Celebrating 33 weeks with Steroid Shots

I'm 33 weeks pregnant today.  Unfortunately, I'm celebrating in the antenatal triage unit of the hospital.  I woke up this morning at 5:30 am to feel some liquid leak out of me.  I wasn't sure what came out and tried to ignore it for a while.  But when I went to pee at 6 am, I saw that it was bright red blood in the toilet.  Sigh.  Again.  (If you're wondering why I didn't look at my underwear, I did, but it was black and so I couldn't tell what was on it.) 

When I last bled at 23 weeks, there wasn't anything they could do for the baby and so I didn't bother going to the hospital.  But this time around, the baby is definitely viable and so I followed directions and went to the hospital.  They got me on the monitor and I was contracting every 2-3 minutes.  I could feel them too - they felt like the Braxton-Hicks contractions I had in my first pregnancy.  Painless but weirdly uncomfortable.  So they said that they needed me to stay for 24 hours so that they could monitor my bleeding and contractions.  They put me on an IV and with rest and fluids, the contractions stopped.  And the bleeding stopped too.  But I kind of knew the bleeding would stop because all 3 other times I've bled, it stopped right away.  But I can't be too careful at this point.  They gave me the first shot of steroids to help mature the baby's lungs.  I'll get the second shot tomorrow, 24 hours later.

They did an ultrasound at the high risk clinic here at the hospital and it became clear that the low lying placenta had not moved.  In fact, the ultrasound doctor told me it was "for sure" placenta previa.  Sigh...again.  I KNEW KNEW KNEW that placenta wasn't moving, despite the fact that both my doctor and midwife told me that in the large majority of the cases, the placenta moved upwards and away from the cervix as the uterus grows.  So this means that a VBAC is out of the question.  I will be having this baby by C-section.  I'm bummed about this news, but it's certainly not shocking news.  And at least this way, I am reassured that I will not have to repeat the experience of labor followd by an emergency C-section.  The bad news is that the doctor on call told me that I had a 60% chance of delivering before 37 weeks.  Not good.  I want this baby to bake as long as possible.  I want to avoid the NICU.  I want a big healthy baby and a good breastfeeding relationship.  I want a lot of things.  So I'm willing to trade my VBAC for extra baking time. 

The good news is that the baby weighed approximately 4 pounds 11 ounces.  Of course, that is "give or take 11 ounces" and so she could be 4 pounds right now.  Or she could be over 5 pounds.  Who knows.  The ultrasound tech said that she had a lot of fuzzy hair on her head.  And the baby has gone from a breech position to being head down (not that this matters since I'll be having a C-section).  But the baby seems happy and healthy and is measuring on track.  So she just needs to stay put for what I hope will be another 4 weeks.  If I can make it to 37 weeks, I will be happy.

And since I'm keeping track, at 32 weeks, I was up 23.5 pounds and now at 33 weeks, I'm up 24 pounds.  And now they've brought me my requested grilled cheese sandwich along with a fruit and cottage cheese plate and cheesecake for dinner.  So you sense a dairy theme?  I'm off to eat!