Yesterday night, around 11 pm, Jessie nudges me out of sleep and says that blood came out while she was going to the bathroom. This wakes me up immediately, and I rush into the bathroom to inspect. Sure enough, inside the toilet, the water is slightly tinged red. I ask if anything else came out, and she said there was a sticky substance when she wiped with a toilet paper.
Thankfully, she didn’t throw this into the toilet and I was able to fish it out of the trashcan. Unfortunately, she had smeared the content by crumpling the toilet paper, but from what I could gather, it was mucus-like and slightly brownish in color. She said there was more of the substance earlier, but had already washed it away.
I told her to leave things exactly the way they were the next time something like this happened. Treat it like a crime scene. After all, if you stumble across a person who’s been murdered in the street, you wouldn’t move the body, mop up all the blood, and throw away his old, blood-stained clothes before calling the police, would you?
She asks what could be the matter, and I said that more than likely, her mucus plug was slowly starting to come out. The mucus plug is mucus that seals the opening of the cervix. It keeps bacteria and infection from entering into the cervix, thus providing a protective barrier for the baby.
As the cervix slowly begins to soften and dilate, the mucus plug comes out. Sometimes, it comes out in one globular mass, and sometimes, it comes out little by little over a period of time, which seems to be the case with Jessie. Sometimes it’s clear, sometimes it’s stained brown, pink, or red. This event is also known as the bloody show. But even then, labor could still be days or weeks ahead.
Jessie’s not exactly convinced by what I’m saying and immediately begins getting her bags ready to go to the hospital. She thinks she’s going into labor already. I tell her that unless she’s having contractions lasting 60-90 seconds, every 3 to 5 minutes, she’s not about to have the baby any time soon. But to ease her anxiety, I tell her to call the hospital and ask their opinion. Not surprisingly, the nurse backs up what I’ve just said. Jessie relents and decides to go back to sleep.
About two hours after falling back to sleep, Jessie wakes me up a second time. She’s just gone to the bathroom and there’s blood in the toilet again. I go to inspect and it’s a bit more than previously. There seems to be a bit of mucus discharge in there too, but not much.
Jessie starts telling me that along with the mucus and blood, she has a headache, her stomach is tightening, and that her back hurts. According to her, these are signs that she is about to have the baby. I disagree and say she might be jumping the gun a bit, as these signs seem to be pointing instead to the fact that the early phase of labor might not be too far away.
Once more, she makes the move to get her bags ready. As a precaution, I make her call the hospital again, and the nurse repeats that these symptoms are perfectly normal and there is no need to go to the hospital right now, unless she really wants to get things checked out to ease her mind. Jessie decides to wait it out.
I tell her this is exactly why I wanted to discuss the issue of labor with her. If she doesn’t know what’s going on, she’s just running around like a panicked chicken with its head cut off. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be. Then, Jessie does something I wasn’t expecting. She actually admits I’m right and that she’s sorry. Hallelujah! She’s finally seen the light!
A few hours later, I’m woken again by Jessie telling me there’s more blood and mucus in the toilet. I diligently go look and yup, there surely is more blood and mucus. The bloody show has turned itself into a trilogy.
She proceeds to tell me that she’s having strong contractions and that this could be serious. I ask her how long the contractions are lasting and she says about 15-20 minutes. Woman, no contraction lasts that long! Plus, there’s no way she could be playing with her iPhone and chatting with me if she were having contractions as strong as she claimed.
She doesn’t listen and begins to try timing her so-called contractions. I leave her crazy self be and go back to sleep. She shortly gives up on her hopeless endeavor and goes to sleep too.
In the morning, we go to the hospital to make sure everything is normal. The doctor checks Jessie out and says that the mucus plug is indeed slowly starting to come out. There’s nothing to worry about and Jessie can continue on as she normally does.
To recap: The bloody show is a bit anti-climatic. I was expecting more and thus, was a bit disappointed. If you’re going to label something “the bloody show,” it better well be something that Hostel director, Eli Roth, would be proud of.
Thankfully, she didn’t throw this into the toilet and I was able to fish it out of the trashcan. Unfortunately, she had smeared the content by crumpling the toilet paper, but from what I could gather, it was mucus-like and slightly brownish in color. She said there was more of the substance earlier, but had already washed it away.
I told her to leave things exactly the way they were the next time something like this happened. Treat it like a crime scene. After all, if you stumble across a person who’s been murdered in the street, you wouldn’t move the body, mop up all the blood, and throw away his old, blood-stained clothes before calling the police, would you?
She asks what could be the matter, and I said that more than likely, her mucus plug was slowly starting to come out. The mucus plug is mucus that seals the opening of the cervix. It keeps bacteria and infection from entering into the cervix, thus providing a protective barrier for the baby.
As the cervix slowly begins to soften and dilate, the mucus plug comes out. Sometimes, it comes out in one globular mass, and sometimes, it comes out little by little over a period of time, which seems to be the case with Jessie. Sometimes it’s clear, sometimes it’s stained brown, pink, or red. This event is also known as the bloody show. But even then, labor could still be days or weeks ahead.
Jessie’s not exactly convinced by what I’m saying and immediately begins getting her bags ready to go to the hospital. She thinks she’s going into labor already. I tell her that unless she’s having contractions lasting 60-90 seconds, every 3 to 5 minutes, she’s not about to have the baby any time soon. But to ease her anxiety, I tell her to call the hospital and ask their opinion. Not surprisingly, the nurse backs up what I’ve just said. Jessie relents and decides to go back to sleep.
About two hours after falling back to sleep, Jessie wakes me up a second time. She’s just gone to the bathroom and there’s blood in the toilet again. I go to inspect and it’s a bit more than previously. There seems to be a bit of mucus discharge in there too, but not much.
Jessie starts telling me that along with the mucus and blood, she has a headache, her stomach is tightening, and that her back hurts. According to her, these are signs that she is about to have the baby. I disagree and say she might be jumping the gun a bit, as these signs seem to be pointing instead to the fact that the early phase of labor might not be too far away.
Once more, she makes the move to get her bags ready. As a precaution, I make her call the hospital again, and the nurse repeats that these symptoms are perfectly normal and there is no need to go to the hospital right now, unless she really wants to get things checked out to ease her mind. Jessie decides to wait it out.
I tell her this is exactly why I wanted to discuss the issue of labor with her. If she doesn’t know what’s going on, she’s just running around like a panicked chicken with its head cut off. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be. Then, Jessie does something I wasn’t expecting. She actually admits I’m right and that she’s sorry. Hallelujah! She’s finally seen the light!
A few hours later, I’m woken again by Jessie telling me there’s more blood and mucus in the toilet. I diligently go look and yup, there surely is more blood and mucus. The bloody show has turned itself into a trilogy.
She proceeds to tell me that she’s having strong contractions and that this could be serious. I ask her how long the contractions are lasting and she says about 15-20 minutes. Woman, no contraction lasts that long! Plus, there’s no way she could be playing with her iPhone and chatting with me if she were having contractions as strong as she claimed.
She doesn’t listen and begins to try timing her so-called contractions. I leave her crazy self be and go back to sleep. She shortly gives up on her hopeless endeavor and goes to sleep too.
In the morning, we go to the hospital to make sure everything is normal. The doctor checks Jessie out and says that the mucus plug is indeed slowly starting to come out. There’s nothing to worry about and Jessie can continue on as she normally does.
To recap: The bloody show is a bit anti-climatic. I was expecting more and thus, was a bit disappointed. If you’re going to label something “the bloody show,” it better well be something that Hostel director, Eli Roth, would be proud of.
No comments:
Post a Comment