Bryan and I went to our 37 week check up on Monday, Sept 8th. Everything looked good but for the second week in a row my blood pressure was starting to rise. Before this point I had ideal blood pressure and everything (medically) looked amazing. The high blood pressure really started to stress me out, but I tried to stay calm and not worry about it because everyone else said it wasn't that bad of a blood pressure. Monday, Aug 25th it was 140/80 and then Monday Sept, 8th it was 130/90. Not that high, but high for me. I was also at 1 cm, which was mind-blowing. We prayed about it on Tuesday night at small group and everyone was very encouraging.
Wednesday, Sept 10th I started to feel terrible. I was achy all over, I had terrible indigestion, and I just didn't feel like myself. My already large ankles were getting larger by the minute. My poor students had to put up with me feeling terrible. They were so supportive and kind. Thursday I woke up and I just couldn't go to work. I felt awful. There was a sharp pain on my right side whenever I breathed (which it's not like I could stop) and my pee was turning a dark orange color no matter how much I drank... And believe me I was drinking a lot of water. Bryan and I ended up calling my mom and she came down and "babysat” me while Bryan was at work. The morning was worse than the afternoon. I started to feel (slightly) better and told myself I must have caught a bug at school or something and I would be fine. I went to work on Friday and felt okay enough to stay all day....
Friday night everything that I described above started to come back, and then I got nauseous and ended up throwing up my dinner of a bite of chicken and grits. I progressively got worse as the weekend continued. Saturday I ended up calling the on call doctor and describing my symptoms to her. She felt very confident that everything was fine and that I was just having all the side effects of being almost 38 weeks pregnant: swollen ankles, indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, dehydration. She said that she didn't think I had a kidney infection because my back didn't ache and it didn't hurt to pee. She said I could go to the emergency room if I felt like I needed to, or I could wait till my next check up on Monday. Bryan and I talked and prayed about it and with the doctors advice, we decided to wait until Monday. Sunday I got a little better... Monday I got worse. My awesome mom came down Sunday while Bryan went to work and then Bryan was off Monday. So I had good nurses throughout the weekend. :)
On Monday, as I got worse and worse I ended up starting to have (what I thought) were contractions. I would have one or two in an hour and then they would stop for a few. When it came time to start heading to the doctors appointment, I got in the he car and started having contractions every 5 to 7 minutes. In the back of my head I was wondering if this is was it... Was it time?
We were about 5 minutes away from the doctors office and the idea of walking from the parking garage into the building to get on an elevator to go upstairs became overwhelming. I had Bryan call to ask and see if he could get a wheelchair for me so that I wouldn't have to walk, when hey asked why, he tried to explain that I was having contortions and was really really sick. The doctor's assistant said that with the contractions, we should go ahead and go to the hospital (which is conveniently right next door) for tests to see if I was in labor. How exciting! This was it... Or so I thought.
After valet parking, I was wheeled to the testing area and Leslie was our nurse. She took my vitals and started asking questions. I gave a urine sample, and surprise... I had high blood pressure. They hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitors and saw that Abigail's heart rate was fine, but on the lower side. I was still only at 1 cm, and my last contraction was in the wheelchair being wheeled into the hospital. I had to give blood and a second urine sample and all that showed up was dehydration. Leslie hooked me up to an IV and then requested that I eat something. At this point I think that I would have rather had a root canal... But I got a turkey sandwich and was able to eat half of it, which was more than I had eaten in the last several days all in one sitting. Leslie said the false contractions were probably from my sever dehydration. Four hours later, they sent me home feeling better and being instructed to reschedule my 38 week check up.
I went to work on Tuesday because it was tablet deployment day, grades were due, and I really felt like I needed to be there. Luckily, the first 3 hours of the day was with my junior advisory class (which is AWESOME) and another teacher (Mrs. Clark) was such a blessing and kept stopping by and making sure I was sitting down. I made it through the day with my feet up on my desk, but feeling pretty well... All things considered. I was back on track in my mind to deliver in 2 weeks.
