Update

Our poor surrogate is still in the hospital on complete bed rest due to bleeding.  It has now been over a week, and based on the daily updates we have been receiving from SCI, I expect she may be there for awhile.  For the first few days we were informed that the bleeding continued, but was mild and decreasing.  On Friday we received word that during a bedside scan the doctor detected a "3.7 x 1.9 cm area of s/c bleed seen along anterior wall of lower uterine segment." Freak out time again, and immediate search of the internet to understand what this was and what it meant!

The s/c bleed or SubChorionic Hematoma (SCH) is a pooling of blood in one of the layers around the baby and the uterus.  Not sure why it forms, but risk of miscarriage is increased.  Eventually the blood should either be absorbed back into the body or expelled through bleeding.  There is really no medical intervention for the SCH.  Meera is being kept comfortable and given iron infusions due to the blood loss.  They are running medical tests periodically to ensure everything else with her health and the baby's health are sustained.

Dr. Shivani provided the following additional information:

• The bleed is behind the placenta, but the location doesn't matter much at this stage.
• Meera has some mild lower abdominal pain but is otherwise OK.
• The baby's size, gestational age and heart rate are appropriate for the period of pregnancy.
• Unfortunately, the only thing to do is wait and see. 

This morning, we received an update that the SCH had grown to 6.7 x 3.9 cm.  While this was alarming to me, Travis and many others have continued to remind me that there really is nothing that we can do.

We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers for our surrogate and little one.  We also are grateful to all the people who reached out to us with their personal stories, which were very moving and hopeful.  Finally, we want to thank all those who provided us advice and tapped into their medical resources to give us more information on this issue.  One of the scariest parts of this process is the uncertainty and unknown.  Arming myself with information is one of the ways I try to combat this, but the past week has really driven home how harmful and scary random information on the internet (Dr. Google) can be, and conversely how powerful and far-reaching our support network is.  So thank you to our "family," both online and off. 

For now, we continue to wait and hope.