Last Thursday, I had my 36-week appointment with my doctor. The nurse had taken my pulse and blood pressure, all the regular pre-doctor stats. My blood pressure was slightly elevated at 100 over 80. (I usually have really low BP, too.) When the doctor came in, she started asking all sorts of questions, one of them being "Have you noticed any difference in your baby's movements?"
I hadn't thought of it, but she had seemed less active than normal. I had no solid data, because I haven't been doing fetal kick counts, it was just a feeling. Before I know it, my doctor is calling in a tech who hooks me up to this monitor to read baby's heart rate. In the middle of being monitored, a phlebotomist enters the room and takes some blood. Everything was so overwhelming and was happening so fast. I started crying, fearing the worst.
After monitoring baby's heart for about half an hour, my doctor decided to send me across the parking lot to the hospital to get hooked up to their (more powerful) monitors. By this point, I had calmed down, but everything that had been said kept echoing in my head. "The baby's heart rate doesn't go up high enough when she moves," being the number one comment I kept thinking about. "Is there something wrong with my baby's heart?" I wondered.
At the hospital, another nurse hooked me up to another machine. There were two sensors attached to long cords that go into the monitor. The sensors get strapped to my belly. One of the sensors monitors baby's heart rate, and the other detects when I'm having contractions. I guess they use the same equipment when a lady goes into labor.
I sat for over two hours with this stuff hooked to me. Thank goodness my mom was there with me. (She takes me to all of my doctor visits.) We watched TV and patiently waited.
Finally, the doctor came in to update me on what was going on. My blood test from the doctor's office showed abnormal platelet and liver levels. Combined with my baby's heart rate, they were concerned I might have pre-eclampsia. I was admitted to the hospital for 24-hour monitoring. He informed us if I had protein in my urine or anything else was off, there would be a possibility they'd have induce me to start labor. I did NOT want that to happen.
I stayed in the hospital two nights, in which I got very little sleep. Every eight hours, someone would come in and take more blood. I had the monitors hooked up to my belly the entire first night into the next day. Sleeping with those on was difficult because I'd change positions and the nurse would have to come in my room to adjust the sensor, as I had knocked it off moving around. On Friday, they cut down to 20 minute monitoring intervals (which meant they had to get a steady 20 minutes, and sometimes that actually took over an hour). I was relieved to have those things off, though.
My husband came and stayed with me after work on Friday. He was worried and just wanted to be with me. He couldn't concentrate at work, so they let him go home early at noon. He stayed with me until Saturday afternoon, when my parents came back to the hospital. (My dad actually had to do a sleep study the night before, at the same hospital.)
In the end, there were some minor problems but nothing to make them keep me any longer or induce. Saturday evening I got to go home. I've been on bed rest, and I won't be going back to work until my maternity leave is over. At my 37-week appointment (yesterday), my blood pressure had decreased and everything looks "back to normal". The baby's head is low and my body is preparing for labor. It's coming down to "any day now"- which is both exciting and a little scary. We're both healthy, though, which is really the most important thing.
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