On Wednesday, July 7th, we went in for our regular OB check-up. The appointment wasn't until the afternoon, so I worked in the morning and then met up with Jim to head off to the appointment around 3pm.
When we arrived at the office, we were called in right away - which was shocking because Dr. D usually runs behind a bit. On the way back to the room, we stopped at the scale for a weigh in... my absolute favorite part of appointments (ha! ya right). Well, my weight was up 8lbs from the last appointment only two weeks ago. Yikes! I guess I should lay off the cake and ice cream now!
When the nurse took my blood pressure, we were disappointed to hear it was 142/94. Eh - not good. I reminded the nurse that sometimes they use the bigger cuff since I am bigger than most girls. So, the nurse took my BP again with the larger cuff - but it didn't help....my BP was again around 144/96. Not good.
When Dr. D came in, she expressed concern with my blood pressure reading and took it again herself. And again, it was high; near the same numbers. After doing a reflex test (result: rapid reflexes) and checking the swelling in my hands and legs/feet (incredibly bad - though I blame the heat since it was 95 degrees), Dr. D explained that she is worried I may be in early stages of pre-eclampsia. She pulled me off work that day and to make sure things weren't progressing to pre-ecamplsia, Dr. D sent us to Labor and Delivery at St. Joes hospital to make sure everything was ok. Oh, and I should mention, earlier in the day, I think I had my first couple contractions. Nothing regular, but definitely nothing I had felt up until that point. So after telling Dr. D about the possible contractions and then having the high BP reading, with rapid reflexes (sign of neurological issue, which I guess goes hand-in-hand with pre-ecamplsia and swelling), Dr. D thought it was best to go to L&D for monitoring. What really scared me was when she said she is worried that we are going to have some premature babies. I wasn't worried about her telling me about the pre-eclampsia until she brought up how she thought the babies would be her soon and be premature. Now I know that most likely the babies will be early and may end up in the NICU, but it seemed more real once she said it that day, and that it could be any day that the babies may arrive. And that scared me. This was the first time I was really worried that my body was starting to have issues with the pregnancy and that it would be my fault if we do have premature babies. Up until that point, I have been really impressed with my body and how it has been handling the pregnancy...but now I am nervous and I hope we make it at least a couple more weeks.
Anyway....we were off...well, after stopping at home to get a couple things to keep us entertained if we ended up being there for hours (ipod, magazines, etc).
After checking in to L&D, we were called back right away. They hooked me up to two heart rate monitors to keep track of the babies' heartrates and hooked up a contraction monitor. I also had a blood pressure cuff hooked up that would occasionally take a reading. When we first got there, after right after having some blood taken, my blood pressure reading was 150 (something) / 103. YIKES! After seeing that number I started to get really nervous that I was actually developing pre-ecamplsia and the babies were going to be born sooner rather than later. But after a couple more readings, my bp started to decrease and head back into the "normal" range. Whew! Also, the contraction monitor didn't record any contractions. After they monitored the babies' heartrates for 40 minutes or so, and after a couple normal bp readings, and my lab results came back normal, they decided to release me to follow up withe Dr. D on Friday.
On Friday, July 9th, we went back in for my blood pressure follow-up and had an excellent reading of 130/82 (or somewhere right around there). Whew! Also, my weight was down 4lbs. from Wednesdays reading (much better) and my lab results were perfect. Dr. D said that my blood uric acid level was in the normal range (Normal: 2.6-6; Mine: 3.8). I had no idea what that meant, so she explained it and said that if my blood uric acid level was high, then I would be well on my way to pre-eclampsia. Instead she was pretty confident from the blood results, that we have many more weeks ahead of us with (hopefully) no more pre-eclampsia scares. Fingers crossed!!
So now I am going to Dr. D's office twice a week for the NST test (non-stress test). Read more about the test here... I can't explain what the purpose is yet because I need to read up on it! :-) Not only will I be going in for the NST, but they will also be monitoring my BP at each appointment, just to make sure it is still staying in the normal range. And then the next week, we go back in for a growth ultrasound... I am super excited to see what the babies are weighing in at again! Hopefully close to 5lbs each!
Whew - so that's the updated. If you made it this far, congrats! I know it's not a fun read, but now you are at least updated!
Oh, and here is my 31 week bump pictures... bigger and bigger and bigger... no going back!
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