I have lots to update y’all on today! After a week on bed rest, we followed up with my OBGYN Monday. I had been blood free Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the previous week. Sunday and Monday I started with some spotting again. I wasn’t overly concerned because it was brown, which means it was old blood. An ultrasound showed the same area of discoloration on my uterus. The doctor told me last week that he believed the spot was just a uterine contraction. The fact that the same spot was still there a week later confirmed that it was NOT a uterine contraction. It was most likely a bleed, just like the hospital had initially diagnosed. My doctor advised me to go home and stay on strict bed rest until I was blood free for at least a week. He believed the problem would resolve on its own.

Matt and I decided to follow up with a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist for a second opinion. We were lucky enough to get an appointment with the MFM specialist that Wednesday thanks to two close friends (Thanks Brittanie and Mrs. Betty!). I went into the appointment feeling a little bit nervous. I wasn’t quite sure what he would find. He is regarded as one of the best specialists in the city, though, so I knew he was just the man for the job. I was hoping for a more definite diagnosis. Up until this point I was getting conflicting ideas of what it might be or what it could be that was causing the bleeding.

Our ultrasound at the specialist’s office was really cool. We got to watch everything on a giant flat screen TV. it was definitely the most detailed ultrasound I have ever had. As soon as the screen turned on, the tech pointed out the discolored area on my uterus. It was clear as day. She said it was obviously a small bleed. Then she inspected and measured every single nook and cranny of the baby. It’s amazing that they can do that! She took measurements of the head, the torso, the body length, the stomach, etc. As she was inspecting the legs, I asked her if there was anything in between them. She looked between the legs from various different angles and zoomed in several times. There was ABSOLUTELY nothing there. She confirmed that we are having a baby girl!

I was a little skeptical of such an early gender determination. She told me that a boy would definitely have SOMETHING growing between his legs by now. I said, “Maybe he’s just a late bloomer.” She looked at me with a crazy look on her face and told me to think about what I was saying. We all laughed. Matt and I were thrilled to learn that we are having a baby girl. Neither of us had a preference regarding the gender. We just wanted a healthy baby.

After the tech left the room, the doctor came in. He told me that it was clearly a small separation in the placenta causing the bleeding. He drew pictures for us and explained everything in great detail. He told me that he felt very confident that this would be completely resolved by my next ultrasound in 4 weeks. He said that in his entire time practicing, he has only seen one case like mine that became so bad that the mother lost the baby. However, he sees cases like mine DAILY that completely resolve without any intervention. That was music to my ears!

He took me off of bed rest because he doesn’t want me to develop blood clots in my legs. He said strict bed rest does not make any difference in the outcome of these types of scenarios. He just wants me to modify my activity level. For example, I can’t lift anything heavy or doing anything strenuous. The best news of all was that he looked at all of the measurements and pictures of the baby and said that the baby looks “great” and all of her structures look “perfect.” What a relief!

The MFM specialist decided to keep me as his patient for the remainder of the pregnancy and deliver the baby himself. He will continue to monitor me to make sure the tear heals and I don’t have any further complications. He is going to re-check me in 4 weeks but wants me to come in immediately if I experience any more heavy bleeding.

This week has been wonderful. One of the best doctors in the city told me how healthy my baby is, I got off of bed rest, I am receiving excellent care, I haven’t bled in 4 days and to top it all off we found out the baby’s gender. Last night we had our parents and siblings over for a small gender reveal. We shot off a pink confetti cannon in our yard and everyone cheered. Things are pretty great around here. We can’t wait for Lucy Grace to join our family in February!!

It’s a girl!