Pregnancy Week 35
21 April, 4.20pm:
- enroute to wang cafe, chevron house, for tea-break
- toilet stop, sudden bleeding, pinkish-red
- I still proceed to wang cafe, at the same time calling gynae
- gynae says “come down to clinic immediately”
- worried, I call for a cab to Thomson Medical
21 April, 5.10pm:
- I arrive at gynae, and she promptly does an internal examination
- gynae discovers a blood clot, which she promptly removes
- cervix not dilated, no contraction pain, so it doesn’t look like labour has begun
- baby still in breech position
- she does an ultra-sound to check on the placenta (rules out danger of placenta dislodging itself from the womb)
- as clinic is closing, she sends me to the labour ward for CTG (cardiotocography) scan, which monitors the baby’s heartbeat
- sent home (finally) at 6.30pm, after bleeding was confirmed to have stopped and baby’s heartbeat reading was found normal
- gynae’s instructions: if there is further bleeding / contraction pain / baby stops moving, repeat check-up at labour ward immediately
- prescribes more rest over the weekend
22 April, 10.45am:
- bleeding starts again, this time deeper red in colour
- I inform hubby, who is jolted awake from his mid-morn siesta
- everybody gets dressed, including the 2 y.o. toddler who thinks it’s time to go shopping / a walk
- we arrive at Thomson Medical @ 11.30am, I grab a quick bite (standard CTG will last an hour at least)
- back to the observation room at labour ward; nurse has an equally hard time as last night trying to locate the very active baby’s heartbeat
- I send hubby home, because there’s nothing much anyone can do
- cleared at about 1pm, and sent home without much instructions as we couldn’t reach the gynae (Good Friday, so she may be in church)
22 April, 2.30pm:
- gynae calls and checks how I am
- she suspects it could be ‘old blood’ from the day before, also explains that one-third of late pregnancy bleeding is by unknown causes
- she says if bleeding starts again, I will need to be admitted into hospital, particularly if blood is pinkish or bright red in colour
- prescribes bed-rest for rest of the day
- day passes incident-free, just the occasional spotting
23 April, 10.40am:
- no fresh bleeding, but some brownish discharge
- nurse from gynae’s clinic calls, saying gynae saw my CTG report, and wants me to come in for another round of CTG (sigh)
- I call the hubby who’s finishing breakfast with colleague nearby
- kind colleague drives all of us to Thomson Medical
- I grab a chocolate croissant from Delifrance enroute to clinic (it will be another hour!)
- hubby feeds toddler outside clinic, I wait patiently for my turn at the CTG machine
- midway through CTG, gynae arrives to explain my CTG yesterday had periods of drop in fetal heartbeat (cos baby was moving so much), so had to do another check to be sure
- finally cleared at 1.30pm, but not before gynae said if more bleeding episodes, it would be best to deliver baby (C-section), since it could be the womb that’s bleeding (though she added it’s unlikely the case)
This Easter weekend has turned out to be too exciting and a tad too scary. Still, I’m reminded that God is in control, and He will works things out for our little family. Thank God for friends who have been praying and encouraging us! 