I haven’t posted in a couple weeks, and in case you’re a regular reader, here’s the reason...
My daughter, Amy, is in the midst of a challenging pregnancy. Several weeks ago she began spotting... threatening miscarriage. Except she didn’t. The spotting continued. It got worse. It could only be described as full-out bleeding.
The call came on Memorial Day afternoon... Amy had been hospitalized. I packed my clothing and vitamins and drove the 3½ hours to U of M Hospital in Ann Arbor. When I got there, she was resting comfortably, hoping to come home as soon as the bleeding abated. An ultrasound had revealed a perfectly normal male fetus... blissfully unaware of his precarious surroundings... placenta praevia and placenta abruptio. In other words, not only was the placenta low, blocking the exit route, but it had begun peeling away from the uterine wall, thus the bleeding.
2 days later, Amy came home under doctor’s orders for partial bedrest. No more that a total of 1 hour on her feet per day. No lifting of anything heavier than a gallon of milk. No laundry. No cleaning. No shopping...
Clearly, there was no way Amy would be able to manage her active brood from her armchair. So we began to scramble. Arrangements for nightly supper delivery were made through her positively awesome neighborhood association, but setting up childcare help proved a bit more problematic. After several fruitless hours on the phone with various nanny services we learned that placement takes at least 4-6 weeks. Maybe between the grandmas and the aunties and the neighbors we could set up a schedule of multiple helpers... complicated and inconsistent, but doable. Just when I was trying to wrap my brain around spending most of my the summer in Ann Arbor, a “miracle” occurred. Word came through Amy’s neighborhood association that there were 2 high school grads with loads of babysitting experience and the desire to co-nanny this summer before heading off to college. Amy interviewed them on a Wednesday. The children hit it off with “the nannies” immediately. They started the following Monday... huge group sigh of relief!
And these two young women are the greatest! Fun. Energetic. Creative. Pretty. One is a artist and the other a singer so the kids will no doubt be making art and music all summer. A good combination of sweet and strict they are a couple of teen-age Mary Poppinses.
Currently, Amy is back in the hospital for an extended stay, perhaps for the duration of the pregnancy. In a couple weeks she’ll have another ultrasound which should show how the little astronaut is faring, but he’s surely tap-dancing on the ceiling because Amy’s begun feeling joyous kicks and every morning when the nurses check the fetal heartbeat, it’s still there, steadily ticking away. At 21 weeks the viability countdown begins. At 24 weeks baby boy’s survival chances leap dramatically. It’s almost certain that he’ll be born early and by c-section.
There are conflicting opinions as to the benefit of in-patient bedrest but Amy and her medical team are convinced that in her case, for now, it’s for the best. While Amy resides in the protective and competent care of the U of M Hospital staff, the wild and crazy world can just go its merry way. Her only job is to take care of herself, and give the little guy every chance he can get.
I am at home, for now. I am confident that everything that is within our power to control is being taken care of by capable hands... still, a big piece of my heart is there, with Amy, Steve and the kids.
And as to the uncertain future... it’s in the care of hands much bigger than mine.
