37.4

I'm really, really lucky that for the most part, being pregnant is "easy" for me.  I don't get morning sickness in the beginning, life trudges along as normal through the middle, and for most of the end, no matter how uncomfortable I get, I still seem to be able to keep up with the demands of my life.

Until now anyway.

One of the reasons Elliott was born 15 days early is because my blood pressure was just too high.  It wasn't heart attack/stroke high, but it was higher than it should have been for someone my age.  And, because my diabetes was totally out of control (but still sort of under control) we had to deal with a sick baby, underdeveloped lungs, and 9.5 days in the NICU.

Flash forward to Wyatt.  My diabetes was better controlled and my blood pressure was low.  Just at the point it started to climb with Elliott, a few weeks before he was born, with Wyatt it actually started to drop.  I was shocked but happy.  It meant that he got to cook a little bit longer and in the end, he was 5 days early, spent a couple of hours being checked out in the NICU and then he was all mine.

Now flash forward again to "little twitchy".  

First, he still doesn't have a name so if you've got a good idea, share it in the comments.  No "double tt" names, please.

Second, about a month ago, my blood pressures started climbing.  Not major climbs mind you, but when your hanging out in the 120/67's and jump to 135/82 that's cause to be concerned.  Luckily, I go for Non-Stress Tests twice a week and though my numbers in the office have been high, the 4 pressures that get taken at each test have been pretty good.

At my 37 week appointment four days ago, my blood pressure was 147/92.  That's high.  "Normal" is 140/80 and my doctor would like be to be 130/80 or lower.  Oops.  All the blood pressures at my NST's have sort of bought me some time, or so I thought, and at that appointment last week we set a date of Thursday, September 6 at 7:30 in the morning for the little twitch to arrive.  One week early, two weeks to go and a light at the end of the tunnel.

Then I went for my 8:30 am NST on Saturday morning.  The worst BP?  157/92.  The best BP?  147/82.  That's not so hot.  It means I'm failing.  And, by failing it means that the baby has to get here sooner than later before I have a heart attack or a stroke.

Yes, I'm being dramatic.

Before I can leave each NST, The nurses call my doctor to give him the report of my test.  When the nurse came in on Saturday she said, "I just got off the phone with Dr. Nielson, and he says when you come in on Tuesday for your next NST, that we'll set up a c-section date and you'll have the baby by the end of next week."

Okay.  Cool?

So, my high blood pressure and I came home on Saturday and went straight to bed.  I stayed in bed almost all of Saturday and almost all of Sunday.  Getting up only to supervise/check-in on one of the many projects I'd assigned my good husband, to go to the bathroom, to eat,  or just to stretch my legs.  In the last 48 hours, counting night time, I think I easily spent 30 of them lying down.  It was good for my ankles, but my BP is still high.

It's okay right at this exact moment, but as I was panicking last night trying to decided if I needed to go to the hospital or not because I didn't feel so hot, I sent my good husband out to get me a blood pressure cuff.  At 11:00 pm.  He is such a good husband.  And what was the result?  It was 157/98.  Ahhhh!

Once I actually knew what the number was though, I calmed down a bit.  I re-read the symptoms of preeclampsia my doctor gave me and decided I was okay - that the best thing to do right then would be to go to bed.

Which I did.  And I woke up exactly 7 times to go to the bathroom.  Blah!

Anyway - today is Monday.  A normal every day kind of day.  Back to routines and school and laundry, if you don't count Wyatt being home and not at school, sitting on the couch watching "bubble guppies" and coughing up a phlegmy lung.  Life doesn't seem to hold still and I'm doing my best to "rest" and stay "calm" whatever that means.

Tomorrow, on Tuesday, I go for my next NST.  I'm hoping it's my last and that they let me leave AND that I leave with a surgery date for sometime on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

Little twitchy will be two weeks early.  But, hopefully the good control I've had over my bedes this time around will give him good lungs.  If not - we've done the NICU before and will survive.

I need to lie down.