6 Hours Later

Latest Belly Shot at 33 1/2 weeks on 12/01/10

Last Tuesday December 7th I had my weekly biophysical ultrasound at around 3:30 pm. I was 34 weeks pregnant. Baby passed :) Amniotic fluid was good, he was practicing his breathing, he was moving & tone checked out. I love watching his little heart beat away on the screen. She was almost able to get a 3D shot of his face before he placed his hand back in front of it. He was completely bent in half head down with his feet pressed up against his head again. He seems to have stayed in the same position from last week. I think now he has moved & I will find out tomorrow at my next biophysical.

After the bio I went next door to my weekly doctor appointment which was scheduled for 4:00 pm. Blood pressure was good at around 126/76. Urine had trace protein as usual. We scheduled the amniocentesis for December 27th 9:00 am! If his lungs come back mature I will be induced that day. I will be 37 weeks 1 day. Today makes it 14 days until we meet this little boy! What a great Christmas present!! I do find it strange to know THE DAY. I have never been nervous for labor before but I can already feel my nerves.

I had noticed some swelling on my hands & ankles early that afternoon while I was showering & desperately trying to shave my legs. I checked my blood pressure when I got out & it was normal. I also noticed my face looked a tad more puffy underneath my chin. I wasn’t sure if it was swelling or the extra weight I have gained showing. I mentioned this to the doctor so she sent me for some more labs to check for any preeclampsia warnings.

I got home around 6:00 pm & carried on with my evening. I was laying on the couch around 10:00 pm when I started having flutters in my chest & what felt like my heart. I decided that I would check my blood pressure next time I got up. I then happened to glance down at my ankles & noticed how swollen they had become. It looked as though they were spilling out over my socks. I immediately got up to check my BP. It was 130ish/upper 80’s which is slightly elevated for me. I waited 5-10 minutes & checked again & it had jumped to 140’s/80’s. When I checked it for a third time another 5 minutes later it was at 162/92. I called the doctor office & had the on call doctor paged. I decided not to wait for the call back to start heading to the hospital. I unfortunately know how every single minute counts in these situations. My husband called my mother to come stay with our son and I asked my neighbor to stay with him until she got here. We have a 20-25 minute drive to the hospital we go to.

I was panicked. I do not know how high my blood pressure got the day I had the abruption with Janessa. We know that most likely it spiked & that was the cause. I was frantic it may happen again. I even took my blood pressure medicine 4 hours early before we left the house to try & control it some. The on call doc had not called me back so I gave the office another call while we were driving. He called us back as we were parking in the hospital garage & told us to come in so they could check me out. We went straight up to labor and delivery triage. I was annoyed we had to wait in the hall for 10 minutes because of how scared I was. Luckily the baby had been moving so it gave me reassurance he was ok.

Once the nurse took me in they did a urine check & hooked me up to the monitors to check the baby’s heart rate & check me for any contractions. They took my blood pressure which was 140/88. Not extremely high and it was a relief to see it had dropped some. Big concern starts around 160/100. I was close to that at home. The protein check came back negative which is nice since I have had trace protein since the start of this pregnancy. I was not contracting at all. They also were able to get the lab results I had done earlier in the day & those were all great as well. The baby’s heart was perfect & each time they took my BP it dropped. The final reading when I was discharged about 1 hour ½ later was 111/66. Amazing. They said the swelling could be normal pregnancy swelling. I would like to think that as well but I find it rather odd that the first day I swell I also get a detected spike in my BP. I would like to think coincidence but considering all we have been through I have been staying on top of my BP readings even more now.

They were mainly concerned that due to my chronic hypertension I could develop preeclampsia. That worries me as well. ALOT. I was lucky to avoid it when I had the abruption and lost Janessa. But what is hard for me to seem to get through to them is how terrified I am of another abruption. I know its probably because there really is nothing anyone can do to prevent it. All we can do is keep this blood pressure in check.

I returned on Friday for a BP check with the nurse and it was good at around 126/74.

I have been trying not to overdo it. The past few days I have been experiencing headaches but none seem to stick for an excessive period & tylenol does seem to help some. My BP readings have been very slightly higher than normal but not of much concern. Baby is getting lazier but he still passes the kick counts I have been doing several times a day. I am glad I have another Biophysical tomorrow. We will also get a growth scan and see how much this little one weighs.

Last Tuesday was up and down in the matter of 6 hours. I left the hospital after my two appointments feeling so reassured only to return hours later panicked. It is scary how quickly things can change.

Fourteen more days. I CAN DO THIS.