The First Trip to the ER

Michelle and I had been planning to move out of downtown San Francisco and into a more suburban, family-oriented neighborhood for a few months. Now that we had a baby on the way, we had more of a sense of urgency to leave our beautiful apartment in the city for something more practical. Plus, it wasn't fair to my six-year-old daughter, as she was living right smack in the middle of a concrete jungle. She's got way too much energy that we need to get out before bed time.

We found a beautiful place in Dublin, about 35 miles east of San Francisco. From the moment we toured the property, it was a no-brainer. The apartment was twice the size, updated, and $1,000 less than what we were paying in the city. I would no longer be able to walk to my office every day, but the hour-long commute would be a nice relief and a great way to relax and unwind on the way home from work. We signed the contracts that day and began our moving plans.

Michelle and I decided to move into our new home over Thanksgiving weekend, when I would have a full four days to get everything all squared away. We had made some plans to have help on moving day, but those unfortunately fell through. Since Michelle was pregnant, I became a one-man moving show. After 8 hours of loading and another 5 hours unloading the next moring, we were in! And I had a heck of a back ache.

With ourselves somewhat situated, Michelle and I began to prepare our first Thanksgiving dinner together. As the resident chef of the house, I delegated some of the more "helpful" tasks to Michelle. As she was peeling potatoes at about 5:00pm, our worst nightmare began. She began gushing blood down her legs, and we thought for sure that we were having a miscarriage. in tears, we called the OB from our bathroom, and he told us to go immediately to the ER. Having just moved to this area a day prior, we had no idea where the nearest hospitals were. Thankfully, the navigation system in the car gets us to one in nearby Pleasanton only 1.5 miles away.

The doctors diagnose Michelle with a threatened miscarriage. We find out that she has a subchorionic hemorrhage, which is a mass of blood developed between the placenta and the uterus. This mass of blood can be potentially life-threatening to the baby. However, our baby's heart tones are strong at 145 bpm, and the ultrasound reveals the strong heartbeat. It is an extremely emotional and difficult night, but we go home hopeful and thankful. Thanksgiving will never be the same from here after.