I’ve been somewhat quiet about my pregnancy lately. There’s been so much going on that I haven’t even felt like writing about it. However, now that I’m supposed to be taking it easy aka laying down as much as possible, I suppose I have all the time in the world to write. Heh..or maybe not. I don’t know how this is supposed to work when you have two under two, they can no longer go to daycare and we no longer have a babysitter, but I guess that can be left for a whole different entry…

Anyway, my blood pressure has always been somewhat of an issue throughout all of my pregnancies. One week, it’ll be 120/70, another week, it’ll be 140/80, then the next week it’ll be 130/75. It’s usually all over the place and even though my doctor’s show some concern nearing the end, it’s never really been that much of an issue. Not since a few weeks ago, that is. As usual, my blood pressure has been all over the place with this pregnancy. Lately it’s been hovering around 130/80 until two weeks ago where it shot up to 150/80 at my bi-weekly specialist appointment. I knew I was going to be in for a ride after hearing that.

So after my ultrasound (which showed that everything with baby looks completely normal – he was measuring 5lbs 3oz), the nurse had me lay down for 5 minutes before rechecking my BP. This time it was 120/75. Still concerned that it was so high when I first went in, the specialist sent me over to the hospital for some blood work and to pick up a jug for a 24 hour urine collection.

Two days later, I had the results back from my tests. Everything was normal, not even a trace amount of protein in my urine. They just told me to take it easy for the time being and that I’d need to come back to see the specialist at the beginning of the following week to make sure things weren’t getting worse.

As I expected, my blood pressure was high at that appointment, too. I don’t know how it couldn’t be since I was so worked up over it. Classic case of white coat syndrome. To my surprise, the doctor didn’t seem too concerned and just told me again to take it easy.

Then I went to my regular OB that Thursday and had my highest reading yet – 152/86. The nurse then had me lay down on my left side for 10 minutes and took it again – 118/66. So right there, I had my highest and lowest blood pressure readings that I’ve EVER had. Again, the doctor just told me to lay down as much as possible at home since that was obviously helping keep it down.

Then last night hits. I tried really hard to keep off my feet all weekend and felt like I did a pretty good job at it, but by 9pm, I was starting to feel pretty dizzy. At first I thought maybe I was just tired, but I really wasn’t THAT tired. If anything, I was probably just tired of laying down. But the dizziness kept getting worse. By the time I got up to go to bed, I could barely walk. I felt like complete crap. My husband asked if I needed to go to the hospital, but fearing they’d have me there for a week if I went in, I decided to try to sleep it off and see how I felt in the morning. If by then I wasn’t better, I’d call the doctor to see what they wanted me to do.

I didn’t feel too bad throughout the night as long as I was laying down. But any time I got up to pee or get a drink (pretty much every hour), I felt extremely dizzy. At 6:45 I decided to get up and take a shower because I knew that once I called the doctor, they’d want to see me. I didn’t feel too bad after I got up, but was still somewhat lightheaded. I wanted to shrug it off and hope for the best, but my husband was scheduled to fly tonight so I figured I’d better get checked out now while he was home rather than wait until he left. If things were to get worse while he was gone, I would have been either stuck at home SOL or had to drag the kids with me to the doctor’s office and/or hospital. There’s no way that was going to happen.

So I called the doctor. I figured I’d get in right away, but the nurse told me to come in at 1:30. Ryan would have had to leave for the airport by then so I told her that wasn’t going to work. She then said I needed to go to the hospital and have Labor & Delivery check me out. My. Worst. Fear.

I really didn’t have much choice. As much as I didn’t want to, I had to go. I packed my bag, expecting to be there at least the rest of the day, and hoped for the best. Having to go to the hospital by myself without knowing when I would be returning home is not on the top of my list of most enjoyable things. However, somehow I found it in me to calm down on the 5 minute drive over there and went straight to the nurses’ station at L&D. Soon after, I was putting on a gown, climbing into bed and getting hooked up to a bunch of different monitors. They had me give a urine sample, which thankfully came back showing no protein. This was reassuring to me. After the nurse had me answer a bunch of registration questions, I had my blood pressure taken. I almost didn’t want to ask what it was, but knew that I needed to for my own peace of mind. It was only 133/79. Not bad considering the circumstances. I was expecting it to be a lot worse than my worst reading. Knowing that it was pretty normal made me feel much better about the situation.

They kept me hooked up to the monitors for about an hour and a half and I used the time to shut my eyes and relax without having to worry about kids climbing all over me. It was probably the most peaceful hour and a half I’ve had since I was in the hospital recovering after Robert’s birth! Hospital bed rest might not be the worst thing after all!

After four more BP readings, my doctor came in to see how me and the baby were doing. My BP readings stayed between 120/70 and 130/80 so he was happy with that. AND SO WAS I! The baby was also doing great, but wouldn’t keep still long enough for them to get a consistent heartbeat measurement. I was just relieved to know that nothing serious was going on. Who knows why I was dizzy. I guess it was just a weird fluke thing. So they sent me home, telling me to drink a lot of water (for the BP), eat a lot of protein (for the dizziness) and keep laying down as much as possible.

I feel like I got lucky this time. I hope to not step foot back in that hospital until I’m in labor. Even though I’m only 35 weeks right now, I’m so ready to have this baby because I’m so worn out dealing with the blood pressure issues. These next few weeks could not go fast enough!