The last 6 days have been quite eventful for us. It all started last Wednesday, December 3 when we went for my 36 week OB appointment. I was a little nervous...I've gone from a private practice that was always so calm and relaxing to a crisp, large military hospital that is nowhere near calm with all the people milling around everywhere for everything. Not my idea of comfortable. Anyway, my appointment got underway and was going okay until they took my blood pressure -- 149/91 (not good and not normal for me). I'm usually pretty low (the 110/60 range) so they decided to wait and check it again before I left to see if it had gone back down. Unfortunately, it didn't help when the nurse told me that if it did not go down I was going to need to have some blood drawn, give a urine sample and go to Labor & Delivery to be hooked up to the fetal monitor. So, when they went to take my blood pressure again, it had gone up to 153/92...so much for calming down. The only good news we received was that the baby has finally turned head down, so we no longer have to worry about him being in the transverse position. He is ready for delivery!
I headed down to the Lab to have my blood drawn and to submit a urine sample and then went back up to the Labor & Delivery area. We waited for 2 hours to be seen and were finally taken back to a small room with a curtain pulled to separate me from another patient. They monitored my blood pressure for about 45 minutes (which finally leveled out around 125/77) and everything looked okay. My blood test and urine sample were normal, but the doctor wanted me to submit a 24 hour urine sample to be sure everything was okay and there weren't any signs of preeclampsia. The doctor told me to call or come in if I was seeing spots, having headaches that wouldn't go away with Tylenol or if I had any severe pains in my upper abdomen.
On Friday, we went back to the hospital to turn in my 24 hour sample and to fill out hospital paperwork so it didn't have to be done when we were there for the actual delivery. While we were filling out the forms, I started to see a funky spot in my vision, which kept growing larger and was something similar to what you might see if you looked through a kaleidoscope (a prism of colors). It scared me so Ryan calmly took me up to Labor & Delivery where we checked in to be monitored again. My blood pressure was elevated (how could it not be -- I was terrified) but it slowly went back down and the baby was doing fine. He even got the hiccups while I was hooked up to the monitor, which lightened the mood. I was having some mild contractions so it was neat to have the doctor confirm that's what they were when he looked at the test results. Again, everything looked fine but the doctor told me that I would now have to come in twice a week to have my blood pressure monitored until I deliver. We left the hospital feeling okay and thinking that maybe this was a little blessing from God -- since we had just moved here it would give us an opportunity to meet some of the nurses and doctors that would be delivering me. So far we have been impressed with the doctors who have been monitoring me, so that is a blessing.
On Sunday morning at 5:15am, I woke up to roll over and the prism light spot appeared again. It scared me so I woke Ryan up and we called Labor & Delivery to see what they wanted me to do. Since the spot wasn't coupled with any headaches or other symptoms, the nurse advised me to go back to sleep and call if it happened again. Thankfully, it didn't.
Today (Monday) we had our first scheduled blood pressure appointment at 1:15pm so we headed back to the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitors for about 30 minutes and again my blood pressure started out slightly elevated but eventually leveled out. When the nurse did an ultrasound the baby looked fine and my amniotic fluid levels were great so they let us head on home.
We go back again this Thursday and will go again Monday and Thursday of next week too. My last appointment for blood pressure monitoring will be on Monday, December 22. If I haven't gone into labor on my own by then (I'll be 39 weeks) they will induce me.
So...after all the drama...it looks like we'll be having a Christmas baby! Ryan and I packed our bags for the hospital this weekend so we're prepared for whatever God has in store for us. I'm praying baby Matthew will decide to join us on his own terms, but if not we're excited that he will be here sometime during the week of Christmas!
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3 comments:
Glad everything is ok and that they are monitoring you closely! How exciting that you'll be getting your baby here in no time!!!
So glad everything is okay and that they are watching you! The twins were born on Dec. 13, but weren't able to come home until Dec. 23... what a Christmas treat!
Isn't it comforting to know that the doctors and nurses are on top of things?
My SIL (Kevin Campbell's wife) has had preeclampsia with all her kids. She started swelling terribly and her blood pressure skyrocketed at 34 weeks with her 3rd child while we were all at the beach.
On the way home from the beach, a 6 hour drive, she started seeing spots. She was induced the next day, and had her little boy 5 weeks early. He was perfect.
My sister had her baby at 30 weeks in May. She had all the classic symptoms, and her doctor was scared she was on the verge of a stroke. Preeclampsia is nothing to mess with.
I am so thankful that you are full term, and you don't have to worry about the complications of having a preemie.
We are so excited for you, and we will be looking about for updates!
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