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July 16, 2004
A caveat: if you're pregnant, you may want to skip this entry. Way back in my first pregnancy, I used to hate reading about all the bad things that might happen. I thought "What to Expect when you are Expecting" was full of absolutely uncalled-for scariness with its description of zillions of horrible and rare things that can happen in pregnancy. I hated the concept of the book. Then I got pregnant again, and some of you know how that pregnancy was the Merck Index compared to "What to Expect". Now I'm expecting #3, and it's another one for the medical textbooks...
Around the time of my last entry, way back in March, I got yet another positive home pregnancy test. If you have read my previous diary entries, you will know there's nothing newsworthy about me getting a positive HPT. I almost always get one about 2 weeks after having unprotected sex ... only for my period to come a few days late. So I decided that in my particular case the headline "I'M PREGNANT!!!!" wouldn't be all that exciting.
A week passed, no period. I scheduled an OB appointment at the super duper elite best clinic to be found on the wrong side of the former iron curtain. I scheduled it for 6 weeks and 3 days, hoping to see the heartbeat. A few days before the appointment, I had a dream that the ultrasound hadn't been able to find the heartbeat. And that's exactly what happened. I went in at 6 weeks 3 days, and no heartbeat, not even an embryo. The OB told me not to worry, that maybe it was too early, and to come back in 10 days. That was on Wednesady.
The next day I started bleeding. Not profusely, but more than just spotting.
Friday I went in to my "old" OB, the one who managed my pregnancies with Andrei and Anna. Think descriptions of early 20th century medical facilities and you'll have a pretty good idea of the conditions at this clinic. The doctor there is the best, though. I trust her with my life. The clinic has an ancient ultrasound machine and I was all prepared and afraid to hear that I'd be needing another D&C, but to my surprise, this time there was a tiny embryo with a heartbeat.
At 8 weeks I spent a couple of days in the hospital with food poisoning.
At 9 weeks the bleeding/spotting stopped.
At 13 weeks I began bleeding. Bright red and a lot. More than a period. I took a taxi to the hospital, where first thing they did was a internal exam. The doctor said there was a lot of blood and that things didn't look good, but they sent me for an ultrasound to confirm what was going on. To our surprise, the fetus appeared to be doing fine, heart beating away.
After a week in the hospital, I was still bleeding, though much less than when I'd been admitted. The doctor who examined me after a week wasn't sure the pregnancy was progressing, so I had another ultrasound. Things still looked good, though it seemed nobody knew why, since all the external factors were indicating something was really wrong.
I was released with orders to stay at home on strict bedrest.
At 16 weeks, I was still bleeding/spotting, and it was time for a checkup at my maternity clinic. My adominal measurements didn't correspond to the weeks of pregnancy, my stomach was measuring 13 weeks. And there was the ongoing bleeding. Once again, there were doubts that the fetus was alive. Another ultrasound showed not only was it alive, it corresponded to the age of the pregnancy.
I spent the next week and a half in the maternity hospital, during which time I had yet another internal exam, two more ultrasounds, and they tried to figure out what was going on with me and the fetus. I was sent to the Russian Military Medical Academy (!!) for a detailed ultrasound, where it was determined that the placenta looked fine, the fetus corresponded to the pregnancy, I had a big hematoma that might bleed until the end of the pregnancy, but that it didn't appear to be a threat, and that the fetus is a boy.
The head doctor, upon releasing me after I'd signed a waiver that I was demanding early release and did not hold medical personnel liable for any unfortunate consequences of my actions, said that she was surprised the pregnancy was developing, considering my stomach size and the bleeding. It was their recommendation that I stay there until the baby is born (!!)
I've been home on bedrest for a week now. Yesterday, I bought a laptop computer, so I am once again connected to the world outside my apartment. In the past few months, I've read so many cheap detective novels, I should start writing my own, so the computer is a wonderful acquisition.s It's not very comfortable typing lying down, but I'm not really complaining. I'll be on bedrest until the end of the pregnancy. In a week and a half, I will have a type of cerclage done. For those who don't know what a cerclage is, it's when they stitch your cervix closed to avoid its premature dilation causing a late-term miscarriage. Since in the past 5 years I've had two births, two D&Cs and a procedure whereby suspicious cells on my cervix were burned off (sorry if I can't describe that one in English!), my cervix is not very dependable. The procedure they will do to me is not a stitch, they insert some kind of ring that holds things in place. In Russian, it's called a "pessary", but I doubt that's the same in English.
Andrei and Anna are OK. In Russia, preschools close for 3 months in the summer, so they are at home and bored. The weather is incredibly bad, rain rain and rain. It's unbelievable! It has been raining almost constantly since mid-May. Andrei and Anna have cabin fever, and I am no help, as I can only get up to eat and use the bathroom. I'd love to take them somewhere sunny for a few weeks, like the mountains in the south of France where I spent my teenage summers, but it's not possible.
We explained to them that they grew in my stomach and were born in the hospital where I stayed, and that now someone else is growing inside, but that if he comes out now, he'll die, because he's too small. They seem to understand, but of course they want me to play and run and pick them up, and they are frustrated, as am I.
The baby is due at the beginning/mid December. I'm having my tubes tied thereafter. We will certainly be done having babies after this.
And so now you are up to date with our family. I wish I had better news than the stress of the past few months. It has been stressful for everyone, Andrei and Anna also.
Warm regards from St. Petersburg (rapidly turning into the lost continent of Atlantis),
Lisa
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