Ashlyn was BY FAR the worst pregnancy I had for many reasons. This will also be my hardest to post about. Please bear with me through this post. Many people know what happened but not everything that went on, so here we go. I have to break it up in 2 parts because of everything that happened. Please bear with me and try not to fall asleep!
Ashlyn was a surprise pregnancy, I was still on birth control. The pregnancy started out just fine. I had to get a new doctor because my last one moved. I was so excited to go get my first ultrasound. I loved my new doctor, he was really nice and spoke to me like a person. Not one of those doctors who always used all the medical terms that make you fell dumb! He took his time to explain everything, his office was right next to the hospital, and he was also the same doctor of one of my friends. I was excited to try the Flagstaff hospital, my other 2 were in different hospitals, why not hit them all? My reasoning was if I got enrolled in 3 different hospitals, if something happened to me and I had to go to the hospital, I was already enrolled in 3 different ones so I wouldn't have to register! Well, little did I know I would be in 4
different hospitals for 3 births, but now I'm getting ahead of myself.
One night, I started having some cramps and just ignored them. I figured they were a little too early for
braxtons, but just blamed it on dinner or something. They kept coming on through the night but they
weren't painful in any way, just annoying! The next morning, I woke up and discovered I had actually started bleeding through the night. I called my doctor and he told me to come into the hospital. We were a little worried, I was only
I went in for my ultrasound, just as excited as can be. We were going to let this one be a surprise, after all, we already had girl clothes and boy clothes so it didn't' matter what this one was! The ultrasound lady ended up taking a longer time than normal, than she said she had to call the doctor in. First red flag. The doctor came in and I heard him mutter the words 'I was afraid of that.' MAJOR red flag. They kept looking around the same area multiple times and finally my doctor looked at me and said there was a possible problem. He then showed me the problem. I had placenta
previa. If you want to read about that, click
here. In a nutshell, the placenta grows on the bottom of the uterus, not the top like it is supposed to. Most women have it early on in the pregnancy but it corrects itself later on. He showed me through the ultrasound what he was talking about. He also showed me an area where there were pools of dried up blood. After telling me all of this, he told me not to loose any sleep on it just yet and come back next month for another ultrasound to see if it has corrected itself. Not loose any sleep? Yeah right!!!! I was heartbroken just to know there were red flags up!!!
I actually ended up going back earlier than that! One night, I started having some cramps and just ignored them. I figured they were a little too early for
braxtons, but just blamed it on dinner or something. They kept coming on through the night but they
weren't painful in any way, just annoying! The next morning, I woke up and discovered I had actually started bleeding through the night. I called my doctor and he told me to come into the hospital. We were a little worried, I was only 20 weeks along! After I got there, the bleeding had actually stopped. The doctors weren't sure why and kept me there for a while. I never bled again that day so they sent me home and told me to take it easy and be on bed rest. Not the strict bed rest, just the light bed rest. After all, bed rest with 2 little ones at home is impossible!
The next month, we went back and found out some REALLY bad news. It didn't correct itself, and it was actually getting worse. So bad in fact, he had never saw it like this before. He saw that there were pools of dried up blood in there so immediately became worried. He then told me he would call and find a specialist for me to go see and told me to take it easy. By this time taking it easy was not so easy. My sister was still in the hospital with her baby, my mom had her kids, and it just seemed like not many people could help. Well, correction, people were always there TO help, I was and still am, never good at asking for help. After all, Dora and Diego are pretty good sitters, right? My poor kids.... The only good news about that appointment was we decided to find out what it was just in case we had to prepare for an early birth. We found out it was a girl (obviously) and she was just as healthy as ever!
