Placenta previa

Well it was fun telling my students last night and today that baby is a GIRL. One student in my 12:00 MWF class had printed out two different signs - one that said "It's a girl" and one that said "It's a boy." She gave me the girl one and told me to put it on my office door. So I did. :-) Of course now everyone has suggestions for names since they know we don't have one picked out. Maybe Paul and I will have time to work on that this weekend.

Yesterday I talked to one nursing professor about the placenta previa (I'll just use pp for short) and she was saying I might need to go on bedrest and mmight not be able to teach this summer, etc. I admit I was a little freaked out especially after having heard Dr. Maslow use the "miscarriage" word. I've talked to a few women who had it and have gotten a full range of responses from that they were given very few restrictions to very strict restrictions (one was told no cleaning - not even using Windex). Post transfer when I was on pelvic rest I was told not to vacuum so I assumed that is now a "no no" in light of the no lifting over 10 pounds rule he gave me.

Today I talked to the nursing prof who teaches the courses dealing with pregnancy/childbirth. She was more laid back about it and said it usually corrects itself and that I should only be concerned if I have spotting (which I still haven't ever had and I know to look out for as if I have any I have to have the Rhogam shot ASAP). She did say it was best to put as little pressure on the cervix as possible. She said driving isn't great she was glad to hear I have a short commute to work. She said if I can sit in a lazyboy at home or in any position which decreases the pressure on my cervix that would be good. Since I am uncertain exactly what is meant by "take it easy," I am going to call the OB office tomorrow and ask to talk to a nurse there and get more definite answers of what I shouldn't be doing the next 4 weeks. I am hoping that the 24w u/s will show the placenta is no longer on or near the cervix. It's not that the placenta moves but rather that the uterus grows and so where the placenta is in relation to the cervix changes.

I looked online for the causes/risk factors for pp and most don't apply to me (smoking, having had a D&C, having had a c-section, using cocaine, or having had 5 or more pregnancies). The only one that applies is my age. Among women 19 and younger, 1 in 1,500 develop pp and for 35 and older it's 1 in 100. Still that's just 1%. I wish I was in the other 99%! But I keep reminding myself that my daughter is healthy and likely this problem will correct itself. I don't mind being restricted, but rather I just don't like this little nagging fear of a miscarriage.

Yesterday prior to the appt I had actually done a fair amount of lifting. Of course I have stopped! I had made an appt for Salvation Army to come and pick up some stuff on Friday - some furniture we hadn't used in years that is in the basement, some clothing, some items that were gifts that we haven't ever used, etc. I am trying to do a big clean up before we put our house on the market and also figure I don't want to go through the hassle of moving items that we don't actually need or want. So I'll let Paul do the rest of the moving of items from the basement to the family room where I'm storing things until Friday when the truck comes. I had planned to do a lot of cleaning this weekend - spring cleaning intensifed by preparing the house to show to potential buyers. Things like washing the windows which I don't do very often but it would be good to do. So I need to talk with Paul about whether he can help me with these items (I am dubious only because we had already created a list of tasks he was going to work on this weekend to prepare the house), whether we should just hire a college student to help me for a few hours, or whether we should ask if maybe his mom could come up and help (she lives 30 minutes away).

The realtor is coming on Monday to give us an idea as to what our listing price should be. We are still trying to decide whether to use a realtor right away or go the "for sale by owner" route at first. We have an appt to see a few houses in the area we are thinking of moving to on Thursday as next week is spring break for both of us. I am really glad that I have tomorrow as a day at home. Last week I was at work all 5 days (which was a contrast from the week before when I only went to work M-W). The last 3 days have been hectic. I was up at 5:45 am today grading papers for example. It's midterm time so there's lots of grading to do. Anyhow that's my task for tomorrow - stay home and get all caught up on grading. I'll probably do a little more sorting through items in closets too but will make sure I don't do any lifting over 10 pounds.

In closing, I have to say how thrilling it is for me to hear/say the word "daughter." It just seems so much more personal than "baby." Part of me wants to ask someone to pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. Then I look down and see my protruding belly and know yep it's for real! :-) The heartburn is also reassuring; however, I think it's time to buy something stronger than Tums since my OB does allow me to take more than that.