When life throws a curve ball

It's nice to have a glove and the ability to catch.

Ok, so maybe that's a silly metaphor, but we recently got thrown a curve ball. Fortunately everything turned out fine. Disclaimer right here: this is pregnancy talk, so guys (if there are any guys who read this), if that makes you uncomfortable, stop reading now.

I went running this morning and finished with an intense pain in my lower left stomach. I came home, put Cami down for a nap, and went to bed myself. I tried to do some yoga but didn't feel good at all. Several hours later I started bleeding. Pregnant women aren't suppose to bleed, so of course I got worried. The cramping continued, so when Sterling came home I called my doctor for an appointment.

As we sat waiting to go, I prepared myself for the worst. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, that sort of thing. It could be a miscarriage, that I knew. It could be an ectopic pregnancy, though I didn't feel like I was about to die, so probably not. However, it could be something simple. I mean, some women bleed throughout their pregnancy right? Krista (my sister) mentioned that a friend of hers bled every time she did physical activity. So it could be that, right?

Prepared for bad news, we went to see my doctor. She said she wasn't going to listen to heart tones because it's too early anyways and she didn't want to get us anxious before the inevitable ultrasound. We were told that yes, it could very well be a miscarriage, however, it could also be something else. There are two sacs around the baby, one around the other. It occasionally happens that the outer sac pulls away from the inner and fills with blood, then breaks open, which means bleeding. Simple, right?

The ultrasound tech was really busy, so we waited for quite awhile before we finally got in to see her. She set everything up, spread the cold gel on my stomach and went to work. She searched around for different things and we could see the little baby in there. So small and so sad, because we might have lost it. After a few minutes she pointed out where the bleeding was coming from and paused over the baby where we could hear it's heart beat. It took me several long seconds before it hit me. "So it isn't a miscarriage?" The tech looked at me as though I was really slow, which, let's face it, I am. "No, it's not a miscarriage. There's a heart beat." She was a little patronizing, but I figured I'd have to let it pass with this news. So, I didn't miscarry!! Great news all around, right?

But there's more. The bleeding was indeed from the two sacs separating and filling with blood. She said there was a rather large area, but that she had seen cases where it was this bad and it had resolved on it's own, which is good because there's nothing they can do to fix it. So hopefully it'll resolve on it's own, like she said. My doctor told me not to go running anymore, only light walking, no heavy lifting (anything heavier than Cami), and basically to just go home and keep my feet up. So for now we're in the clear, but things could turn south and we just need to be careful. I'm getting a follow up ultrasound in three weeks to see if it's resolved.

We got a little ultrasound picture of our little baby. The picture is really dark, but I'll try to scan it and post it tomorrow. It was so cute to see the little tiny features. Not that you can make out much when they're that tiny, but it was still fun. For now, we're doing okay. I still hurt, but things are looking up.