I know most of my friends and family
have been keeping up with updates via Facebook, but I wanted to write a little
about what happened this weekend. It had
been another busy week. I know, I am
supposed to be relaxing but we had some big events that all came at the same
time and I couldn’t miss out on them. I
tried to take them all easy and bowed out earlier than I would have normally,
but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.
My sweet niece
turned 1 last week! If you look back in
my blog you can see the story of her birth.
We celebrated with a low key party at her parents’ house where we
attempted to get her interested in the smash cake I made her. She was having none of it. I think she was upset that we wanted to mess
up something she thought was pretty and she probably didn’t want to get her
cute outfit dirty. She was very excited
to wear her pink tutu with polka dots.
She showed it to all of us before we put it on her. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. She showed off her new walking skills and was
just the precious person I have gotten to watch grow this year.
We had a few other
smaller celebrations and gatherings to attend this week and they were all
fun. I really tried to keep it low
key. Friday I saw my OB for the weekly
check in. I turned in my blood pressure measurements,
which had been showing an increasing trend of higher pressures more
regularly. They are still within normal
for other people, but high for me. Of
course at the appointment my pressure was so low it was normal for me pre-pregnancy. The nurse took it twice just to make sure it
was right. For Valentine’s Day he ordered
additional blood work and another 24 hour urine collection. The joys of pregnancy! Sometimes I think being an OB is all about
seeing what horrible and gross things you can get other people to do. I did my
collection and turned it in on Saturday.
Saturday was our
baby shower. It was amazing. My girlfriends went all out and so many
people braved a gross snow storm to come celebrate with us. It was just so much fun. Baby Boy got a ton of fantastic gifts. If you are wondering what the best diaper
rash cream must be I am going to say Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. I think every pediatrician and pediatric
nurse brought a tube. We will win the
battle of diaper rash in this house! The
party was a Dr. Seuss theme to match our nursery and the whole room was
Seussical. Afterwards we had church and
dinner out with visitors and by the time we made it home I was exhausted. Pregnancy insomnia had me up most of the
night and I was so busy all day that I didn’t manage any nap time or down
time. I had to lay down immediately and just
felt awful.
Sunday Doc and I
tried to just take it easy and get back into a routine. I still had pregnancy insomnia strike, but at
least I was able to get a nap. At around
5:30 my phone rang with a restricted number.
I sent the call to voicemail before I realized it was probably my doctor. He left a voicemail with the news that my 24
hour urine showed an increase in protein in my urine. This is called Proteinuria and is a symptom
of preeclampsia. It was a diagnosis we
had all kind of been thinking would be coming considering my blood pressure
seemed to be rising despite decreasing salt, increasing potassium, and getting
more cardio. The OB wanted me to head
into the hospital for 24-48 hour observation and to get steroid injections so that
our son’s lungs will be better developed in case we need to deliver in the next
2 weeks. We are only 32 weeks along,
full term is 37 weeks. As I listened to
the message I went on a crying search for Doc.
He swung into action like Superman.
We packed a bag, called all the people would could think of that would
need to know, made sure the dogs were going to be cared for and headed off to
the hospital. At one point while we were
getting ready I just froze in the middle of the living room and he had to get
me jump started again. I told him it is
just too soon. I love my husband. He knows far more of the terrifying details
of what this could mean for us, and yet he was the strong one and made sure
everything got taken care of. We got
checked into Labor and Delivery (L&D) and Baby and I were hooked up to all
kinds of monitors. They were having a
crazy night, so we were a little inconvenient for them to have to care for, and
they didn’t really hide that fact. Doc
and I were not really impressed with the on call OB or the nurses we had, but
we keep trying to remember they were having a really horrible night so we were
not seeing them at their best. After a
while they said Baby and I were fine and gave me my first steroid shot. Then we were left alone. I don’t think they did what my OB wanted them
to do as he was hoping to have a base line for my pressures and fetal activity for
more than 10 minutes, but it is what they did.
The morning OB was much better, but we were kind of over sitting around
at the hospital for no reason, so we checked out and came home. We had to go back in for a second shot last
night, and otherwise we are going to see our regular OB again this Friday.
I will say that I
have noticed 2 kinds of physicians lately and I definitely have my
preference. The first kind looks for
fire and rushes into action to put out fires, they seem to thrive on
emergencies. The second kind looks for
smoke in an attempt to avoid the fire and head off the emergencies. I tend to prefer my doctors, who I think look
for smoke. They learn their patients and
what is normal for them, looking for trends in their labs and vitals, so that
when something changes they can get to work fixing it before it becomes an
emergency. I am blessed to have found
these doctors; because if I were at the hands of the OB we had Saturday I think
Baby Boy would end up being delivered in an extreme emergency. That may still happen even with my amazing
doctors, but I know they aren’t going down without a fight, and neither are
we. J
