On Baby A's birthday, the c-section surgery went as planned. I walked into the OR around 9:30am and was pushed out around 2 hours later. W was instructed to wait outside while the team was getting me prepared for anesthesia. He then got invited to come in and sat next to me while the team worked on getting Baby A out of me 😂. W was a good DJ and Baby A was born while Taylor Swift's Shake It Off was being played. So...did I feel any pain during this life-changing surgery? No, I didn't. I had a spinal block. I never felt any type of pain during the surgery. Getting the anesthesia injected - however - was the most uncomfortable part of the surgery. There was a lot of pressure. I felt my back being pulled or pushed, or something. It just felt very uncomfortable, not painful, but very uncomfortable. It was also hard to try leaning toward the source of that uncomfortableness. Learning to relax while being uncomfortable was a very hard thing to do. But it was necessary. Once it...
Hello there! It's only been a day since I shared the last post and here I am, ready to write more! Honestly, I find writing things down quite therapeutic. Writing helps me to recount events, keep my thoughts organized, reassess things, and it allows me to self-reflect while acting as a channel for venting if needed. Okay, you get the idea 😄
This post is about what happened this past weekend. I mentioned I experienced spotting in the previous post. In this post, I describe more of all events that happened over the weekend. Don't worry, I feel fine and am not in pain 💖
Saturday (4/24)
I woke up around 10:30 to see hubby, doggo, and one catto snoring next to me. That's the definition of a "good start of the day" for me (a "great" start would require both cattos)! Saturday morning and afternoon went by quickly. We cuddled, knocked some boots 🙈, and watched some videos together. Fatigue has hit me hard this week so we skipped out on our usual Saturday hike. Since Monday (the day we had the first check-up, albeit virtual), I've been feeling tired like I'm on clockwork, usually just hours after waking up. Around 2-4pm is like the prime time for zzzZZZs these days. For over a week, I've been waking up to a general soreness around my abdominal area and sometimes my love handles. Sometimes I felt I didn't sleep enough the moment I woke up. I think aside from the pregnancy hormones, the general "soreness" makes me want to just curl up and stay in bed.
Last week, I ordered a maternity pillow from Amazon. It arrived on Friday and Lulu quickly found the box to be her new favorite napping spot 😻
I took a nap with my new pillow and woke up with doggo by the bottom part of the "C" 🐶
The rain had mostly stopped by then, so we took doggo out for a walk.
Then we hurried to make dinner so we could have food ready when we play Don't Starve Together with our friends (side note: it's a fun game when playing with friends!) 😄 For dinner, we made pan-seared chicken, stir-fry greens with Persian cucumbers, green beans and water chestnuts, and paired them with brown rice.
We started playing the game with friends around 8pm? Then around 9pm I felt the need to use the bathroom (you know, pregnant women tend to have frequent bathroom trips) so off I went. That's when I noticed pink spotting. There was nothing on my pantie, I only saw it from wiping on the tissue. I stood in the bathroom and stared at it for a moment, processed the color under the bathroom light. Then I called W. W was still chatting with friends and playing the game, so at first he didn't hear me. I had to shout his name, then he came over and was confused about what had happened. I showed him the tissue and he asked how I felt. I told him I didn't feel anything, no pain, no cramp, and really had no discomfort other than feeling bloated and tired. Then he mumbled to himself "it's fine, it's fine." I said we should call Kaiser and talk to a nurse to seek advice.
We remembered we got a number from Monday's appointment, it's a 24/7 hotline for any time we have concerns or questions about the pregnancy while under 20 weeks pregnant (there's a different number for 20 weeks+). So we called that number. I was quickly connected to someone and that person connected me to a nurse, Amanda, from an ob team. I already described the call in the previous post, so I won't repeat how our conversations went here. Amanda sounded very caring and made me feel better. I was still worried, there's no denying that, but I felt better after hearing reassurance from a nurse than just reading about the many possibilities on Google searches (with many pointing to early pregnancy loss).
After the call with Amanda, we headed back to our computers and continued playing the game with our friends. Our friends didn't know what happened and honestly, I didn't feel like talking about it at the time. W continued chatting with friends while playing (voice on Discord), and I stayed quiet most times except when coordinating about some logistics in-game. The next time I used the bathroom was around 11:30pm. I wiped before using the bathroom, and there was nothing, so I was relieved about it. But, when I wiped after I finished peeing, I saw a streak of dark red on the tissue. I wiped again and there was no more. The dark red streak made me more nervous because "from pink to dark red" could mean there's a fresh bleeding spot somewhere inside my body. Amanda had told me to call back if symptoms worsened, or if there was heavy bleeding or any severe cramping. Was "pink to dark red" a worsened symptom? I went to bed around midnight and had a hard time falling asleep that night. I kept thinking about the dark red streak on the tissue and thought about the pink spotting before. Juggling thoughts between the images of spotting in my head and numerous repeats of what Amanda had said over the phone, I eventually fell asleep. I had a nightmare that night. I didn't tell W about the nightmare. In the dream, I had more spotting and was running in what looked like a healthcare facility chasing someone to get me in for a test to help me figure out what was happening and no one seemed to have heard me.
Sunday (4/25)
Woke up around 8:30am. We knew the lab opened at 9am on Sunday. Amanda had said that she put in blood test orders (2 tests: 1 for HCG and 1 for my blood type) and I could go in anytime on Sunday or Monday. For breakfast, I had an orange and a cup of soy milk.
Then we walked doggo, and then we went to Beaverton Medical for the blood draw. The drive was less than 20 minutes. Someone greeted us at the door and checked our temperature as soon as we walked in. Then I went straight to their bathroom lol. I had already used the bathroom before leaving home but was already feeling the need to go again!! Frequent urination in early pregnancy is real......👀
This is actually where I used to volunteer, up until just before COVID-19 broke out in the states, so I knew my way around this facility quite well 😎 The lab entrance had some kiosk desks for check-in. I entered my date of birth, my member ID, and a phone number for text notification for when a nurse station was ready to see me, and check-in was completed. I waited outside of the lab (chairs across from the entrance) with W. About 3 minutes later, I received a text message saying a nurse was ready to see me and prompted me to go to station #1.
4/25 Sunday: We went to Beaverton Medical this morning to do my blood tests. Two tests so two vials. My hcg result came back within just an hour (KP.org notified me it was ready and I could log on to see the results). HCG: 2455. I'm trying to stay positive. W says he's not worried because the number looks to be in the normal range for 6 weeks. I'm worried because it's more on the lower end of "normal," plus we saw spotting last night. My second blood test result came back about 5 hours later with the info I already knew: I'm O positive. It's been a long day. I'll probably write a post about this day later. Symptoms: nipple soreness, acne on chin, frequent trips to the bathroom, and fatigue in the afternoon. I didn't notice any spotting during the first three bathroom trips this morning. Throughout the day, I looked carefully at the tissue and wiped several times before and after using the bathroom. However, I saw a tiny bit (like 2 drops) of brown blood on the tissue around noon. I know brown blood means it's old blood, so I tell myself that's a good sign because it's not new blood. W also thinks it's a good sign. Our thinking is that since the color is not vibrant red, and that it's actually dark brown, meaning it's likely the spot that bled has stopped bleeding already. I haven't seen any spotting after the brown spotting around noon. It's almost midnight on Sunday.
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