Bed Rest + Can't Sleep at Night = Long Blog

It has been a very eventful week here at the Cordell household. On Wednesday I went to my scheduled Dr’s appointment and was informed that my blood pressure is starting to creep up and that there was some (but not much) protein in my urine – both symptoms of pre-eclampsia (also known as pregnancy induced high blood pressure, PIH, or toxemia). I have been having some other mild symptoms like swelling and abdominal pain, but they had done blood work on me the week before and everything came back clear and I wasn’t worried. After all, everything is just barely, barely starting to show up and could mean nothing (Abram is always encouraging me not to overreact as well). Well just FYI, this PIH, we’ll call it for the sake of my typing, is opposite from normal high blood pressure in that moderate exercise will make the blood pressure skyrocket instead of alleviating it during pregnancy, they don’t know what causes it, once you have it, it only gets worse, never better, and the only cure is to deliver your baby. So I’m sure you can sense the major set up here in my story. . .
I was told to come back to the office to have my blood pressure checked again on Friday and also to do this lovely thing called a 24 hour urine where you keep all your pee in a jug in the fridge for 24 hours and then deliver it all to the hospital lab. By the way, if you have never told your spouse that you are going to save your pee and keep it next to the milk, you should try it, its great fun! The doc said to go ahead and wait until the weekend to start collecting pee so I could go to work without strings, so to speak. All sounds good to me. So then the doc moves on to the ‘how’s your baby doing’ question and I report that he has been moving noticeable less the past few days. With a couple of follow up questions it is decided that I should go strait over to the hospital for a Non-Stress Test. The NST is just where you sit back and relax and they hook you up to a monitor where they track your baby’s heartbeat and your contractions (which I guess I’m having, by the way, who knew?!) I was promised that they would most likely find my baby to be just fine and send me home, but they didn’t want to miss anything. At this point it is late enough in the day that the outpatient place in the hospital that does the NST is closed and I need to go directly to Labor and Delivery in the hospital. Suddenly I have memories of May, 13 years ago, and my sister getting sent in for a NST and staying to deliver her baby, but I still have 5 weeks until my baby is coming, so no biggie. ☺
Well, Abram and I have been so responsible with our cell phones lately. None have been bathed in water or perpetually lost, we have even kept them charged . . . until today when we both left our phone at home. So panic starts to set in as I am leaving the Dr’s office, headed to the hospital, and have no way to get a hold of my husband. And with it being his second day on the new job and he being a man of so many details, I have only a clue where his office is. Due to my pregnant memory that clue was not enough to find him. I did manage to make it to my brother’s house where in quick succession I knocked on the door, unlocked it, said “Hello?,” barged in and woke up the whole family from their first nap after an all night road trip. Go me! Anyway, I got the number for Abram’s work in time to find he was already making the 30 min drive home. So Clark offered to accompany me to Labor and Delivery where Abram found us about 45 min later.
I felt remarkably calm after Abram was on his way to meet me and it was almost fun to change into the breezy hospital gown and get set up in the Triage room (all the real rooms were being delivered in). So the way that our little boy started moving and kicking after he got put on the monitor reminded me of two things, first of all his mother’s love of attention, and second the stubborn way he wouldn’t move a stitch during his ultrasound to show his face and chest, until about 5 minutes after the tech gave up and rescheduled, at which point he started back flips. Needless to say, he is just fine. My mom did call Clark while he was there, he put her on speakerphone and made her guess who’s heartbeat she was hearing, “Wendy’s baby” was not her first guess! Clark and Abram traded posts and everything was fine until they started checking my blood pressure. It was pretty high so the nurse put me on a three-minute check for 20 minutes and said if it went up or stayed the same she would call my Dr.. I think 165/105 was the highest of the million readings we saw that night. Not good. I was moved to a real room, blood tests were ordered, the pee collection was started, and dutiful husband was off to the snack bar. The lab work all came back normal so about 6 hours after my arrival, we were sent home. Both of us had managed work off the next day and enjoyed a little sleep.
I’ll spare you the details of my 24 hour collection and skip to Friday. I went to work and left around 10 on my prep period to check in with the doctor and get the results from the most recent lab work. I was in complete shock as he told me that I was to go on bed rest for the remained of my pregnancy. I was even more shocked when he told me how long he expected to remainder of my pregnancy would be. Our little June baby is going to be a May baby, May 16 or sooner. Later, if we’re lucky. I wish I had the words to describe how overwhelming it was to watch the Dr. count backwards by weeks on the calendar, or to hear him say this would be my last day at work, or that driving to Salt Lake (which I had scheduled at least 4 times in the next two weeks) was out of the question, or that I’ll be having NST, lab work, and Dr’s appointments twice a week. My head was seriously swimming when I asked, “What exactly do you mean by ‘bed rest’?” I’m aloud to get up to use the bathroom and to shower. I think I’ll be taking a lot of showers this week. So I guess technically I’m breaking the rules by sitting at the computer right now, but my Bed Rest Parole Office is currently sleeping, and he would rather me be at the computer in a comfy chair then doing the laundry. Which reminds me of this random side note – Abram and I did have a little bonding moment at the hospital when I informed him that they watch this condition so closely because it could cause me to have a seizure, something he understands.
Friday was a very sad and unexpected departure from school. The last day of my six year teaching career and my four heart wrenching years at the youth correctional facility came abruptly. It was hard to say goodbye to my students and my friends. By some miracle I was able to get all of my stuff packed up and gone in the 2 hours my Dr let me go back to work, then it was back to the hospital for another NST.
The baby seems to be doing great and I am learning that bed rest is not the same thing as hanging out at home, which would actually be cool. But on the good (and terrifying) side of things, my baby is probably coming in about nine more days. It is a powerful lesson in procrastination and preparedness to suddenly be able to run errands no more. I’m so glad we were almost ready for this little guy. Basically we need a mattress, white onesies, some pacifiers and were set, not that I’m feeling ready!