Bed Rest

As of Friday I am now officially on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy. I've been going in to my doctor's office once a week since mid-November to monitor my blood pressure since it has been borderline high/normal. It was normal when I went in on Monday. However, this week they also decided to start doing NST (non-stress testing) once a week to see how the baby's heartbeat is doing over a 45-minute period and to see if I'm having any contractions. When I went in Friday for the NST my blood pressure had shot up pretty high and there was protein in my urine. Plus, my hands and feet have been pretty swollen for at least a few weeks. These are all typical symptoms of preeclampsia. So Friday evening they sent me to the hospital.

On Saturday the doctors confirmed that I have mild preeclampsia. Typically with mild preeclampsia they would send me home to do bed rest at home. However, they wanted to keep monitoring my blood pressure because of the large change because for most of my pregnancy my blood pressure was on the low end of normal. So this morning the doctors started running a new 24-hour preeclampsia test. If the numbers are consistent with the first test they will let me go home tomorrow and continue bed rest at home. If the numbers are on the rise they are going to keep me in the hospital for more monitoring. As long as the preeclampsia numbers stay stable I can keep carrying the baby as close to term as possible. If the preeclampsia gets worse then I will have to deliver early for the safety of me and the baby.

The good news: Ziggy is looking great! They did an ultrasound yesterday and she is approximately 5 lb 7 oz in size. The blood flow to the placenta is normal and her heartbeat looks great on all the NSTs. They did a continuous NST the first 18 hours I was in the hospital and are now just doing three one-hour sessions a day because she looks so good. They adjusted my due date from February 3 to 1, which means I am now at 33 weeks and 4 days. That means I have already carried Ziggy a week and a half longer than Tyler and he turned out just fine. If I carry Ziggy at least another week and a half we may bypass the NICU altogether.

I miss my boys but they are treating me well at the hospital and I am feeling pretty good. Tyler likes that he gets a sticker when he comes to visit and that I have cable TV in my room, which means there are always cartoons (this is not the case at home). Last night when Michael and Tyler were about to head home from the hospital, Tyler said a few times, "Come with us Mommy!" That part is hard! I've been telling Tyler about how he was born here and that I stayed here on bed rest for 3 weeks before he was born. Apparently pregnancy just not agree with me!