The fateful day came when we were to go to the specialist. I was just shy of 28 weeks along. We had to come to the Valley for the specialist and it was in the middle of the week in the morning so we came the night before and stayed the night. Our plans were to stay the night, visit with Grandma, go to the appointment, then go home. Easy as that right? Well, we thought so. We took the kids with us expecting to only be there for an hour at the most. The nurse called me in and we went straight to the ultrasound room. I have never had such an intense ultrasound. I have never had an ultrasound tech more quiet! She was as silent as can be! She took A LOT of pictures and called in the specialist. He told me the bad news, It continued to be on the bottom, and even worse, turned into Placenta
accreta. (To read about that, click
here.) In a nutshell,
accreta is when the uterus
attaches itself deep in the muscles where there is no separating them. At this time, he told me 1) I had to get a cat scan to see how deep it was attached, 2) I couldn't have any more kids, 3) I had to stay in the hospital here on out until the baby was born. I could handle the first two, but the last one took a while to sink in. He kept asking if I was okay, and I kept telling him yes, I understood. I don't really thing I fully understood until we were checking into the hospital and they put a gown on me. Dar and the kids went with my up until I went into my room. He had to cope with it himself and drop off the kids at his moms. He also had to call in to work and try to explain what he didn't fully understand either. Come to find out later, the doctor pulled him aside and pretty much explained to him very bluntly that I had to stay in the hospital just in case I started bleeding. If I started bleeding, I could bleed to death before an ambulance could get to my house! It was that serious! No wonder Dar needed so much time to himself!
I got c
hecked in and ended up sharing a room with some girl. I hated it, it was so awkward!!! I had never had to share a room before! I ended up being in there all night because they didn't have a room in the maternity ward. They moved me into my own room the next morning and Dar came to visit me. I had him tell most people, there were very few I would answer the phone for, and even then, I didn't really explain everything because of how stressful and emotional it was. The nurses took real good care of me and I was given my first set of steroid shots just in case. They told me this baby would come early but it just depended on if I started bleeding. My ultimate goal was to go until 36 weeks but they would be surprised if I made it to 28 weeks. I won't bore you with any other details but I will say during that time, my family has NEVER had so many people want to help. We had people calling left and right to Dar, my mom, and my sister. I will admit that I didn't answer many calls, I ignored them. If I ignored you, sorry. I hope you understood. We had many people offer to watch my kids, make dinners, pay for gas, give donations for Dar, send card, flowers, etc. To those who helped, prayed, anything, THANK YOU!!!! I was and still am very grateful for my friends and family. I even had one friend take my kids for the day and blog about it. She was even sweet enough to post a picture of my kids playing with hers for me! I don't' know if I ever told her thank you but if she is reading this, now she does. That day was one of my bad days.
After a long hour and a half, the cat scan showed I had the worst of the 3 stages of placenta
accreta and my placenta was trying to grow into my bladder. I was going to have to have my bladder reconstructed at birth. Over the next couple of weeks, nothing really changed. I would start to bleed, they would move me to a room for close monitoring, then it would stop and the next day they would move me back to my room. All of the nurses loved me! They kept telling me they wished all of their patients were as sweet as me, I never bothered them with meaningless things, got mad at them, or anything. They knew right away that when I called, I really needed something important. I saw many doctors over the length of that time who made sure I understood everything that was happening and everything that WOULD happen when it was time. They explained the order of things that needed to happen, and even told me out of the other 4
pregos on that floor with
accreta at that time, I was the only one who lasted past 30 weeks. The also informed me that they discussed my condition every other morning when they had their meetings to discuss everything. I was pretty much a celebrity!
jk Speaking of celebrity's, did you know that in the time of my 'stay' Brett
Michaels, the rock and roll singer, was in the same hospital as me? I normally wouldn't care or know who he is but I couldn't help it, it was all over the news!
