I'm back, and I'm glad I took the first week off from blogging.
Having so many people around, plus the immense pain I was in didn't make for an easy week and just elevated my baby blues.
The past few quiet days have been nice though, and little dude has his schedule down pat! Now if he will just keep it that way, which I know isn't likely and change is constant with a baby.
Now for what I've promised, the tales from the labor room...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
To start with, I had every intention of going into labor naturally. Having very little drugs, and so on and so fourth.
None of that went that way at all, which is precisely why when I discussed the concept of having a birth plan with my doctor she said not to do it. She was very right, I would have had expectations that weren't met and walked away from the experience let down a bit.
Instead, several weeks before I was due, we discussed what I wanted out of the experience. I told Dr. H I knew that birth and labor were unpredictable but that in my perfect birth I would go into labor naturally, hopefully deal with the pain and not need an epidural... but get it if I needed it. I wanted the baby returned to me as soon as possible so I could feed him.
All knowing that we both had to behave to get that wish granted.
Well welcome week 35.
My pregnancy swelling turned to edema, and by week 36 it had crawled up to my knees.
My blood pressure wasn't stroke worthy, but my super cautious OB wanted to make sure Harrison was safe. He was, and never seemed to be effected by my blood pressure. We did a 24 hour urine test and blood work just to be sure.
Then hello week 37!
I went into the doctor as usual to be violated beyond belief only to see BP numbers higher than we had seen them to date. Before anyone even talked to me I overheard my nurse and OB discussing my blood pressure in the hallway.
Not good.
Then in walks Dr. H, and the first words out of her mouth were "You're being induced on Saturday, your blood pressure isn't good and the baby is developed enough. We are more worried about your health right now."
Keep in mind at this point we still hadn't gotten the results from my blood work and urine test. The lab was down, and my stuff had been sent off.
This was all on Tuesday.
Wednesday was my 29th birthday, and let me tell you it started out with a bang.
I woke up as usual and had to potty, but here's were I made a huge mistake. My reflux was terrible that last month of pregnancy and I was dying of thirst, instead of taking a sip of water to coat my mouth I took three big gulps and laid down.
Terrible idea.
I immediately started throwing up and when I was done my face didn't feel right.
Upon looking at myself in the mirror I nearly fainted, my face was double the size it was before the incident and you could see the lymph nodes sticking out of my neck, they were the size of large grapes.
This was at 5 am and the next two hours were spent trying to figure out what to do. If I called the doctor on call he would just admit me to the hospital, I didn't want to go in. Especially since it would be someone who didn't know my situation at all, and I have been hoarding sick days for maternity leave.
There was no way I was going to lose a sick day if this were just a reaction to the puking incident.
I had to wait around until 8am just to leave an actual message for my doctor and not get moved over to the on call doctor.
No big deal, but when it's your birthday and everyone is texting you while you're panicking over the size of your face and waiting to hear back from the doctor you start to get irritated.
I just wanted to know what was wrong!
Luckily I was told it just sounded like a bad reaction, but to check my BP. That in itself was a goose chase that never led to me getting it checked.
The really fun part began after I got home from work, by the time I checked my phone again I had multiple voice mails from my OB.
The first one was a huge panic and said she got my results and that I had dangerously high protein in my urine. My induction date was changed to Thursday morning and I was told to come in if I felt weird at all during the night.
The next message was where it got interesting, because obviously when your OB calls from her personal number and starts off with "Happy Birthday Emily, this is Dr. H, now don't panic." You don't expect the next one to be that great either.
She said she thought they had mixed up my information. The numbers the lab tech were given weren't what she was use to working with in our lab.
I immediately called her back, and while we were on the phone discussing my swelling the lab tech called her again.
There had been a mix up, Thank God, and my labs were all normal. I was rescheduled for the original Saturday induction and as per my crunchiness I had her reassure me that I could in fact bring my birthing ball.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So nothing takes your blood pressure down a notch like being scared half to death on your birthday.
Good thing I had let go of that birthing plan idea.
I promise, the pure comedy that was labor and delivery really gets going tomorrow when we finish this story off.
