30 weeks

It's been quite a week here for the baby...last weekend, my blood pressure shot up. Again. *sigh* All day on Sunday, it was running around 145/95, with a few higher readings in between. Off to the doctor's office I went first thing Monday morning, where I spilled some protein in my urine. Between that, some facial & leg swelling & my blood pressure at the office (140-something over 96), I was shipped off to Magee for bloodwork and some monitoring.

I have to pause here to say how efficient Magee was; I walked in at 10:30am, registered, went to get my bloodwork, went up to labor & delivery, registered there, was immediately taken back to a room for the monitoring. Elapsed time for all of that: 35 minutes. Bravo, Magee!! And the best part about having to be there? The triage rooms are all private...I had my own TV! People may say it's a baby factory, but it's one well-oiled machine!

Anyway---I was hooked up to monitors & a blood pressure cuff that went off every 10 minutes. The baby looked great on the monitor, so that was a huge relief. My protein came back as 160; I still don't fully understand this whole protein thing, but the dr. said that I started out the pregnancy with a level of 120 based on tests they did. That day, it was 160; you are considered to have pre-e when it hits 300. So I was well under that...he also said that it's not something that necessarily increases all of the time; it might increase, or I might have a level of 160 the rest of the pregnancy, there's really no way of knowing. But I'm in the clear for now, phew.

The only bad thing was, my blood pressure didn't really go down in the 1.5 hours I was in the room. So, I'm now up to 500 mg of Aldomet, 3 times a day (that's an extra dose in the middle of the day from where I was before). I had a follow up appointment this morning & my BP is running consistently mid-130's/mid-80's. So still high, but under control for now.

No restrictions in terms of activity or needing bedrest or anything at this time, the doctor just said she'd feel comfortable if I agreed to take at least 2 thirty minute breaks where I do nothing but lay on my left side throughout the day and to not do much more than I need to do at this time. I will fully admit-I'm a control freak who has trouble sitting still sometimes, so that last part is hard for me! But, being shipped off to Magee on Monday was enough to scare me into doing whatever it takes to bake this baby longer. Please keep us in your thoughts!

On a lighter note, here is an updated belly picture, 30 weeks!