Anyway, after doing good for 2 weeks, I started contracting so the docs gave me my 2
nd steroid shot just in case. They put me on magnesium to relax my muscles and stop contractions and that was the worst thing possible. If you had ever had that done, you are so relaxed that you can barley eat. I couldn't move legs, keep my eyes focused, or anything. I could move my arms but barely had the strength to bring my food to my mouth. I also had to have the magnesium hooked into my IV which made it very painful. I would just cry when they had to turn it up! It felt like my arm was on fire. The nurses had sympathy for me and got permission to put pain killer in it. They always had trouble with my
IV's when they put them in but the longer I stayed, the harder it was. They always tried about 3 times with no luck and had to get a specialist to put them in. I was sore all over. It got so bad, the nurses didn't even want to try,they always called the specialist. (I still have the scars to prove it!) They even got permission to leave my IV in for a week instead of the 3 days it was supposed to be. My contraction never really stopped but they were able to eventually turn it down to a manageable level. I had to have a blood transfusion a couple of times which was good because in order to do that, they had to turn my magnesium off! All in all I ended up re watching the whole series of monk, finish 3 books, and watch wheel of fortune almost every night with my sister on the phone. My brother and sister in law came to visit a couple of times and brought goodies and games to play. My mother in law and aunt also came with treats and games. Dar came to visit every weekend and the kids switched off between staying the week at Grandmas in the Valley and going home with Dar. The biggest downfall was I was in the hospital for mothers day. I was so sad. Dar surprised me with a book of pictures of the kids, mothers day treats, and the kids coming for a visit. It turned out to be a great mothers day!
Keep in mind I was drugged and tired, and had liquids pumped in me 24/7!
Everything continued on about the same, and I finally made it to 31 weeks! I wanted so badly to make it to 32 weeks. I hadn't been able to go outside let a lone LOOK out side for the 4 weeks I was there! I was 31 weeks and 5 days along. My parents were just coming back from Idaho where my brother and his wife just had their 2
nd child. They made a last minute decision to drop off some things at my other brother's house in Phoenix and stay the night. Dar had made a last minute decision to leave the kids in the Valley for the week. I went to bed that night as happy as can be, I was going to see my parents that next day, I was just 2 days away from my goal, AND I was able to eat cheesecake for dinner.
At about 4:00 on a Tuesday morning, I woke up with blood all over my gown and bed. I called into the nurses and only had to say 2 words, "I'm bleeding." The nurses immediately came and withing minutes I also had almost the whole staff in my room. They confirmed that I was actively bleeding and that they were going to take this baby today but I would have to wait for the doctor to come in before they could do anything. I barely had enough time to call Dar and wake him up. I still am not sure how, but he actually got to the Valley in one piece. He doesn't usually do well driving by himself when he's tired. He told me later it was all just a haze on how he got there! Dar called my parents and they came in to see me right away. The doc came in later and curiously my bleeding had stopped. This was great news because as long as it was stopped, I could at least wait until Dar got there! They kept a close eye on me and my mom and dad got there mostly for moral support. I think it was a little hard on my mom knowing she almost missed out. After all, my surgery was going to be a MAJOR one. I'm not just talking about a c-section, I'm talking about a c-section, hysterectomy, reconstructive bladder surgery, and a lot of blood transfusions during the surgeries. They had to have a lot of blood in case they weren't able to get the bleeding under control. They were going to do everything all in one shot. They got everything ready and now it was just waiting for Dar to get there. Dar got there and they took me away to the surgery floor. My mom, dad, and Dar followed closely behind. Dar and my dad gave me a blessing for comfort, safety, and everything to go as planned. They told me they had 2 specialists (one for my
accreta and one for my bladder), 1
obgyn, a pediatric doc, the
NICU staff, and 5 nurses in the surgery room waiting. It was a big surgery room! The last thing they told me was to expect to wake up in a place and not have any idea how I got there or what happened. I gave Dar a kiss and they rolled me off to the cold room...........
( I'll continue on with this in another post.)
Aimslee's favorite was the penguins. She was so excited to see them and the were towards the middle of the day. 
She kept asking us when the penguins were coming up so when we saw the big group of kids yelling, we knew we were there! This little guy kept showing off his stuff for everyone. He loved to pose for the cameras! I wanted to get one swimming but none of them would take the plunge. The were cute though!!! She also informed me that every animal that was sleeping, looked like they were dead, especially the sloth!! He was cute all cuddled up!
