Preeclampsia...REALLY???

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. DH and I went on our tour of the hospital which was fun. And there was one other woman in our group who is having a c-section so the tour guide was nice enough to explain to both of us in detail what to expect. I was very thankful for that. I still can't believe that this is happening so soon. 50 days and counting!!!!

Now most of you are wondering about my title for this post. Well, they are testing me for preeclampsia. I have been going to my reg Dr. once a week for my back ever since my kidney stone. He performs slight adjustments and stretches to keep the back pain at a min. I had mentioned to him one of the weeks awhile back that my blood pressure was high that day at the OB so he started monitoring it as well. Well, this past Monday when I was with my reg Dr. (it is the week I don't go to the OB) he checked my pressure and it was way too high for his liking. (142/90) He did an urine sample to check for protein and it appears I have trace protein in my urine as well. (another sign of preeclampsia). He wanted me to call the OB first thing in the morning as he felt I should go to them sooner than next week. Of course, he was right. They wanted to see me right away.

So, here is the deal....I am home today from work as I need to collect my urine for a full 24 hours and then take it to the lab. The OB says that when you do the quick sampling in the office the amount of protein can be skewed if I have had any water right before (which I did in both cases) their office and my reg doc the night before. In both cases it was just traces of protein which is a good sign, but my blood pressure is still relatively high. I was told to buy a blood pressure machine and take my pressure twice a day for the next two days. I then have to call in my numbers. I also went for blood work yesterday as they want to see what is going on with my kidneys I believe. I had been having a lot of swelling (in fact I have removed my wedding rings and replaced them with crappy rings from Kohls as they were way too tight and cutting off circulation). Apparently the heavy swelling is also another symptom. UGH!! Anyways, now we sit and wait and try to relax. Relax, yeah right!!!

I am furious which is of course not helping my blood pressure. All I wanted to do was get pregnant and be a Mom and I feel like it has been nothing but craziness this whole pregnancy. I was sick as a dog, heartburn, kidney stones, back pain, and now this??? I know that I should be happy to just be able to experience this but c'mon! I just want something to go smoothly. Of course my hormones are out of control as well and I can fall off the wagon very quickly with my attitude. DH and I have been at each other's throats, well mainly me picking a fight with him. This is his very busy time at work and he has been coming home no earlier than 10pm every night and I am angry. I want him to be here with me keeping me calm and he can't be. And, I know that with this economy I should just be happy that he is working and has a stable and safe job but I am selfish and I need him. He is my rock. He makes me laugh and smile and feel like we can do anything together. And when he is not here and I am living in my own head, no good comes from it. I over analyze and panic. Not a good combination for a girl who is trying to keep her nerves at bay.

Anyways, I did my pressure this morning and it was 131/87. And I have come to the conclusion that I don't drink enough during the day as my urine jug should have more in it by now. But, who am I, what do I know?

As soon as I know what is going on I will post...who knows, maybe my little one will be here before originally planned!

Merry Christmas!!!

I don't know if I will be back on the computer after today for a few days so I just wanted to say,

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and that they get everything they want from Santa and more!

Results & C-Section

So my sugar was excellent. It was 81. Thank God! I was very nervous about it because I have a bit of a sweet tooth, but all went well. And, as I mentioned in my last post, we set up the C-Section. The baby will be born March 4, 2010. The surgery is scheduled right now for 10am (we have to be there at 8:30am. It is crazy!!! I still can't believe it. DH is going to attempt to paint the nursery this weekend if he doesn't wind up having to work and the furniture is due to come in the first week in Jan. This is really happening. I am amazed everyday and so very Thankful that this is happening.

We did the Baby Care class at the hospital and it was pretty informative. DH and I knew a lot of the information but it was still very interesting. I liked that they went over bottle feeding (as most likely that is what I will be doing) they showed a cheesy 1970's safety video and talked to us about what paperwork we would have to fill out at the hospital after the birth so that we would be prepared. They talked too about the safety precautions taken at the hospital so as to ensure that our babies are completely safe from abduction, which I very much liked. The people however in our class were absolute morons! :0) I say that as lovingly as possible. But it truly was amazing to me how some people just have no clue about babies at all.