Having so many people around, plus the immense pain I was in didn't make for an easy week and just elevated my baby blues.
The past few quiet days have been nice though, and little dude has his schedule down pat! Now if he will just keep it that way, which I know isn't likely and change is constant with a baby.
Now for what I've promised, the tales from the labor room...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
To start with, I had every intention of going into labor naturally. Having very little drugs, and so on and so fourth.
None of that went that way at all, which is precisely why when I discussed the concept of having a birth plan with my doctor she said not to do it. She was very right, I would have had expectations that weren't met and walked away from the experience let down a bit.
Instead, several weeks before I was due, we discussed what I wanted out of the experience. I told Dr. H I knew that birth and labor were unpredictable but that in my perfect birth I would go into labor naturally, hopefully deal with the pain and not need an epidural... but get it if I needed it. I wanted the baby returned to me as soon as possible so I could feed him.
All knowing that we both had to behave to get that wish granted.
Well welcome week 35.
My pregnancy swelling turned to edema, and by week 36 it had crawled up to my knees.
My blood pressure wasn't stroke worthy, but my super cautious OB wanted to make sure Harrison was safe. He was, and never seemed to be effected by my blood pressure. We did a 24 hour urine test and blood work just to be sure.
Then hello week 37!
I went into the doctor as usual to be violated beyond belief only to see BP numbers higher than we had seen them to date. Before anyone even talked to me I overheard my nurse and OB discussing my blood pressure in the hallway.
Not good.
Then in walks Dr. H, and the first words out of her mouth were "You're being induced on Saturday, your blood pressure isn't good and the baby is developed enough. We are more worried about your health right now."
Keep in mind at this point we still hadn't gotten the results from my blood work and urine test. The lab was down, and my stuff had been sent off.
This was all on Tuesday.
Wednesday was my 29th birthday, and let me tell you it started out with a bang.
I woke up as usual and had to potty, but here's were I made a huge mistake. My reflux was terrible that last month of pregnancy and I was dying of thirst, instead of taking a sip of water to coat my mouth I took three big gulps and laid down.
Terrible idea.
I immediately started throwing up and when I was done my face didn't feel right.
Upon looking at myself in the mirror I nearly fainted, my face was double the size it was before the incident and you could see the lymph nodes sticking out of my neck, they were the size of large grapes.
This was at 5 am and the next two hours were spent trying to figure out what to do. If I called the doctor on call he would just admit me to the hospital, I didn't want to go in. Especially since it would be someone who didn't know my situation at all, and I have been hoarding sick days for maternity leave.
There was no way I was going to lose a sick day if this were just a reaction to the puking incident.
I had to wait around until 8am just to leave an actual message for my doctor and not get moved over to the on call doctor.
No big deal, but when it's your birthday and everyone is texting you while you're panicking over the size of your face and waiting to hear back from the doctor you start to get irritated.
I just wanted to know what was wrong!
Luckily I was told it just sounded like a bad reaction, but to check my BP. That in itself was a goose chase that never led to me getting it checked.
The really fun part began after I got home from work, by the time I checked my phone again I had multiple voice mails from my OB.
The first one was a huge panic and said she got my results and that I had dangerously high protein in my urine. My induction date was changed to Thursday morning and I was told to come in if I felt weird at all during the night.
The next message was where it got interesting, because obviously when your OB calls from her personal number and starts off with "Happy Birthday Emily, this is Dr. H, now don't panic." You don't expect the next one to be that great either.
She said she thought they had mixed up my information. The numbers the lab tech were given weren't what she was use to working with in our lab.
I immediately called her back, and while we were on the phone discussing my swelling the lab tech called her again.
There had been a mix up, Thank God, and my labs were all normal. I was rescheduled for the original Saturday induction and as per my crunchiness I had her reassure me that I could in fact bring my birthing ball.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
So nothing takes your blood pressure down a notch like being scared half to death on your birthday.
Good thing I had let go of that birthing plan idea.
I promise, the pure comedy that was labor and delivery really gets going tomorrow when we finish this story off.