Wednesday, Sept 17th I went into work but was feeling awful. Again, my poor students! I barely made it through the day, I just wanted to cry... nothing felt right. Bryan had to work, so we set up for my mother-in-law to go with me to my make-up appointment. I felt so bad that I had her pick me up from school, I don't think I could have made the drive safely to my house... that's how sick I was. She picked me up at the beginning of my 7th period conference period and we took my car into town. We arrived an hour early to the appointment, and I just said that if they could see me early, I would happily allow it. We got called back fairly quickly and after giving yet another urine sample, the doctor came right in to see me. My doctor was sooooooo good! I told her how awful I had been feeling and what all had happened in the last week. She requested that I go back to the hospital to be tested again and see what was going on.
Friday night everything that I described above started to come back, and then I got nauseous and ended up throwing up my dinner of a bite of chicken and grits. I progressively got worse as the weekend continued. Saturday I ended up calling the on call doctor and describing my symptoms to her. She felt very confident that everything was fine and that I was just having all the side effects of being almost 38 weeks pregnant: swollen ankles, indigestion, nausea, diarrhea, dehydration. She said that she didn't think I had a kidney infection because my back didn't ache and it didn't hurt to pee. She said I could go to the emergency room if I felt like I needed to, or I could wait till my next check up on Monday. Bryan and I talked and prayed about it and with the doctors advice, we decided to wait until Monday. Sunday I got a little better... Monday I got worse. My awesome mom came down Sunday while Bryan went to work and then Bryan was off Monday. So I had good nurses throughout the weekend. :)
On Monday, as I got worse and worse I ended up starting to have (what I thought) were contractions. I would have one or two in an hour and then they would stop for a few. When it came time to start heading to the doctors appointment, I got in the he car and started having contractions every 5 to 7 minutes. In the back of my head I was wondering if this is was it... Was it time?
We were about 5 minutes away from the doctors office and the idea of walking from the parking garage into the building to get on an elevator to go upstairs became overwhelming. I had Bryan call to ask and see if he could get a wheelchair for me so that I wouldn't have to walk, when hey asked why, he tried to explain that I was having contortions and was really really sick. The doctor's assistant said that with the contractions, we should go ahead and go to the hospital (which is conveniently right next door) for tests to see if I was in labor. How exciting! This was it... Or so I thought.
After valet parking, I was wheeled to the testing area and Leslie was our nurse. She took my vitals and started asking questions. I gave a urine sample, and surprise... I had high blood pressure. They hooked me up to the baby heart rate monitors and saw that Abigail's heart rate was fine, but on the lower side. I was still only at 1 cm, and my last contraction was in the wheelchair being wheeled into the hospital. I had to give blood and a second urine sample and all that showed up was dehydration. Leslie hooked me up to an IV and then requested that I eat something. At this point I think that I would have rather had a root canal... But I got a turkey sandwich and was able to eat half of it, which was more than I had eaten in the last several days all in one sitting. Leslie said the false contractions were probably from my sever dehydration. Four hours later, they sent me home feeling better and being instructed to reschedule my 38 week check up.
I went to work on Tuesday because it was tablet deployment day, grades were due, and I really felt like I needed to be there. Luckily, the first 3 hours of the day was with my junior advisory class (which is AWESOME) and another teacher (Mrs. Clark) was such a blessing and kept stopping by and making sure I was sitting down. I made it through the day with my feet up on my desk, but feeling pretty well... All things considered. I was back on track in my mind to deliver in 2 weeks.
Wednesday, Sept 17th I went into work but was feeling awful. Again, my poor students! I barely made it through the day, I just wanted to cry... nothing felt right. Bryan had to work, so we set up for my mother-in-law to go with me to my make-up appointment. I felt so bad that I had her pick me up from school, I don't think I could have made the drive safely to my house... that's how sick I was. She picked me up at the beginning of my 7th period conference period and we took my car into town. We arrived an hour early to the appointment, and I just said that if they could see me early, I would happily allow it. We got called back fairly quickly and after giving yet another urine sample, the doctor came right in to see me. My doctor was sooooooo good! I told her how awful I had been feeling and what all had happened in the last week. She requested that I go back to the hospital to be tested again and see what was going on.
I promise to finish the story soon! If you made it this far in blog--Thanks for reading, Thanks for caring!
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