We are going for our tour of the hospital and labor & delivery unit on Jan 2, 2010. I can't wait for that too. I am so very excited. It's all too surreal for me. I am not going to lie, some days are very exciting and others leave me extremely fearful. It's going to be such a major change. Are we ready? Will we be good parents? Will we fail? Will I have enough patience? Will I go back to smoking? It's incredible how many thoughts go through my brain. lol

Gluclose Tolerance Test & Baby Care Class & Stress

This past Monday I went for my 1 hour GTT. It was nothing that I had anticipated. For some reason I thought that the drink was going to be thick and chalky and it was not at all. It was this tiny 10oz iced cold bottle of orange liquid. It really did not taste bad at all either. I would describe it as a bit sweeter but similar to the juice left at the bottom of a Flavor Ice. The hour went by very quickly, DH went with me to keep me company, and I have not heard the results yet. I am going with the theory of "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS".

Last night, DH and I went to our Baby Care Class at the hospital. I was really hoping to meet some couples, but that did not happen. Many of them were not our type of people and most kept to themselves. It was okay though. We ran through a lot of information in our 3 hour class. Everything from diaper changing, swaddling, safety, what forms we would get at the hospital, circumcision (which apparently with some insurance companies now is being deemed cosmetic surgery) Do you believe that? feeding, sleep habits, soothing the baby and what babies look like when they come out and when to be or not to be concerned. It was crazy. I was exhausted by the end. I am happy we went though, at the very least it was exciting to see the babies on the videos and learn some new things.

I am not done Christmas shopping ( I am stressing about this slightly); Our dog has to go to the vet this weekend as the poor thing has an ear infection; I have to make 6 dozen cookies over the weekend for a cookie swap at work; I have two doctor appts on Monday and am also supposed to go look at locations for the Bridal Shower for my best friend's wedding next year on Monday and I still need to decorate my tree that has been up since December 4th with lights but no decorations. Oh and yes, did I forget to mention that this year we decided to move Christmas Eve celebrations from my parents house to our house? WTH were we thinking???? :0) My head feels like it might explode, not to mention that by the time I get home from work I am exhausted and don't want to do anything but lay on the couch with my achy feet up! Oh and I just remembered I need to call and make appts for a pediatrician and get my x-rays from the surgeon who did my back surgery to give to the OB so they know that I can have the epidural/spinal when I go for my C-Section. UGH!!!! Somehow, someway everything will get done, but for right now I am too tired to think about it.

A LONG TIME COMING UPDATE!

So when I started this blog in the midst of despair and denial I searched frantically through the blogs trying to find anyone, someone who understood. Then I turned my sights on finding bloggers who had been through our situation and had made it through to the other side. I did find some, but with most of the "exact" situations the bloggers had stopped blogging. I was very disappointed as I wanted to hear all the good news. I wanted to hear about the babies and how pregnancy was and what to expect if I made it and was left with nothing. I mention this as I was talking to a friend of mine (IRL) and realized that that is exactly what I had done. I have no real reason for not writing except that I felt horrible writing about all the pregnancy stuff when most of you were still struggling. I may be a little crazy (pregnancy brain and all) but it finally hit me that maybe, just maybe, there were people out there looking at blogs and who had found mine and then, like me, was left in the dust. For those people, I AM SO SORRY! I AM HERE!! I have been reading along with most of my blog friends, just not updating. I am going to make a much better attempt from now on to blog, even if it is just a line or two.

