Well - I made my first trip to labor and delivery this evening. My swelling and severe edema continued throughout the day again today. As the day progressed, I felt worse and worse with my ankles and hands getting larger and larger by the minute. My lips started to feel puffy. I had a dull headache and a pain in my right side. I searched mayoclinic.com for ways to combat the swelling and noticed that I had all of the symptoms for pre eclampsia and even remembered having some blurry vision and seeing stars briefly yesterday.
I called my pregnancy advisor - and even though I have a very low risk of developing pre eclampsia, she advised me to get it checked out.
Mike picked up Madison and brought her home while I headed down to L&D.
I spent nearly three hours hooked up to fetal monitors, blood pressure machines and giving blood and urine samples. Fun.
I normally have very low blood pressure and it has been low for my entire pregnancy. The first couple readings were very high - 145 over 80. Now, that is just inside the range for pre eclampsia, but it is extremely high for my normal.
The fetal monitors showed a very active baby that was doing just fine.
But I was very concerned about my blood pressure readings.
They did an ultrasound and baby boy Lee is doing very well. He is active and measuring right on target for size.
As I laid there, watching Jon and Kate Plus 8, I started feeling a lot better. Gradually, my blood pressure returned to normal. I'm still extremely swollen, but laying in a hospital bed without worrying about cleaning the house and laundry, gave me some time to relax and catch a little rest.
Thankfully my lab work all came back normal. I was sent home with orders to lay on the couch and put my feet up. The blood pressure thing is probably a combination of all the stress that I am under this week and the effects of late pregnancy. I only have to get through a few more days of this killer accounting class and then I can kick back and relax.
6 comments:
Wow, my heart almost stopped beating when I read the title...Glad everything is okay! Hopefully this is those uncomfortable, annoying 9 month pains and that's all. Hopefully, a good Green Bay game will take your mind off this tough las few weeks.
I think the three hours in my room at the hospital was the best thing for me! It forced me to sit there and take a break. I have to learn to slow down and put my feet up now and then...the dishes, laundry and huge accounting paper can wait.
I found that working through pregnancy was actually really nice. You get lots of attention plus a baby shower and you have less time to worry about what could go wrong. And since your "nesting" occurs at work, your incredibly productive.
I miss those pregnancy days and probably would have had 3 kids by now our economy would allow it and I had a very financially supportive hubby. Youssef always wants a daily "surprise" which used to be a matchbox car but has become a $10 toy.
Glad you put your feet up for awhile-and how funny that Jon and Kate Plus 8 was on. Maybe a higher power is trying to tell you that you'll be back at this hospital many more times for routine pregnancy checks?
Oh gosh - probably not! Since we have to use fertility drugs, with my luck we'll try for one more and BECOME Jon and Kate plus 8!
Very possibly! It's very Hollywood though to have twins like Angelina-LOL. Sorry though that you have to deal with the fertility drugs. I'm sure this is really hard on your body but worth the wait.
However, I like that this is very planned for you. While Youssef was planned (not the smartest move planning a honeymoon baby by the way), I got pregnant the very first month which was a bit of a shocker. I plan to try again around my b-day Nov. 7, 2010 depending on what happens. I know that's very odd with the spacing but the way I figure it they'd already be about 5 yrs apart now anyway, what's another 2. However, I'll be the first to say that I hate, hate, hate that there's more than a two yr age difference but it's too late to change that.
Glad everything went okay. Here's hoping the rest of it goes without incident.
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