Baden's coming...Part 1

Sunday morning (12/19) I got yet another migraine. We took our usual quick ride to the hospital ER. Turns out my blood pressure was high as is pretty normal for having a migraine. But, here I was 38 weeks along and so the ER staff decided to get Labor and Delivery involved. They came down and hooked me up to some non stress test(NST) monitors for the remainder of my time in the ER. The monitors were keeping track of my blood pressure, heart rate and also the baby's heart rate. High BP in pregnancy is a sign of what can lead to some serious problems, (specifically Toxemia)seriously fast if not kept in check. Having been given drugs to ease the pain of the headache I was actually feeling pretty good. But the BP numbers were still staying consistently high. The on-call Dr. with L&D determined that I was borderline high but that I could go home. I was given instructions and supplies to begin a 24 hr. urine collection test, to be turned into the lab the next day.

Monday I went in to work in West Valley and came home early and finished my urine collection and took off to the hospital to turn in my samples. Upon arriving, I was hooked up to the NST monitors again. I wasn't prepared for this. I thought I just had to turn my sample in to the lab and be on my way. Jed and my SIL Maggie were at our house waiting for me so we could go get a pedicure. I ended up being monitored for about an hour. My BP was still high, but my labs came back normal, so again they let me go home. I think it was due to the fact that I also had an appointment with my OB on Tuesday, so they felt OK letting me follow up with him. By the way, we did go get our pedicures when I was done. Best thing I did to relax all week!

Tuesday I went in for my usual weekly appointment and received some very discouraging news. My Dr. felt that since my BP was still high and I still had not progressed past 1 cm in the last three weeks that I was a prime candidate for c-section. Basically, my cervix was not softening like it should by now, I was not dilating. I was a "remote" vag delivery candidate. Normally this slow progress would not be a big deal and I could have gone on for a couple more weeks or more before the Dr. induced my labor, but with the BP everything was now more serious. Both me and baby could get into trouble very fast. We discussed options about what he felt was a likely c-section delivery. I was not prepared for this. I have always felt that a vaginal delivery would be the only way to go unless there were some major complications. So, needless to say, I was unprepared and slightly unnerved by this news. I was asked to go back to the hospital and do another NST test that afternoon. Again the testing showed that I was borderline, so my Dr. decided to let me go, but with strict instructions to be on "bed rest" and that if anything changed to go back to the hospital. I also had instructions to do another 24 hr. urine test and bring it in on Dec. 25. We took a quick trip up Provo Canyon that night to deliver a small Christmas gift and visit to my Grandma Dorothy that night. We figured that sitting on grandma's couch was just as relaxing as sitting on my couch at home so we made the pre-planned trip thinking that it would be our last chance before the holiday's to see her. Turns out we were right.