40-week check up

This visit was quite a different visit for me. Everything started out normal, like waiting in the obnoxiously hot waiting rooms forever and then waiting half-naked in my room forever. I hate having afternoon appointments, but this was the only available time for my check up so I took it knowing I'd be there for a while. The CMA who took my vitals but didn't tell me anything was out of the ordinary so I was surprised when a different CMA took me to my room and asked to repeat my blood pressure. She said the first reading had been 124/94. So she took it again and it was still 124/92. She asked about any other pre-eclampsia symptoms and I told her I wasn't having any. Mason must have been napping or relaxing when she was listening to his heartbeat because it was 138. Dr. Vuong came in and said she was a little concerned about the blood pressure, but wanted to check me out first to see what was going on. Unfortunately, she said I am still only at 1cm dilated and he is still really high. She said if I were 2-3 cm dilated, she would go ahead and send me over to the hospital for an induction, but with only being at 1 cm, that doesn't make me a super great candidate for induction at this point. But, she was concerned about the blood pressure and wanted to have it checked out, so she decided to send me to the hospital for a non stress test and blood work to make sure there was no pre-eclampsia. If they found nothing, I would go home. If they did find something I would be induced and hope it didn't lead to a c-section. Immediately, my adrenaline kicks in, which I think is the only thing that kept me from bursting out into tears right then. This appointment sounded so much like my 40-week appointment with Aubrey, minus being sent to the hospital. Luckily, I had to focus on calling Todd and my mom to tell them the news and then drive over to the hospital that I didn't have time to think about crying.

It was so surreal going back to the hospital because it was the first time I've been there since we left with Aubrey. It was almost like being admitted because they asked me a million questions, took all of my insurance paperwork and then led to me to a triage room that included a real bed and all of the good equipment. My nurse even had me take my clothes off and gown up, another surreal feeling. She found Mason immediately with the monitor and took my first blood pressure, which ended up being 116/64. She said many of the women come over from the doctor's office with high blood pressures and complaining how hot it is over there and when they hook them up to the monitors there everything is all good. She said they would still draw the blood and send it to the lab but since my urine was negative for any protein and I showed minimal swelling, she was pretty sure I would be going home within an hour. So, I relaxed in the bed and enjoyed watching HGTV for an hour while I listened to Mason's heart beat on the monitor. She came back in around 5:30, said my blood work was great except for being a little low in potassium, but otherwise I was free to go. Again, another weird feeling to just put my clothes on and walk out of the hospital by myself. I am glad everything turned out ok and really glad I didn't need to be induced. I would really like to go into labor on my own again and avoid a c-section if at all possible. So, if I don't go into labor I have another visit scheduled on Friday, which will include a biophysical profile followed by a visit with the doctor. Since I will be 41 weeks on Saturday, I have a sneaking suspicion I will leave with an induction scheduled, but we'll see how it goes. Hopefully, this little boy will decide its time to come out and see the world before everyone threatens to force him out.