28 Week Terror

On Friday May 7, I went to the doctor for my 28 week appointment. I was all prepared, I drank my glucose orange drink for diabetic testing perfectly, I arrive the 15 minutes early to my appointment like I was supposed to and then I got called back into the office. Everything was going smooth. I had planned to talk to my doctor about swelling because my feet and ankles had been swelling pretty bad, and the past week had been a lot worse than before. So I get weighed, and I gained 11 lbs. from last month!

Let me give you a quick picture, and I'm going to give the actual numbers here so please no judgements. I know I need to lose weight, but at this moment... I don't care. So when I got pregnant, I weighed 212. Then because I was sick in the beginning, I dropped 5 lbs. down to 207. I held steady there for about 3 months. Well, then at my first weight gain appointment in April I put on 7 lbs, so technically now I'm only 2 lbs over my pre-prenancy weight at 214. Well at this appointment, I get weighed and I'm at 225.

So to continue the story... my urine sample came back with higher protein than they like to see, and with the swelling my doctor then proceeded to tell me that she is concerned with toxemia and/or preeclampsia. (here is a good website to learn more about that: http://www.preeclampsia.org/symptoms.asp). So she told me that they would run my labs and if anything was abnormal she would call me. Well, I get up to work and just about an hour later she called and told me that she wanted me t0 go check into the hospital for 24 hour surveillance.

Of course I immediately called Nate. He was headed home from work (this is about 11:30am) for his dad's surprise birthday party we were throwing up at the University (his dad turned 50 on saturday). So I told him the story and just said instead of going to the party, he needed to go the hospital instead. I drove to the hospital and checked myself into labor and delivery. About an hour later, Nate got here and we just got to sit around because they have put me on bed rest. I can get up to go to the bathroom, and shower and thats pretty much it. They are keeping my blood pressure monitored every hour. It was every 15 minutes, then every 30, but now we're down to every hour (which is nice) and they do blood draws every 12 hours, and monitor the baby's heart beat and whether or not I'm having contractions about every 3 hours. Lets just say its a lot of poking, prodding and noisy machinery. I tell you there is nothing better than hearing Kamry's steady heart beat on that monitor though. My favorite is when she kicks it trying to move it off of her (that's what I'm assuming she's doing at least). The little monitor just sits on my belly, and after a couple of minutes of it being there she starts kicking it, then she finally gives up. It's pretty funny. I'm glad my little girl is tough - she gets that from her daddy I think.

On Saturday: When the doctor talked to me on Saturday morning, he has decided that I am officially here in the Logan hospital until Monday, but possibly (most likely) further than that. It all depends on my labs and how my body responds to the bed rest. I'll definitely stay on bed rest until the baby is born, even if I get to go home. They have also officially diagnosed me with toxemia, and they're still monitoring preeclampsia. I asked if there is anything we can do to help with the swelling (like water pills or something) but he said when it's toxemia, the only solution is to deliver the baby - which we obviously don't want to do yet. They're hoping that we can hold off on delivering her until atleast 32 weeks (4 weeks from now), but preferably 34+ weeks. It will all depend on my body and how I respond. I'm really pushing for at least 32 weeks so she is further developed and weighs more. When they did my ultrasound on Friday when I got here, they estimate she currently weighs about 2 lbs. 4 oz. so she is very small. Average for 28 weeks, but still too small to feel good about delivering.

Nate got permission for me to go for a wheelchair ride and the doctor said it was okay for me to go outside. I just couldn't be gone for very long. We were only out for about 10 minutes, but it was a beautiful day and that 10 minutes was fabulous! Nate spent the whole day with me and we napped, watched tv and chatted. It's scary for both of us, but its so nice to have him here with me. Even when we're just sitting doing nothing, it means the world to me that he is here. He stayed through the night on Friday night, but last night we decided he could go home and get a better nights sleep since my labs had stayed pretty consistent.

I'm allowed to have visitors, but I have to keep them limited and I have to keep calm. My blood pressure spikes if there is too much going on, or even when I'm laughing too much so it's pretty solomn in here... but we make it work.

Well that is my current 28 week terror story. I'm trying very hard not to dwell on the thoughts of all the possibilities because I don't want to stress my body into having this baby, but it definitely puts your life in perspective and makes you really think about things. My dad gave me a beautiful blessing on Friday evening, and that made me feel a lot better.

I'm taking a few pictures here and there and will post those soon with updates of what is happening. Pray for the best, and lets just hope that this little girl can come into the world in a few weeks when she is stronger.