Gretchen’s Story

Site created on September 15, 2019

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Gretchen Bernal

Week 25 & 26 were the last 2 weeks in September; they seemed identical to each other. I stopped working beginning Week 25 and that shifted where my mind wandered.  Prior to this week I developed a routine of getting lost in emails from 9-5 with an occasional break to work with nurses and doctors, and then I closed the books on working remotely.

My sleeping patterns have changed and when I used to sleep around 11/11:30, now I had become a night owl due to the lights from watching late night tv and the constant googling, Tetris, and GamePigeon games I’ve been playing on my phone. A part of me thought that I had to be up by 7:15ish every morning, but with no set daily agenda, I began sleeping until 9:00ish, right around the time breakfast arrives.  My goal here at the hospital is to stay pregnant.

How’s Issy doing?  At the beginning of Week 24, we saw a glimmer of hope.  Dr. Ilagan classifies my status as “stable” giving us hope.  I measured at 1 cm, but at Week 25, I now measured at .3 cm.  This was a major jump, which then lead to revoking all wheelchair privileges confiding me to my room.  The bed rest continued.  The most important takeaway was the fact my cervix was still meaasureable.  

Sometime during Week 22, Dr. Parker said I was a “ticking time bomb”.  We don’t know how long my cervix would cooperate, not sure what the next steps would be.  Hospital rest put us was the best spot to care for Issy and me.

Week 26, there we no new developments.  Dr.  IIlagan called us “stable.”  And that was good for us.


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