2 Days Overdue...

Can I have a hormonal over-due pregnant woman vent please?

Yes, I'm still pregnant - QUIT BUGGING US! :)

I'm slightly kidding, but seriously, it's really annoying. The baby will come when the baby will come, and you all will know as soon as we can tell you. If we haven't called you or posted her pictures and stats, it's because the baby hasn't made her grand arrival.

Ok, vent over. Now onto the good stuff. I spent all Thursday, Friday, the weekend and yesterday waiting for a call from the doctor's office with the test results. I expected it to come - that's just how my luck goes. (They say they only call when the results are positive.) But nothing ever came. So I decided to call this morning. I had to ease my own nerves and know for sure what the results were. Well, the nurse said that all of the tests came back normal! I've read online that in order to be officially diagnosed with preeclampsia, you have to have high blood pressure (at least 140/90 OR a rise of 30/15 mm Hg from your normal blood pressure) AND the presence of 300 mg or more in a 24-hour urine collection. Well I definitely had the high blood pressure, but the nurse told me that my protein levels were at 115 mg. That's WAY lower than the 300! So yay!

Something else that's weird is that I've had Jonny's brother take my blood pressure for the past 3 days. On Saturday it was 130/85. Sunday it was around 120/75, and yesterday it was around 112/75. I haven't done anything different since last week to make it go down. Very very odd, but very very good. Now they have no reason to force an induction!

I have an appointment tomorrow morning. Hopefully they'll tell me I'm in labor and I don't know it. haha, I wish. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Post-appointment Update

At my appointment today my blood pressure was slightly higher and they found a little protein in my urine again. My midwife didn't seem too worried about it, thankfully. I told her that I would prefer to not be induced as long as I can help it. She ordered a 24 hour urine collection (fun fun!). I started that this morning and I'll turn it in tomorrow and get some blood work done to check how my kidneys and liver are doing, as well as a complete blood count. Once we get the results back from those (I'm thinking maybe Friday at the earliest), they'll decide if we can wait on inducing or if we need to right away. Since I'm full-term already (40 weeks this weekend), I'm hoping that my body will go into labor on its own before we get the results back and make any kind of decisions, and we won't have to worry about any of this anymore!

Thanks for all your concerns and well wishes. We'd still appreciate your thoughts and prayers in hopes that we have a natural, safe delivery. I'll post another update when we know what's going on! Hopefully it will be a birth announcement!

Pregnancy Update - Week 39

I had my 38 week (39 according to me!) appointment on Friday. I've been going weekly now, and they're always the same thing: check in, pee in a cup, wait until I'm called back, weight, blood pressure, wait for the midwife, any questions answered, things look good, see you next week! Well, when I was meeting with the midwife, she told me that my blood pressure was on the higher side (130/85) and they found protein in my pee. Those are 2 of the 3 signs of preeclampsia (aka Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension or Toxemia). I don't have any swelling - though, with Lily, my ankles were like an elephant's, and my blood pressure was also quite higher towards the end with Lily, but nothing they were too concerned about. Well, now I have the protein...which is scary. The midwife wanted to see me back on Tuesday to recheck things, so hopefully things will have changed by then.

For those of you who are wondering, "preeclampsia causes the blood vessels to constrict, resulting in high blood pressure and a reduced blood flow that can affect organs throughout the body, including the liver, kidneys, and brain.

When less blood is being delivered to your uterus, it can mean problems for your baby, such as poor growth, too little amniotic fluid, and placental abruption (when the placenta separates from the uterine wall before delivery)."

With this showing up so close to my due date, I wouldn't imagine that poor growth would be that big of a problem. The amount of amniotic fluid and placental abruption worry me, though. I'm not sure what they'll do on Tuesday if they have the same findings...I've read that they'll go straight to induction, or do some tests first. Hopefully with my midwives, they'll do tests first and decide if things are ok. If they are, I'm just hoping that I'll be put under a more strict watch and not induced. I've heard that pitocin makes your contractions much harder...and I don't know how I would deal with that without an epidural. I would really, REALLY love to have an unmedicated birth again, but I'm just not sure if that's going to be possible this time if I'm induced.

I found a great site that said that preeclampsia is caused from low blood volume, caused by poor nutrition. If you eat more calories and increase your protein and salt intake, you can increase your blood amount, thus causing your blood pressure to lower. So I'm eating all of the protein and salt I can...yay. I hate being forced to eat, and I HATE salting my food. Weird, I know. It may not change anything in a couple of days, but what's the worst that can happen? I gain 10 lbs in 5 days? haha. Hopefully I'll go into labor before Tuesday and we won't have to worry about it!

So we'd really love all of your prayers. I'll update after my appointment on Tuesday. :)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

On Friday night, Jonny and I left Lily with the in-laws and went on a LOOOOOOOOONG needed date. We went to Jordan Commons and had fish & chips for dinner and talked for a while until the movie started. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wasn't our first choice - we actually wanted to see Bedtime Stories, but it was sold out. I was a little bummed out, because I didn't really want to see the movie, but figured that maybe I'd like it more since I didn't expect much. Turns out I didn't like it. I loved it! It was done so well...with the Forrest Gump kind of feel and a LOT of comedy in it - which made it less of a drama to me. I'd only had one really emotional pregnant moment so far this pregnancy, but I definitely had another moment during the movie. It really made me cry. Not just "oh, there's a tear or two" cry, but a serious "I can't stop myself from crying" cry. I'm sure the girl next to me thought I was crazy. Anyway, I highly recommend it! It's definitely one of the best I've seen in a while (not to mention that I haven't seen a movie in the theaters since Iron Man...).