And the drama continues....
I had still been having headaches since my last trip to L&D on 10/22. While there my BP was slightly above normal (it was pretty high at Wal-Mart just an hour earlier though) and they diagnosed me with a migraine since everything else came back normal. The pain medicine given to me that night helped a lot but the headache never went away. I struggled with it flaring up off and on the rest of the weekend. For the rest of the week the dull part of the headache was always there but would not flare up every day. I had an appointment on Monday 10/25 and got told that my fluid level was high and Teddy was still measuring in the 95th percentile for his chest and belly width and if he didn't come in the next week or so on his own he would be a c-section at around 39 weeks. My BP was high but the OB said that when he watched the dial he could see it pulse at a lower point, so it was ok. I didn't really buy that answer. Then I was scheduled for another appointment on Thursday. My BP was high then too. They had me lay down while trying to do my non stress test and it lowered a little. They checked it 5 times and it finally lowered some. I told them I still had the headache and that OB gave me a prescription for it. The pain isn't horribly intense, it just never goes away and is interferring with my sleep. I took it one night and felt really nauseous but the next 2 nights I didn't. Though I couldn't say for sure it made the headache go away, since I was supposed to take "every 4 hours as needed" and I generally am trying to sleep for longer than that. So Monday morning I tried taking it during the day (couldn't over the weekend because I had to drive to take Doug to work). Didn't even touch the pain. Also on Sunday I checked my BP at Wal-Mart right after dropping Doug off at work, within about 30 hours of waking up and it was 155/97. A few minutes later it went to 149/98. At my appointments in the office the week before it was my diastolic (bottom) number that was high (in the mid 90s) so even though the top number lowered I knew it meant something that the bottom number was so high.
All this leading up to my appointment yesterday. They checked it when I first got there and it was 150/108. So then they had me lay down while they tried to do the NST. It took 5 people and the help of a portable ultrasound machine to find his heartbeat. There's just so much extra fluid! He can move just a smidgen and it's nearly impossible to find him again. But this doesn't worry me anymore, they always do find him and I can feel him moving during all of it so I know he's ok. So after 30-45 minutes the OB (the one that said it was fine the Monday before) took it and it was still 150/106. Also, every time Teddy would move he would jump off the monitor so they couldn't say for sure that his heartrate was jumping at least 15 points during movement and therfore responsive. There were smaller movements he made and while his heartrate increased, it wasn't by very much or for very long. All of this is important to know how he can handle contractions and labor. So he wanted to send me to L&D since their machine is supposedly more sensitive and to have some blood work done, bp monitored (by a machine versus person and over several hours) and an ultrasound to check on some things. Doug mentioned today would be a good day for a birthday and the doctor didn't disagree with him. He said before that depending on my tests I may be a "permanent resident of Hotel Rockingham." I took that to mean more hospital bedrest than possible induction, but Doug was more hopeful.
It was really busy when we got there! They had difficulty finding his heartbeat and couldn't get it when I was on my left side, which I needed to be on for the bp monitoring. My bp was either insanely good (120/60s- diastolic number lower than I ever remember hearing in my life) or the cuff would leak air for some reason. So I don't put a lot of faith in those numbers, though it's pretty clear that after laying down for a while on my left side it does lower it. And that just from the time of getting up in the morning to shower, eat breakfast and sit upright in the office waiting room it skyrockets. Anyway, no real result on the NST since they couldn't keep his heartbeat on the monitor and the nurse kept having to leave due to all the other patients.
The ultrasound checked his growth, my fluid and also did a biophysical scan. He's estimated at 7 pounds and 8 ounces, and my fluid went up from 22 to 23. This surprises me because at the office they said his weight was probably a little less due to the high fluid count. So in this case my fluid increased a little but his weight barely did. At this point babies gain around a pound a week, and Teddy has barely gained an ounce. It's not too scary since he has been measuring big to start with but it means he's not growing on average now and therefore something is wrong. This is normal for women with high blood pressure during pregnancy, definitely no denying the problem now. On the biophysical profile Doug saw that the ultrasound tech noted that he wasn't making any practice breaths. He told me when she left the room for a few minutes about that and I knew it meant something bad. I knew they were supposed to take practice breaths by now.
When we got back to our room in triage the OB on call came and talked to us. She put me on modified bed rest. Except her definition is barely modified. I know of other people on modified bed rest who are allowed to do a lot more! I'm only allowed to pee, shower and reheat something from the fridge. I need to deide between staying upstairs with the bathroom all day and being in my father in law's way and on the uncomfy couch or us buying some sort of other toilet arrangement so I can be in my bedroom. Sigh. She also said that Teddy scored a 6 out of 8 on his biophysical scan. She said that's not awful but that I'd have another one done at my next appointment. She didn't mention which things he was down on but I'm guessing the breathing was one of them. She said that for right now he's still better on the inside than out but that we'd talk about induction at my appointment tomorrow. I told her that I was told c-section at 39 weeks if he didn't come on his own. She said that was different now. I'll be 38 weeks on Thursday, so I'm guessing they'll think about it sometime after that. And if he's not so huge then maybe I won't need a c-section.
I was just so unprepared for all of that! The night before Doug and I talked about how to get some answers from them given my non-stop headaches, high blood pressure and swelling. After weeks of them not really taking it seriously (or so we felt) we thought we'd have to push for some answers which would probably just be "everything is fine" or "you're being pranoid." We weren't really prepared for them to send us to L&D without so much as conversation from us. I guess I'm hard to please. I wanted them to address the issues but I wasn't expecting being sent to L&D or being put on bed rest. And again I'm annoyed because I was hoping that it really was all nothing and that they weren't keeping things to themselves. But instead it seems that all along it was an issue and it just came to a head yesterday. Of course, I'm happy they did the right thing and all, but geez, they just led me on all these weeks. They never said explicitely to not worry or anything, but they kept saying that my labwork was fine so I didn't have pre-eclampsia etc. They never said that they were still worried about it, or that just having pregnancy induced hypertension would be a problem. Though at least now if I get there tomorrow and they want to induce on Friday I'll be a bit more prepared for it. Though now I feel less prepared to actually have him home because the house needs to be cleaned again, just like it needs it every week, dishes need to be done, laundry, food cooked. Yeah, I'm not supposed to cook, but the last time I had to rely on Doug to help me with cooking for the gestational diabetes he did it all wrong. There's still more shopping to be done. Teddy has basically everything he needs but I don't have any post-pregnancy supplies for me etc. I guess I'll try to send Mom on an errand run, if she even bothers to call me that is. My problems seem so little compared to the fact that her boyfriend lives 4 hours away and she pretends to visit her elderly and sick mother and instead is spending time with him and it didn't matter if it was 2 weeks before I'm due and has had complications and she's been freaking out about it all. Guess who just booted herself out of being in the delivery room. And now Doug is laughing at the idea that I may have to use a portapotty. Not a fan of life today.
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