On Monday March 11 we went to our normal scheduled OB appointment. By this point I am 38 weeks and 3 days. I mentally had prepared myself for the thought that they might say "You need to go to the hospital because it is time." I took my camera with me just in case this happened, but not my hospital bag. Yes a little backward thinking, I know. ha ha
So we show up at the appointment and everything is as it usually is besides my doctor being on vacation so we are seeing a nurse. They go to check my blood pressure which up to this point has always been perfectly normal. However, today it was high. They did it again and still high. So they then did a non-stress test where I had to hit a button every time I felt Aubrey move. Well of course she refuses to cooperate and only moves 4 times throughout the entire session. So then we are told we will need to do a sonogram to check her breathing. By this point I'm kind of freaking out and so glad that Dave is with me because he's keeping me calm. The sonographer determines all is fine with Aubrey and she is not showing any distress. She tried to get us a good profile picture but once again Aubrey was not cooperating, however she was completely fine with giving us a good, clear picture of her butt. It was hilarious, she was showing us how she truly felt about all the tests they were being run. So we think all is well and go back to the room where they then inform us we need to go to the hospital for monitoring. If at the hospital my blood pressure does not go down then we will be having Aubrey as soon as possible. So needless to say I'm freaking out again because I want her to be fine and safe and this all scares me.
Once at the hospital they hooked me up to monitors that both monitored me and Aubrey separately. They ran various labs as well. At this time we text my mother who is on her way to San Antonio that same day just to let her know what was going on. She decides to turn around and head back towards DFW just in case. Fortunately, at the hospital my blood pressure did go back down and the entire time Aubrey never was showing distress; Praise God! So they sent us home but on strict bed rest orders and I needed to go back to my doctor on Wednesday to have my blood pressure re-checked. I also was supposed to do a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. The nurse stated that if my blood pressure did go down that I would remain on bed rest the remainder of the pregnancy but if not then we would have to go back to the hospital on Wednesday to start the whole labor process. At this point I am not diagnosed with Preeclampsia but they want to do everything possible to avoid this from happening and since I am so close to my Expected Delivery Date they are 100% ready to get her out of there if need be.
Bed rest was hard but I caught up on some shows and got all of Aubrey's flower pins completed. We also got all the bags completed for the "just in case" on Wednesday. On Wednesday we head back to the OBGYN and they run their tests and my blood pressure has not gone down but rather gone up. Now on Wednesday we saw a nurse that I have never seen before and she was a different nurse than who I had seen on Monday. Well this nurse sees that my blood pressure has not gone down and acts like this is no big deal. She tells me to go do some more lab work and then to come back to the office on Monday for my normal appointment and we would go from there. At this time I am confused and have to tell her what happened on Monday and what the nurses at the hospital had told me that if the BP had not gone down that we were to go back to the hospital and start the process, so why where we waiting? She acted like this was news to her and then said that she would put a "STAT" on both the blood work and urine tests and call me with the results this afternoon. If those results were also showing no improvement they would instruct me to come back up to the hospital. I asked to speak to the doctor that was in charge of us on Monday but she was not in so I figured her response on wanting to wait and see what the labs said was fine. We drove over to the lab and luckily I thought to ask the technician how soon "STAT" meant and when I could expect to hear from my doctors office. She said the blood work would be ready in 4 hours but that the urine test can not be done STAT and that those results would be ready the following day. Now I am concerned and frustrated. So I call my doctors office and of course have to leave a message for my doctor's nurse (not the nurse I saw today) and leave a very stern, to the point message about "wanting to have a doctor; someone who actually knows what they are talking about and how to do their job to call me back ASAP" (Yup these are the words I used plus a few more). So we headed home and I'm frustrated, in tears, and pissed beyond belief. I did not want to have Aubrey over Spring Break but I know this isn't right and that if my BP did not change in just 2 days why the heck would we wait 5 more days? I felt like I was having to fight a battle for my daughters safety and if she needed to get out of there then we needed to do that and we needed to do that NOW before she did show distress!! I wasn't going to let up until they did their darn jobs! Within 10 minutes of getting home my nurse called me and said after she talked to the doctor in charge that day that I was correct and she wanted me to go up to the hospital for more monitoring but to expect that I would not be released until Aubrey decided to make her debut or until they decided to induce. She profusely apologized to me because she understood how upset I was.
So as relieved as I am, I even more infuriated that it had to take us who have no nursing experience or parenting experience to ride their butts and get what needed to be done, done. We finish packing up all our bags and gathering everything we would need while at the hospital. According to my husband and mother I had packed the entire house, which I am not sure why that was a surprise seeing that I do that when I pack just for me for a 2 night stay anywhere so of course I had to do the same for my daughter. We then headed to grab lunch because I remember that the nurse at the hospital on Monday had warned us to eat before we came to the hospital because once there, if they decide to pursue with labor then they wouldn't let me eat. Once we arrived to the hospital they checked us in and put us in room 1 which supposedly was one of the better rooms because it had more windows. Our nurse seemed excited for us which I took to mean today had been a slow day/shift. Over the next few hours my blood pressure did not go down and they gave me the news that they would be inducing labor at 5pm and we would have a Aubrey by the end of Thursday.
This was exciting and scary all at the same time because in 48 hours I would have my daughter in my arms!!!
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