Well shoot, it turns out I'm still not cut out to be a blogger. The last time I updated this thing I was only 28 weeks pregnant, and now today baby Amelia is officially 2 weeks old! Wowza!
Okay, so let's back track just a little bit here... Weeks 28-35ish were relatively uneventful. Nothing exciting to share so we will fast forward through that. With that said though, things DID get a bit interesting...
At the beginning of September I started getting high blood pressure readings at my doctor appts. My OB was concerned but we decided we would just keep a close eye on it since it wasn't SUPER high and I had no other symptoms of anything funky going on. He instructed me to monitor it daily at home and report back. Well, all of my home readings were totally normal, so we had initially come to the conclusion that maybe I just had white coat syndrome and all the office readings were a fluke. #wishfulthinking
Unfortunately by mid September my home readings were also high and my office readings were even higher. We started talking induction possibilities and naturally, I started to panic which probably raised my BP even higher. Viscous cycle I tell you. At my 38 week appointment my BP was through the roof and my OB sent me directly to Labor and Delivery to be monitored all afternoon at the hospital. They ran labs - blood work was fine. They collected urine - no protein present. My BP problems remained a mystery and my OB wanted to induce me that day out of fear of what was to come, but somehow I talked him into giving me one more week. He agreed as long as I were to be on strict bed rest and collect my urine in a giant jug for 24 hours straight. Fine. Consider it done!
I left the hospital and immediately contacted A so he could get his flights from Italy changed and arrive sooner. That proved to be way more challenging than expected, but luckily he arrived a couple days later on September 28. We got together for lunch on the 29th, and met at my OB's office for my 39 week appointment on the 30th. My OB was thrilled to see A and his mom at that appointment because it was officially my deadline and there was no way I was going to be able to talk my way out of an immediate induction. This was the first appointment that protein was present in my urine, I was becoming puffier by the minute and my BP was at an all time high of 154/106. It was officially go time, whether I liked it or not.
For those who may be unaware, I am a SUPER crunchy gal when it comes to child birth. I labor at home as long as possible (like if insurance would cover it, I'd birth there too!), I avoid all interventions and drugs, pain meds, epidurals, etc. Leave me alone with my essential oils, candles, bath tub and Enya - I got this. So, the thought of a medical induction when I was nowhere near ready for labor (like 0 dilated, 0% effaced and baby was so high my OB made a comment about my cervix being world record length....), had me absolutely FREAKING out.... and raising my blood pressure even higher.
Anyway, we left my appointment and I told A and his mama to go home, take a nap, get some lunch, do something fun, enjoy their last day without a tiny babe to take care of because it was going to be a LONG day and there was no point in them sitting there at the hospital just staring at me.....
