A Night's Stay

I had my 37 1/2 week appointment on Thursday afternoon with my doctor, and by this time, my contractions had pretty much subsided and were very irregular. I still had some on and off throughout the day, but nothing like Monday/Tuesday. For about a week or so now, I have been having a pretty sharp pain in my upper right abdomen (feeling like my ribs are going to crack!) and have started seeing spots (like a camera flash). This also happened with Reese right around the same time, so I told my doctor Thursday and I knew she would want to do a 24 hr. urine analysis to determine if I was showing the signs of Preclampsia (when a woman's body releases (harmful) toxins into one's blood due to changing hormone levels when a woman's body prepares for labor.) Basically, it means every time I used the bathroom for 24 hours, I had to save my urine and then return it to the lab 24 hours later. If my symptoms were to worsen, I was to go to the hospital that night. Well, they did. I started seeing more and more spots, and I got a grueling headache to accompany it. I called Triage after putting Reese to bed Thursday night, and they wanted me to come in to check my blood pressure and just make sure baby was doing ok. (At this point with Reese, I was admitted and induced because my blood pressure was too high and her heart rate was dropping with my contractions.) For them to be concerned, my blood pressure would need to be around 140/90 and mine was consistently 138/88 for the course of 4-5 hours. I stayed all hooked up and around 12 am they admitted me for further monitoring throughout the night. They also wanted me to complete the 24 hr urine analysis in the hospital. One thing I was not looking forward to, spending the whole day on Friday lying in bed. I was restricted to only getting up to go to the bathroom. UGH. My blood pressure finally began to go down around 6 am (125/80- still high for me, but not in the danger zone.) I completed the 24 hr urine test around 5:30 pm and it was sent to the lab. They were checking levels of protein to determine if it was preclampsia. I got the results around 7:30 and was cleared to go home. I was put on "semi" bed rest, and told not to go back to work until I have the baby. If I don't have the baby by the 20th, we are still on schedule for induction. I am already dilated to 4 and 75% effaced so induction won't be more than a small drip IV of pitocin to get things going and then I'll be able to pretty much go into labor on my own (if I haven't by then.) My doctor doesn't think I will even make it to the 20th, so I will just take it easy this week and we will see what happens!

In the meantime (not like we aren't busy or anything!) we have been in the process of researching/picking out paint colors and carpet for the new house. We are almost painting the entire thing and ripping up most of the flooring as well. We intend to put hardwood down in the main level, and carpet in the upstairs (bedrooms). It sure is going to be a project, but I am already excited for what the finished product is going to be.