Its official. I made my first trip to the Women and Infants Health Care Unit last night. My blood pressure and the swelling in my feet and legs has been creeping up for all long week but over the weekend my left foot ballooned to elephant sized. Couple that with hot flashes, heart palpitations, and a headache that just won't quit and Walter and I decided we should go.
Our nurse was fabulous. She explained everything as we went along. She told us what she was doing and why. She told me what the next possible steps were each time she left the room to check on labs or talk with the doctor. I always knew what to expect and that it huge for me. Not knowing is just too scary. I was able to stay relatively relaxed and my anxiety was minimal.
Walter rubbed my swollen, aching feet off and on and didnt even complain about missing the season premier of Dexter. He joked with the nurse and asked good questions too. He was perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better partner!
They hooked me up to monitors. One for baby's heartbeat and one for my contractions. Baby Wally's heartbeat was a little high but still within the normal range. And I learned that I've been having more contractions than I thought. Some are much more uncomfortable than others and I wasn't counting them all. I was blaming some off them on Baby Wally stretching out and moving around, when in actuality they were contractions. So, for a few hours last night my contractions were 7 minutes apart. Not sure how long they were like that before we went to the hospital but when we left, they had slowed to over10 minutes apart.
According to their scale, I've gained 12 pounds in the 2 weeks since my last doctor's appointment. No wonder my legs and feet are swelling. That's a lot of fluid and it has to live somewhere.
After a bag of IV fluid, Baby Wally's heartbeat slowed and his activity level rose. He was moving around like a crazy baby, making his heart monitor make all sorts of noises by kicking it and rolling away from it. It was like heaven. He hasn't been active like that for so long.
My blood work came back great. No signs of pre-eclampsia, which is what they were concerned about. A cervix check showed that even though I'm having lots of contractions, they aren't making any changes to my body at this point. Everything is still locked up like Fort Knoxville, which is great because they like for babies to cook a little longer than 36 weeks.
The doctor decided that all my symptoms were either normal pregnancy stuff or caused by dehydration. I have been drinking fluids like a crazy lady and running to the bathroom to pee every 30 minutes when awake and every hour in the night. How can I be dehydrated? Well, I still have no idea but as long as Baby Wally is doing fine, then I'll figure out how to drink even more fluids. Its obvious now that we both need it.
We got home at just about 1 am. The IV fluids they gave me decided to start vacating in large quantities at around 3 am. Between that and the contractions, I feel like I got no real sleep.
At about 8am, I got up and had something to eat and 16oz of water. By 10am, I headed back to bed. At noon, I woke up and felt like I got a little rest. I think the contractions finally stopped because I haven't had one since I woke up. Yeah! At 1pm, it was time for lunch and to suck down some more water.
Not a lot to do today do I guess the plan is, drink, eat, drink, sleep, drink, eat, drink, sleep. There will also be lots of peeing and hopefully no more contractions.
As anxious as I am to meet my little man, I'm glad he's staying put a little longer. I want to make sure he's healthy as can be when he comes into this world and another few weeks will just help him get ready.
Dr Fabulous is currently on vacation so we'll see what he has to say about all this when he comes back. Next appointment is Friday morning.
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