quick, and much needed, update

Wow, its been a week. Actually, its been about 8 weeks since I last posted, which is TERRIBLE, but I just haven't felt like writing much. I guess I figured little updates here and there on facebook are enough, but after the past few days, I think a real good one is in order. So here's the latest.

We are 39 weeks and almost 4 days pregnant. I can't believe its drawing to a close, even though these days are creeping by!

As many of you know, our baby turned to breech (head up and feet down) in the 37th week, and so we opted for an External Cephalic Version, where a doctor manually turns the baby by pushing on mommy's tummy really hard. They don't always work, but this one did, and so far Baby Baker has cooperated and stayed head down. Go baby!

Things looked great for a few weeks, and then week 39 happened. Oh mercy.

Where to start? Throughout this pregnancy, I've had "borderline" blood pressures in clinic, meaning they've been higher than normal but not considered severe, like 120s-130s over 70s-80s. I take my blood pressure (BP) at home and its normal. So it seems I suffer from "white coat syndrome", meaning health care providers make me nervous and my BP goes up. The concern with high BP in pregnancy is a condition known as pre-ecclampsia, which is defined as high BP and proteinuria (or protein in your urine). I've been worried about this from the start since my BPs were always borderline, but I had never been severe, they were normal at home, and I never had any other symptoms like headache, stomach pain, or vision changes.

Now, with my job, I see pre-ecclampsia often. The concern with it is that it progresses into Ecclampsia, which is seizures and a medical emergency. We see patients with BPs of 160/110 or higher and lots of protein in their pee. Yikes, that's bad. They are immediately put on magnesium sulfate to try to prevent seizures and lower their BPs, and they are delivered asap. Its not a fun thing to live through since mag sulfate makes patients feel terrible and it makes inducing labor difficult.

So on Tuesday, my pressures in clinic finally hit that severe range (144/99). Not good. I didn't have any other symptoms, so the midwives drew some blood and I had to collect my pee for 24 hours to test it for protein. I also had to check my pressures at home a little more often. The blood tests all came back totally normal, my 24 hour urine protein was within normal limits, and my BPs at home were lower. Yeah! I was OK. Still, the midwives said no more work, so Wednesday was my last day on L&D until maternity leave is over in August.

THEN, I got a headache on Thursday. It started as a dull, achy thing that seemed annoying at most. Tylenol seemed to help some, and since I'm pregnant, that's my only real pain med option that's over the counter. I figured it was related to the stress of the week. But by Friday night, it got bad. So bad that I called the clinic at 3am almost in tears b/c it hurt so bad and I couldn't sleep. Tylenol wasn't touching it, and Benadryl wasn't knocking me out as usual. The midwife, Sarah, suggested a few other pain options that I had here, and I finally slept for a few hours, only to wake up with the same awful pain. It felt like a migraine, and my BPs were pretty normal, but it was still worrisome. Was this pre-ecclampsia rearing its ugly head?

Another midwife (Katie) suggested a "rescue cocktail" of tylenol, sudafed, and coffee, which helped for a few hours, but the pain always returned. I kept thinking, if I go into labor now, I'm screwed b/c I won't be able to handle it with this headache, and I just want to sleep. She prescribed a pain med called Fioricet, but that didn't touch it.

Finally, this afternoon she brought into the clinic for the same blood work and to start another 24 hour urine, as long as my pressures weren't in the severe range, which they weren't. She dipped my urine there at the Birth Center, and it was negative for protein (awesome), but still wanted a 24hour collection again. The baby looked good on the monitor, thankfully, but mommy still had a real bad headache.

I left the Birth Center with a script for Vicodin and Phenergan and orders to sleep. Yes ma'am. Please! I asked a few friends to pray for rest and peace and for normal blood work and normal BPs.

Kate texted me an hour or so ago with my lab results, which were ALL NORMAL! Yeah, thank you Lord. That's great news. I was actually asleep when the text came in, which was also great news. Now we just wait on the 24 urine collection to end and be tested. I'll let ya'll know the results tomorrow night. If they are normal, then we can keep on as usual. If not, I guess we'll have to start talking about other options for delivery. Until then, I'll keep taking the pain meds and continue to pray for healing and a normal end to this pregnancy.

That's the update for now. I'm OK at this point, but have definitely had a pretty hard day. If you are a praying person, please lift us up (Chris too, b/c he has to put up with me being really out of it, and I know he gets worried). I'm trying to really lean on our Lord for strength and know that I can trust Him in this.

On a lighter note, since I've stopped working, I've lost 3 lbs of water weight. My legs have gone way down...I have knees again! Alright!

So now, more Vicodin and more sleeping.