Day 6 of 7 in Week 32. Well, today was the baby shower at Vera's Mom's house. My Mom and Vera went, while my Dad stayed at the hospital with me. Vera and my Mom came to the hospital afterward with balloons and all of the presents and some samples of the food, carnitas, yum. Vera's Mom had quite a spread, I was sorry to miss it. They also brought the cake, which we gave the the nursing staff (I couldn't eat it due to gestational diabetes). We had called all of the guests ahead of time to let them know the situation, so many of our friends did not go. So it was mostly family. It was great to see all the gifts and the balloons.
My dad and I spent the day watching soccer finals, napping or discussing politics. In between doctor visits and tests. It was fun spending time with him.
I was informed on Friday that I will be in the hospital for the remainder of my pregnancy. So basically when I leave the hospital, I will no longer be pregnant. The doctors want to keep me pregnant as long as possible to allow the baby to grow. I got two steroid shots, in the butt, 24 hours apart to help the baby's lungs develop faster. They hope the bed rest will allow me to get to 34 weeks, two weeks from now.
Every morning, after breakfast, they wheel me down to get an ultrasound. The baby continues to do well. The test had 4 parts, baby movements, amniotic fluid levels, practice breathing, and some other test. Each test gets a score of either 0, 1 or 2 for a total of up to 8. There is also a dopler reading of flow through the umbilical chord. Amniotic fluid has been low normal. And she keeps getting a score of 8. So that's good.
I am not on any blood pressure medication or any other medication. They take my blood pressure often and it continues to stay up, but as long as I stay on my left side it's not extremely high. You'd think that being in a hospital would be boring, but they keep me busy. There's always a nurse coming in to check my blood pressure or a doctore coming in to talk to me. So I'm hardly ever alone for very long. It makes it hard to get any rest.
I see a different doctor each day, as my regular OB is on vacation in France. So I just get the doctor on call for the practice. Which is quite stressful. I call who ever comes in to see me, Doctor Du Jour. I never know who it will be from day to day. I still have yet to meet all the doctors in the practice. I think I have 2 or 3 more to meet. So, it's hard to trust that there is any one really watching over my case. I also never know how concerned they really are. On one hand they tell me that preeclampsia is a serious condition and on the other hand they make it sound like I'm doing fine and there's nothing to worry about. So I can't tell if they are telling me things to cover their own ass or not. Plus since it's a different person each day, there's no consistency, each of them has a different approach to communicating my situation. Bottom line, I guess I take it day by day.
My low heart rate in the 40s seems to perplex them. They've compared me to Lance Armstrong. I'm no Tour de France cyclist, but I do know that in second trimester of my pregnancy my resting heart rate was in the 60s. I had a heart ultrasound yesterday and all is normal with my ticker. I hope I get there for the baby's sake. I want my doctor to do the delivery. I want a normal delivery, not a c-section. I want to experience the birth process!
I miss seeing the sun. I only get to see outside through the hospital hallway windows from a gurney on my way to my daily ultrasound.
The life and times in the House of Chreblett
