Mud, Blood & Fevers (Oh My!)

I'm sooooooo tired.

Yes, I know-- tired is normal for the newborn stage. But right now I'm extra tired, even though Terence has been helping at night more than ever before, not to mention taking on a bunch of the day tasks.

Chalk it up to a little blood loss. Make that A LOT of blood loss.

Saturday I was at home alone with the kids when my postpartum bleeding (which had gotten light) turned into a sudden gush. It was terrifying. I was home alone with all five kids and it felt like I was hemorrhaging. I called my OB office and got the doctor on call. He told me that if that kind of bleeding continued for longer than an hour I needed to go to the ER.

Fortunately, the bleeding slowed within the hour, though it was still heavy enough to be like a period. My sister took the younger 3 kids and the older 2 went out to play with Justin, and I got several hours of rest. Sunday things seemed back to normal so I thought the crazy bleeding had just been some kind of a fluke.

But then the same thing happened right in the middle of Sacrament Meeting Sunday afternoon. Terence had to run me home. Once again it didn't last longer than an hour, and I got my hopes up again that it was over (though I was really starting to feel run down). Monday morning I threw caution to the wind and went to volunteer in J's class. Nothing happened, and I thought for sure my freak bleeding was over. When I got home, I sat down to pay the bills, and an hour later I stood up and it felt like my insides were pouring out of my body. I couldn't even walk-- had to stagger around a bit to get to my bathroom.

At this point, Terence was getting extremely worried. He called his sergeant and got permission to take the next two days off work (even though he was supposed to be in a training meeting both days). I put in another call to my OB and she prescribed some drug for me to take and ordered a pelvic ultrasound. And then the nurse told me we'd wait a few days for the results and see where that left us. I resigned myself to several days of periodic heavy bleeding, but Terence promised to take care of everything and let me rest.

But things just couldn't stop there. By yesterday evening, both boys were running fevers and J was complaining of a sore throat. Terence called an obliging ward member who very nicely dropped everything and came over to help give a round of priesthood blessings to everyone in the house. Afterwards, Terence took off to run to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription before the place closed at 9pm. On the way, he stopped to help a girl who had gotten her car stuck in the mud. (It's been raining quite a bit, turning all the areas off the paved roads into squelching mud holes.) While he helped her get her car unstuck, the girl's father showed up and got his car stuck in the mud, so Terence had to help him get out too. Drenched in mud to his knees and soaked through, Terence hurried on to the pharmacy, arriving at 9:03pm. The lady looked at him through her closed window and then simply ignored him. So much for starting the meds the OB ordered last night!

(I felt so bad when Terence got home. He looked like a sad, half-drowned puppy.)

Today M came down with the fever/sore throat stuff too. I had my ultrasound, but they told me I wouldn't get the results until the end of the week. We're so behind on laundry that J had no clean clothes-- I had to dig some out of a hamper for him. And every time I put S down so I could try to at least fold some of the mountain of clean clothes on the couch, she would cry within minutes.

I'm exhausted!!!!

But there are some bright rays to the day. My neighbor brought over dinner, which was just a lifesaver (and so thoughtful). S and B do not seem to be coming down with the fever. And happily, though I've had cramping all day, there has been no heavy bleeding.

Now if S will just give me a four or five hour stretch of sleep tonight!