Round Three: The Hospital

This post comes from Memorial Hospital of Carbondale (antipartum unit). This is a familiar place as I have been here before–back in February for a few days before heading to Barnes.

This visit makes the third time I have stayed in the hospital during this pregnancy.

It is not easy.

On Thursday we had a trip to Barnes for an outpatient visit. This has been part of our routine with doctor visits since February. We would take a day to travel to Barnes for an ultrasound and OB visit. Thursday started out like a normal day, despite the rainy weather, I felt pretty good.

My blood pressure was good, I took my meds and we were on our way.

The ultrasound went well . We found out Baby H weighs 4 pounds and 10 ounces, so he’s growing quite a bit each week. He was camera shy, as usual, so we did not get to see that sweet face.

Once I hit the OB visit, my blood pressure had spiked. At the time, it wasn’t bad enough for admission, but something to watch. It is hard dealing with blood pressure issues and never knowing why there is a spike, even with meds, so we were told if it got worse to contact our doctors at home.

We left Barnes a little excited knowing that was our last OB visit there (unless there were serious complications). We visited Buy Buy Baby, Twisted Ranch, and headed home.

I noticed going home I was exhausted, which is sometimes typical. But, I could also tell that maybe I was little too exhausted. Once we got home that prompted an immediate blood pressure check and it was not good.

By the time we got home, I took my evening BP meds, waited to see if they would kick in, and after about an hour, we ended up at Memorial.

And I’ve been here since.

I know this is the place to be for care and for observation, but it is hard. Just this past weekend, K went to her first high school prom. She and her BF stopped by, which made my day to see her and him in their prom best. I got a lot of great photos throughout the night and updates about the dinner, dance, and events. Part of me was sad I missed seeing her get ready, taking pictures outside of a hospital room, and going to the promenade. Part of me was annoyed that I couldn’t be two places at oncee.

Baby H needs to bake. Simply put, we need to make it to 37 weeks. At one point, we thought we would be seeing our baby boy much earlier (like over the weekend) and to be honest, I was not prepared for that mentally or physically.

I desperately want my body to cooperate. I have to keep this blood pressure regulated and make sure I can handle day to day activities without the spike that is so dangerous to baby and me.

So for now, we wait. We hope and pray the medicine works to keep the blood pressure regulated, we hope and pray Baby H stays put and bakes longer, and I hope that while I am here I can stay off magnesium. It takes a lot out of me, but I need it when the BP is dangerously high.

In the meantime, I can’t thank you all enough for your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, good vibes, visits, calls, and text messages. It is so nice to read the comments (or have Sam share them with me). It is so great to have familiar faces come by for visit. We are very blessed and very grateful to you all. Please keep those good vibes coming.