Rusty's favorite was actually the little frogs, but we weren't able to get those so instead he picked the seahorses. Honestly, he didn't pay too much attention to them but when he looked through the pictures, that what he said he liked best. He also liked the shark tank. We actually ate lunch right next to the sharks but I will tell you more about that in a bit.
Ashlyn's favorite was of course the monkeys. If she was ANY animal it would be a monkey. She went crazy the first time we saw the monkeys, and still went crazy 4 hours later with more monkeys. She also really enjoyed looking at all the colorful birds. She tried to like the goats when they were feeding them but kind of got intimidated with them bigger than her.
My couple of favorites were feeding the giraffes and also the monkeys. More specifically, the monkeys at the end. Even MORE specific, the capuchin monkeys, like the one in Night of the Museum. He was so smart and funny! I wish I was able to take of video of the little guy! There was a piece of popcorn outside of his cage that he just HAD to have so he grabs
a stick, pushes it through the cage, and tries to scoop it closer to his cage! When that stick didn't work, he found another one and did the same thing! It was so funny watching that little monkey! While he was busy at "work" the other monkey was showing off. He was swing around in circles in his cage showing us all of his tricks! They also had these sting rays that were polka dotted. I thought they looked really cool and picture worthy.
Dar didn't really have a favorite so I'll just say lunch was his favorite, since he is a guy, and it had food! Plus, this is a good time to tell you about our lunch. I don't remember what the restaurant was called but it was busy and good! They had a huge shark tank in the room that we were excited to eat with. Turns out we got the best seat of the house and out table was right next to the tank! It was amazing! The service was good, the food was pretty good, (not the best BBQ I've had), and the kids loved it. Rusty absolutely loved the sharks, as I've mentioned before, but he liked them so much we couldn't get him to sit in his chair to eat! He just wanted to watch the sharks swim around. He was even laying on the floor by them so he could pretend to sleep with the sharks! 
My fearless boy! Aimslee on the other hand, was scared of them for a while. When she would 
get brave enough to put her hands on the glass, the big one would swim by and she would freak out and get away! Ash was just scared of any fish bigger than her, I don't blame her though! I managed to get a couple of pictures of them all being brave at the end, so cute!
The petting zoo had a place to get food for the animals to feed them so I got some for the kids. Aimslee liked them all except the llama, because it was taller than her. Dar just kept petting the deer telling them that when they got much bigger he was going to hunt them and eat them for dinner! Just kidding, he didn't' say that, but he was thinking that! He did however tell me how cool the fox would look on his wall. I just smiled and gave him a look that meant 'it will never happen dear!'
Here is a picture of the sting ray exibit. Aimslee refused to put her hand in the water, Rusty enjoyed it, and Ash just liked the water. I didn't touch it because I was too busy with the camera and was content just watching. They described it as slimy and weird feeling. I think this is Rusty's hand.
The giraffes had a stand up high that you could walk up the stairs and feed them. I thought the kids would enjoy this so I got a lot of food for them. Rusty tried to feed them but when he saw how long their tongue was, chickened out and didn't want to look at them anymore. Aimslee enjoyed feeding them but got tired of it when it got some slobber on her. Ash had fun throwing the food at it, poor giraffes. There was even a baby giraffe but it was on the other side and the kids' arm, as well as mine, were not long enough to reach it.
All in all it was the perfect day to go. Dar didn't have school, I didn't have to work, and either did his sisters. It was a little bit on the cool side but nothing a jacket couldn't fix! Later on in the day it did get too warm for a jacket! My kids really enjoyed it and I enjoyed having a family outing. Maybe when the perfect day comes around again we will go but only if I can find more of those coupons!!! I now leave you with this last picture just because I can't look at it and not think of "Scurry, sniff, FLINCH!" Can anyone name the movie?
