The adventures of high blood pressure
Everyone wants to have a pregnancy that goes smoothly with no worries and full of ease. I was hoping for that, and approaching the end of my pregnancy, I thought I would have a worry free pregnancy. But boy was I wrong. As I have mentioned I've been having high blood pressure. As a result of that I have to have non-stress tests done twice a week. Tomorrow will be the fifth time I come in for a non-stress test, and boy do I feel like a non-stress test professional. I get weighed, pee in a cup, and then lay on a table for about 30-40 minutes until the baby moves a certain amount of time. While I understand this is for all for the good health of my baby to make sure he is doing ok,these stress tests are becoming annoying to do. Though it's an ease of mind to see the baby's heart rate at a good place, and not to see myself have any contractions, (The non-stress test also tracks if any contractions are occurring.)It's just starting to become inconvenient, as I have to miss a couple of hours of work and drive the opposite direction away from work, to get these non-stress tests done. I'm starting to feel like a regular with the nurses at the office.
Last Monday, the paper ran out in the machine that graphs the baby's heart rate. And of course I didn't notice this until 20 minutes later when the nurse came back. But it wasn't like I could have gotten the nurse anyways, because I'm attached to all these straps and cords. So of course I had to sit there for another 20 minutes, because the paper ran out only after 8 minutes of testing, so they needed more data. The machine they use looks like its from 1980. Not only did the machine fail me, the doctor informs me I need to do a 24 hour urine test to check for protein in my urine. Because of my high blood pressure, I have a high change of getting preclampsia, especially as I get further along in my pregnancy. The doctor tells me I have to pee in this orange container for 24 hours. And of course, I started work again the next day. And of course the doctor could tell me to take the test when I was on my week long vacation. Boo. So I had a fun adventure of taking a giant cooler to work. Because my container of urine had to stay cold. I felt like I was carrying organs or something. That or bringing some cold ones to work. And then every time I had to go to the bathroom, it was a big 15 minute production. I would discretely take my container out of my big blue cooler, and but it in a bag and walk to the bathroom. Then I had to put this ridiculous bowl thing that perfect fit into the toilet seat. After I would go pee I would have to pour it carefully in my orange container. And then I had to clean out the white container. Yes, sorry for all the lovely details, but these are the kinds of things they don't tell you that can happen to pregnant women. I never realized taking a piss could be such a big production. Thank the Lord my results came back negative and there are not signs of preeclampisa. But the doctor sounded like I'll have to do this again. Yah!! Not..
Thursday was a crazy day. I had another non-stress test, and then had to drive striaght to another office about 20 miles away to get my ultrasound done at a high risk doctor. The ultrasound went really well. My baby is already four pounds and 12 oz. So his growth is right where it needs to be. Looking at ultrasounds still confuse me. I thought since this time I could actually see the screen, that I would understand what was going on, but I was still confused what body part was what. Though the tech showed us his heart which was really cool. And they showed that he had a little hair fuzzies showing up in the back of his head. So he may have a lot of hair when he is born. Which I'm surprised because I haven't had any heartburn in my pregnancy. Just once for the first time on New Years Eve. Though I know the heartburn thing is an old wives tales. So the ultrasound went wonderful. The only thing was the tech brought the doctor in to look everything again. And she said that the baby may only have one kidney. Either it is a pelvic kidney where it is sitting really low and they can't see it or he only has one kidney. Of course this started to freak me out. But the doctor reassured me that people can live a healthy life with only one kidney. If nothing else I'm trying to look at the bright side of all of this. If I didn't have high blood pressure, I would have never had the ultrasound and I would have never found out that he could be potentially be missing a kidney.
Of course my high blood pressure has not decline. It's remained generally high. Though I'm glad that the baby is still in good health despite my stupid high blood pressure.
On a different note, my baby should be arriving in about 5 weeks or so. It's really starting to freak me out! I can't believe I only have about 5 weeks left. Where has the time gone?
Last Monday, the paper ran out in the machine that graphs the baby's heart rate. And of course I didn't notice this until 20 minutes later when the nurse came back. But it wasn't like I could have gotten the nurse anyways, because I'm attached to all these straps and cords. So of course I had to sit there for another 20 minutes, because the paper ran out only after 8 minutes of testing, so they needed more data. The machine they use looks like its from 1980. Not only did the machine fail me, the doctor informs me I need to do a 24 hour urine test to check for protein in my urine. Because of my high blood pressure, I have a high change of getting preclampsia, especially as I get further along in my pregnancy. The doctor tells me I have to pee in this orange container for 24 hours. And of course, I started work again the next day. And of course the doctor could tell me to take the test when I was on my week long vacation. Boo. So I had a fun adventure of taking a giant cooler to work. Because my container of urine had to stay cold. I felt like I was carrying organs or something. That or bringing some cold ones to work. And then every time I had to go to the bathroom, it was a big 15 minute production. I would discretely take my container out of my big blue cooler, and but it in a bag and walk to the bathroom. Then I had to put this ridiculous bowl thing that perfect fit into the toilet seat. After I would go pee I would have to pour it carefully in my orange container. And then I had to clean out the white container. Yes, sorry for all the lovely details, but these are the kinds of things they don't tell you that can happen to pregnant women. I never realized taking a piss could be such a big production. Thank the Lord my results came back negative and there are not signs of preeclampisa. But the doctor sounded like I'll have to do this again. Yah!! Not..
Thursday was a crazy day. I had another non-stress test, and then had to drive striaght to another office about 20 miles away to get my ultrasound done at a high risk doctor. The ultrasound went really well. My baby is already four pounds and 12 oz. So his growth is right where it needs to be. Looking at ultrasounds still confuse me. I thought since this time I could actually see the screen, that I would understand what was going on, but I was still confused what body part was what. Though the tech showed us his heart which was really cool. And they showed that he had a little hair fuzzies showing up in the back of his head. So he may have a lot of hair when he is born. Which I'm surprised because I haven't had any heartburn in my pregnancy. Just once for the first time on New Years Eve. Though I know the heartburn thing is an old wives tales. So the ultrasound went wonderful. The only thing was the tech brought the doctor in to look everything again. And she said that the baby may only have one kidney. Either it is a pelvic kidney where it is sitting really low and they can't see it or he only has one kidney. Of course this started to freak me out. But the doctor reassured me that people can live a healthy life with only one kidney. If nothing else I'm trying to look at the bright side of all of this. If I didn't have high blood pressure, I would have never had the ultrasound and I would have never found out that he could be potentially be missing a kidney.
Of course my high blood pressure has not decline. It's remained generally high. Though I'm glad that the baby is still in good health despite my stupid high blood pressure.
On a different note, my baby should be arriving in about 5 weeks or so. It's really starting to freak me out! I can't believe I only have about 5 weeks left. Where has the time gone?
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