First trip to Labor & Delivery
Sunday, February 19, 2012 - Posted by Danielle at 6:30 PM
Of all appointments, without even thinking, we decided to take the stairs. They took us right back and, of course, I ended up having high blood pressure...which looked strange for me because my blood pressure is always low.
We ended up having to see a midwife this week that we don't normally see. She came in and asked what was going on and we explained it all to her and she said, "Well, I'm not going to dismiss any of it based on you taking the stairs." She explained that this late in pregnancy, the main reason for weekly appointments is to monitor closely and be able to notice the signs and symptoms of preeclampsia. She explained that it's nothing to mess around with and that, if I had it, I could go from sick to very sick in no time at all, causing major problems to both me and baby. She said that without question she was going to send us over to labor and delivery for close monitoring and tests and that if anything came back badly, they would end up inducing since the only known "cure" for preeclampsia is delivery of the baby. Then she did the exam - she said I was 80% effaced, 1 cm dilated and baby was at -2 station. Not too bad...at least some progress and she was thrilled with it based on the possibility of maybe needing to be induced.
On the way over to labor and delivery I was in tears because I so badly do not want to be induced and the whole thing scared me - we went from going in for a normal appointment to getting home 5 hours later!! Mark was incredible through it all and was able to calm me down...how, I'm not sure, but he was wonderful. We went to labor and delivery and were standing at the desk and I looked up to see our normal midwife coming around the corner with a huge group of couples behind her - she was probably doing a tour or something. She looked up and saw us and yelled, "What are you two doing here!?!?!!?" While I talked with the nurse, Mark explained that they wanted to run tests for preeclampsia and she goes, "No - you better not!! I was just thinking of you guys today..." It was neat that she knew our situation enough to interact like that but it was so funny because the entire tour group that she was leading was just standing there staring at us like, "what's going on!?"
They checked us in, I got hooked up to two monitors, the pulse-ox machine, blood pressure cuff, they did blood work and I had to do a urine sample. We sat and watched baby's heartbeat on the monitor and watched the Braxton Hicks contractions go up and down and up and down. The midwife on call (who we had never seen before) came in to talk with us after getting results. Long story short, basically everything came back PERFECT. She was thrilled with the blood work results, urine sample showed up fine and she said I am extremely well-hydrated, the monitor results - she said that we have the happiest baby she had seen in a few days- she said that if there was still the group of nursing students there, she would take the chart out to show them Adie's heartbeat because the pattern was all so perfect.
That being said, she was still concerned that my blood pressure had been higher and asked if I was still working. When I said yes, she said, "Well, probably not anymore." I explained that I sit at a desk and answer a phone all day and she gave me a look as if to say, "Get your priorities straight." In the end she left it up to us on whether or not I would work Friday and Monday and then our appointment with our normal midwife is Monday afternoon and she said that she would let her make that decision then. So, I ended up working Friday, explained that Monday might be my last day, and we're going to see what we find out tomorrow.
It's been an interesting weekend - lots of contractions...they are starting to feel a little more intense so maybe transitioning to real contractions? A few other signs this weekend that maybe...maybe...it's getting close?? Who knows. I am absolutely convinced though that this is THE WORST part of pregnancy. I wish I just had a crystal ball to tell me - if it's still 2 weeks out, that's fine, I just wish that I knew. Not knowing what to expect leads me to reading into every little twinge of anything, only to find out that, nope...still not it!
I've got a 39 week picture to post, but don't have the camera with me right now...I'll post later. And tomorrow is our appointment to find out from our regular midwife what she thinks about how we're progressing and about the work situation. We'll see...hopefully not too much longer!!!
