It was an ordinary Friday night, and after dinner, Ananta suggested watching a movie in the basement. We all agreed, choosing "Isi and Ossi" for our Valentine's Day movie night. The enjoyment of the movie was secondary to the pleasure of being together. Ananta, with his penchant for extended movie nights, proposed another film – "Contagion." As usual, he took his medications and shots with precision, claiming he might have given more shots than some nurses, a claim I did not dispute.
I typically doze off during the second movie, regardless of its quality. Around 1:30 am, I suddenly felt like I had urinated and woke up Ananta. A second gush made it clear it wasn't urine – I was bleeding. Turning on the lights, we discovered a puddle of fresh red blood and clots. My immediate fear was that I had miscarried again. Tearfully, I tried to clean up in the bathroom, Ananta kneeling beside me. However, he began feeling dizzy. Realizing he needed care, I shifted my focus from the unborn child to my present husband, and my tears stopped.
We managed to clean up as best as we could, discarding blood-stained clothes and bedsheets. Going upstairs to sleep, I couldn't save myself from reading blogs, one suggesting saving the tissue. Ananta got Ziplock bags, but he couldn't bear to watch me go back to the trash bag. I gathered the tissue, placing it in a Ziplock bag inside a medication bottle.
Reflecting on human nature, I noted our tendency to fear the future, though, in actual crises, we often find resilience. After an hour, we somehow fell asleep. We woke around 5:00 am, the day of my dad's surgery back home. I contemplated the value of money when it couldn't buy time with loved ones. I called the doctor's office after 7:00 am, left a voice message, and got a call back to schedule an ultrasound at 9:30.
Early at the doctor's office, we discussed our lack of hope after the previous night's ordeal. During the ultrasound, before the nurse spoke, Ananta, excited and shocked, saw the heartbeat. They couldn't identify the source of the bleeding. The baby was fine – a great heartbeat, a healthy cervix, and a sound sac. It felt like a miracle, reshaping our plans on the drive back home. I was sad for not having that cup of coffee from Starbucks and missing out on a jumbo coke with caffeine. It was hard to believe that the previous night had not been a terrible dream.
