'm sure you understand. ;)