Alexa PenaVega, who is pregnant with her and Carlos PenaVega’s fourth baby, is opening up about her recent hospitalization and partial placental abruption diagnosis.
“I’ve been in the hospital for five days,” Alexa, 35, said in a “Pregnancy Vlog” posted via Instagram on Monday, March 18. “I started bleeding a little bit like a week and a half ago or something like that. Not a huge, huge deal, but a little bit, and I thought it was kind of weird to be bleeding in my third trimester, and obviously, you guys know my history with this pregnancy has not been easy. So, I decided to go get it checked out because I wanted to be on the safe side. The bleeding ended up stopping and I was released and all was good.”
Alexa went on to share that a few days after her release from her first hospital visit, she discovered “an insane amount of blood” when she went to use the bathroom at 5 a.m.
“I have not felt fear, or being scared or anything like that, but there was definitely this moment of like, this is bad. This is not good,” she said. “There was a lot of blood everywhere.”
The Spy Kids alum said she quickly went into “mom mode,” waking up Carlos, 34, and racing to the hospital. While she initially didn’t feel the baby moving at all, she was reassured by the baby’s kicking en route to the emergency room.
“Little baby is such a mover, loves just jumping around in my tummy, and it was the first time that I couldn’t get the baby to move at all,” she said. “I was just praying over my stomach and still doing everything I could to just push the baby to get a little bit of movement. By the grace of God, on the drive over, baby finally started kicking and moving and squirming around, so I think it was just asleep. I think that’s all that was happening there, but it was definitely very scary.”
Alexa then shared her diagnosis, explaining, “Long story short, after a lot of time in the hospital, and tests, and bleeding calming down and everything, and ruling out all possibilities, it looks like I have had a separation of my placenta from my uterus. Not completely, a partial.”
She went on to explain that if she continues “on this path,” her pregnancy will remain “low-risk” and she’ll be able to return home.
“I thought I would have had a baby already and that we would have been in the NICU by now,” Alexa said. “None of it makes sense other than crazy prayers were answered and every single day that I’m pregnant here in this hospital is literally a miracle.”
Alexa followed up the “Pregnancy Vlog” with a hospital selfie baring her pregnant belly, posted via Instagram on Tuesday, March 19. She confirmed she was still in the hospital with another mirror selfie posted via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, March 20.
Alexa and Carlos announced they were expecting baby No. 4 last November. The couple, who wed in 2014, share sons Ocean, 7, and Kingston, 4, and daughter Rio, 2. Last year, Alexa and Carlos opened up exclusively with Us Weekly about how this pregnancy has been more of a challenge for them.
“I’m a go, go, go person. We don’t stop, and it has really forced me to have to slow down,” Alexa said, noting that she’d had some “scares earlier on” in the process. “And that’s been tough on the both of us because of our schedule and having three other kids.”
“I’m just going to take it easy,” she continued. “I’m going to sit back and protect this baby as much as I can and just be a little bit more aware of when my body tells me to rest.”
Carlos also acknowledged how difficult a pregnancy can be on the father.
“She’s my best friend. So, I always say, ‘Listen, a nine-month pregnancy is tough on the wives, but it’s definitely tough on the husband,’” Carlos told Us last year. “You lose your best friend. And then not only in those nine months, but after those nine months, she’s still gone for a little bit.”