Okay, so here it goes. I am 26 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The doctors know the gender of the baby but DH and I decided a long time ago not to find out if it was only one baby and stuck to it, although I almost caved right before our scan. This made registering quite difficult as most items are very gender specific. And of course when I found things that I liked, i.e. with cute puppies on them they were mostly blue. C'mon! Can't girls like puppies too! :0) Anyways, we have ordered our nursery furniture which is due to arrive the first week of the new year. We have picked out paint for the nursery (2 colors actually) I have to put the samples on the walls and see which one I like best. But, they are both in the light green and light green mixed with blue color palate (appropriate for either sex). My DH is looking to have that done before the furniture arrives. I am fairly certain my shower will be in mid-late January. My Mom is throwing my shower, with the help of my sister-in-law and best friend. I am looking forward to it. At my last appointment the baby was doing great; the heartbeat was at 150. My iron is apparently a little low (not new for me) and the doctor put me on a once a day iron supplement. Which is gross! :0) Oh, and on Halloween I spent one night in the hospital with kidney stones! It was so painful and awful but the baby was just fine (my top priority of course). I am going to sign DH and I up for a trip to visit the Labor and Delivery Unit (although we were there on Halloween) but I would like an official trip and I am contemplating signing us up for the Infant Care Class. We have both been around lots and lots of babies so I am not concerned about it too much, but this way I figure we can be around and meet other couples who are expecting. Right now we are the only ones of our friends to be pregnant. Some have small children, some are due to get married next year and some are in just the beginning of relationships.

We are having some difficulty with picking names. Another downfall of not knowing the gender! :0) We have picked out a few girls names (that seemed to be easy for us) but we are really struggling with boys names. I have always loved Aiden (I am a big fan of Jon & Kate Plus 8) and he was my favorite little man. But, it seems like everyone we know, who recently had a boy, named him Aiden. I don't want to jump on the popular name bandwagon, so I think I will have to give it up. Any suggestions?? We are more than appreciative.

My final update is that we picked the date of our C-Section (well I should say MY C-Section)!!!! LOL Our Baby will be born March 4, 2010. We were given two dates to choose from, based on my doctor preference, and went with the 4th. You see, my birthday is May 4th, my Mom is June 4th, and one of my cousins is Nov 4th so it seemed only fitting to keep the Birthday 4's alive. It is very exciting and at the same time scary as hell! :0) I mean, this is really happening! Now there is an official end date. I hope everyone is well. And, I will be in touch soon!

Time Flies!

So, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Everything is pretty status quo. I am still having some morning sickness, which I have resigned to believe that I will have until this child comes out! :0) But, its okay. I have only gained a total of 9 pounds with this pregnancy (thank you for the sickness) and the doc says that I am right on schedule for weight gain. I really wouldn't care about the gain, but one of my best friends is getting married next June (just 3 short months after the baby is due) and I am the Maid of Honor and need to fit into my dress. :0) I have started to feel the baby move, which is incredible!!! The first few times the baby was hitting a nerve so it made me jolt. Very cute!!! DH and I have started looking at baby things. It was a bit overwhelming in Babies R' Us. How do I know what we need? Why is everything so expensive? Do I really need a car seat with air bags? :0) I am sure we will figure it out, one step at a time. I go for my 20 week scan Monday 10/26/09 where we can find out the sex, but we don't want to know. I was waivering a bit, but have stuck my ground we will definitely not find out until the little one comes. Other than that, everything else is good. I don't know what to do about work though. DH and I had always said that I would stay home after the baby was born (financially we could do it), but I am having a hard time deciding if I won't pull my hair out without having a day or two to myself. Is that being selfish? What time off am I entitled to anyway? UGH I am sure that I am making this harder than it is! :0)

NT Screen & Vivid Dreams

So, the test on Thursday went better than I could have ever expected. They did a scan of the baby (the first one I have had done outside my vagina!) And, it hurt a little (they press down some) but it was amazing. The baby had its arms behind its head like it was just relaxing by the pool! lol So cute!! The tech said everything looked great and she let us hear the heartbeat. It was 162bpm. The doctor came in and told me that originally our chance of Down's was 1 out of 700 due to my age but based off of what he saw with the ultrasound that it went up to 1 out of 1300 (something like that). I then had to have blood drawn which is no biggie and then they actually gave me a present. It was a weekly planner. Very cool. I have to go for more blood work towards the end of this month and then October 26, 2009 I go back to them for a Level 2 scan which is when they will check the fingers and toes and lips. Can't wait!!! We got a perfect profile picture of the baby. You can see its nose and arms and legs and big belly! So cute!!

Side note: My morning sickness is starting to improve...not great but we are getting there. The newest symptom though is weird, vivid dreams? Does anyone or has anyone else had this before?
Oh yeah, and I know I keep promising to post pictures, but I will definitely try and make that our project for the weekend...I told you I have to have DH help!!! Happy Labor Day everyone!!!