ephelba seems determined to make this pregnancy a distinctive one. two weeks ago saturday, after wearing too tight pants, she had an episode in the bathroom where some mucous came out. there was some cramping, and some tense moments. but after consultation with the appropriate health care provider, we were reassured that all was well.

elphaba had been putting off buying maternity clothes, to ease the strain on our budget. the result was squeezing into pants they had gradually gotten too small. so the next weekend she went shopping with her longtime best friend, and bought some expandable pants, and two really large bras.

so when she started bleeding saturday afternoon while out on errands, i was completely unprepared. and i mean bleeding enough to nearly pass out while she drove herself to the e.r. while calling me on her cell to let me know what was going on. pints of blood in her car. so much that the valet who works at the hospital would not get in the car. it was all pooled on the seat, you see. ephelba parked her own car and walked in, trailing blood.

twenty minutes later, i got there. i didn’t run every red light, but i did hurry. i watched some tech repeatedly jab my sweet ephelba’s arm, trying to get fluid to flow in. he eventually gave up on the one arm, and went on work on the other. ephelba has a nasty purple bruise the size of a baseball there now. eventually, the fluids go in, and we sit (ephelba is lying down, actually) and wait. first one bag of fluid, then another. then ephelba has to pee, from all the fluid.

this is a big deal, what with the tubes and the bag and trying not to let her butt peek out the back of her gown. finally, we get in to do an ultrasound, and get to see our tiny baby inside ephelba’s belly. its heart is going strong, and the baby does not seem concerned in the least by all the commotion outside. so ephelba is wheeled back to her cubicle and gets a rhogam injection. this is because ephelba is rh negative, and the entire health care system assumes that the baby is rh positive. ( i suppose that they could test me, and see what my rh factor is, to figure if its even necessary to get the rhogam, but thats just me.)

now we really start to wait. for the results of the ultrasound exam to go down the hall, make two left turns and gain the attention of the attending physician. this takes hours. meanwhile, ephelba is starving. i ask the nurse if ephelba can eat. she doesn’t know, and goes off to find a doctor. i go to the ‘wendy’s’ conveniently located in the hospital and get her a spicy chicken combo (her favorite).

when i get back with the food, the nurse tells me that ephelba can eat. so we eat, we watch tv (the hospital has cable!) and as soon as ephelba goes to pee, the doc shows up to discuss our case. and as soon as he doesn’t see ephelba, he leaves. damn. but he’s back pretty soon and tell us nothing we don’t already know: the baby is alive and well; bleeding is bad; no guess as to why it happened or how to stop it from happening again. and now the best part(!) there is a fifty-fifty chance of carrying the baby to term. the other side of that coin is grim.

ephelba continued to bleed until sunday afternoon. not much, but still. i spent sunday afternoon scrubbing the blood out of ephelba’s car seat. it was pretty gross, the water turns dark red-brown. it takes three buckets of water and a lot of simple green cleaner to take care of the job.

the blood is gone now. ephelba went back to work. its a desk job, so she can take it easy. the job gives ephelba her insurance, and so she wants to keep the boss happy. no cramps and no bleeding for over twenty four hours now. we keep our fingers crossed.