Page 106 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

that there was blood, not a lot but more than spotting which will occasionally happen during
some pregnancies. I had some spotting during my first pregnancy with Joshua, so I didn't
completely freak out, but I was concerned. I called the base hospital and talked to a nurse who
told me to come to the hospital as soon as I could since I had mild but persistent back pain as
well. My concern rose to anxiety: what was happening to my body? Jonathan picked up Joshua
and me and dropped me off at the hospital (where he works) and dropped Joshua off at daycare
until the end of the day.

I was whisked off to be checked in and hooked up to a collection of monitors, the most
important the contraction monitor. My treating physician, a second lieutenant (butter bar, I will
refer to her as Dr. BB), who was very pregnant with twins at the time, was examining me. I will
admit I felt her belly was taunting me with its beach ball roundness overflowing with two lives
secure in her belly. Disproportionate to my very small belly that hadn’t even reached volleyball
size yet. I was 23 weeks, over half way through my pregnancy, and the seriousness of the
situation didn’t set in immediately. Looking at the black and white bluish-tinted ultrasound
screen, I'm a proud mommy for a moment that she's doing exactly what growing new babies do
in the womb: kick. The pride instantly vanished as Dr. BB is pointing to the screen saying words
I barely register: “you see here is your cervix, and this is the placenta, and here are the fetus’s
feet.” I’m looking and my baby she’s so cute, but I respond and say, “yes, I understand.”
Complete understanding has liquified my insides.

Dr. BB continues talking saying, “We are going to try a technique by tilting the hospital
bed in a 45-degree angle with your legs in the upward angle and head downward.” I look at her
blankly and she continues: “Hopefully gravity will ….” I’m not listening anymore but I nod
along and agree to the treatment that in my heart feels like a last-ditch solution, but at least she’s

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