What A Day...

So the last two nights I have gotten very little sleep. It has been a mix of not feeling that great… and being extremely thirsty… and having to use the bathroom like every hour on the hour… and being hot… and being completely unable to get comfortable… even with 6 or 7 pillows… The last few weeks of pregnancy are just lousy for sleeping…

This morning I “woke up” around 10:30… on the sofa bed… after sleeping for an hour here or there throughout the early morning…
I picked up my laptop and logged on to facebook, because it’s about all I felt like I had the energy to do… but I could only see/read about every other word. I found that kind of strange, so I told Caleb to turn the living room light on… which he did… but it didn’t help at all…

At this point it occurred to me that maybe I was having some sort of visual disturbance, so I went into the kitchen to grab some Tylenol (just in case another migraine was coming on). I glanced up at the clock to see what time it was, and half of the numbers were missing… uh… yep… definite visual disturbance… I downed two extra strength Tylenol…

Since I also felt dizzy and like I might pass out… I decided to call Phil and put him on “stand by” to come home in case I needed him. He told me he was coming home immediately… which he did…

I warmed up some leftovers for myself and then got in the bath tub… much to the dismay of my husband who could not seem to understand how important it was to me to be clean before going to the hospital. When I got out I called the doctor’s office, and the receptionist told me to come in right away and not to drive myself. I called Monica to come watch the kids, and Phil took me to the office…

We spent the next hour and a half doing a bp check and NST, and then June came in and did my regular check up and ordered an ultrasound, because Baby Princess’ heart rate was in the 170s, and my bp was borderline high. The ultrasound looked good. Baby Princess is weighing in at about 6 lb. 15 oz. already and making lots of good breathing movements. But her heart rate was still high, so I had to go do an outpatient observation on the maternity floor.

After I got settled, I had Phil go home to the kids, because there wasn’t really anything he could do but sit there. I started to wonder if that was a good idea about 10 minutes after he left when the nurse slapped some oxygen on my face and told me they were going to start an IV. I wasn’t expecting that, and she said the baby’s heart rate was really fast (although she didn’t tell me just how fast… I learned hours later that it was over 200). I knew she was pretty seriously concerned about where this might be heading, though, because she wouldn’t even let me have water or ice chips.

It took two tries to get the IV in, and when she finally did get it, there was an ensuing blood bath… silly veins and blood thinners! Seriously… I didn’t look, but I could feel it running all over my hand. Yuck!

It’s funny, because I felt pretty relaxed during the whole thing. In fact, there were a few moments there in which I thought we were going to have a baby today, and I was OK with that… however it needed to happen. I think this might have provoked panic at other times in my life, but I trust my doctor completely, and God is good, so I am really ready to meet this Baby Princess at any time. In fact, I think I would be less nervous about delivering her at this point than continuing to carry her, because I have felt so sick for much of this pregnancy, and I think it’s going to be a huge sigh of relief to just have her safely in my arms.

Well… at some point, the oxygen and the IV fluids must have kicked in enough to get both my bp and Baby Princess’ heart rate back where they ought to be, and all of my labs came back good, so I was released to go home…

And here I am… glad for a little more time for Baby Princess to grow… but getting very eager to be done with this and to have her here with me!

Lisa