Baby check up x 4

This week has been a crazy one!

Monday morning, at 12:30am, I woke to some pretty strong contractions coming every 3-5 minutes. After and hour and a half of that, we decided to go to the hospital. They monitored my contractions for another hour or so. The contractions stayed the same. I then got to walk around the hospital for an hour to see if that would help the contractions get stronger. They didn't. So I was sent home because the contractions I was having wasn't dilating my cervix any more than it already was (4cm). While at the hospital my blood pressure was higher than it has been, so my Dr. wanted to see me in the office later that morning for that and also to re-check my cervix. At his office, my blood pressure was still high and my cervix was still dilated 4cm. If I was dilated 5cm, my doctor could have had me admitted and broke my water. Dumb hospital rules. If my blood pressure wasn't as high as it was, I'm sure breaking my water wouldn't have been a topic of discussion.

Tuesday morning, around 1am, I again woke to some more strong contractions coming every 5-7 minutes. After an hour and a half I got up and walked two miles on our elliptical. The entire time I didn't have one single contraction. Nor did I have any the rest of the morning. Lame. Tuesday afternoon I called my doctors office to chat about the contractions I had had that morning. I was concerned that they may have dilated my cervix more. If my cervix was dilated more, I knew that once I went into labor, I would progress really fast and deliver fast too, so I just wanted to be prepared and know how long I should stay home once the strong contractions began. The ARNP I talked to wanted me to come in to be checked. I was still at 4cm and my blood pressure was still really high. My doctor was at the hospital delivering a baby, so when he got back to the office, he said he wanted me to come in the next morning to run some tests.

Wednesday morning I went in. They drew blood and gave me all the necessary supplies and instructions to collect my urine for the next 24 hours. (FUN!)

Thursday morning I went back in for my regularly scheduled appointment. They put a rush on all my lab work. I'm not sure what they were checking from my blood, but I do know they wanted to count the amount of protein in my urine. If the protein count was about 300, that would mean I had preeclampsia and would need to be induced that day or the next. My count was at 165 (150 is normal). So no preeclampsia for me and no induction.

My stats from this visit were:

100% effaced.
4 cm dilated.
Measuring 38 weeks.
Baby's heartbeat 156 bpm.
Gained a total of 31 lbs.
38 weeks, 1 day pregnant.

Because of my higher than normal blood pressure, but lack of protein in my urine, I have been diagnosed with gestational hypertension. If I do not go into labor on my own, I will be induced later next week.

Also, because of my high blood pressure, I get to go back in Monday morning to have that checked. Hopefully this next week will not consist of an OB appointment every. single. day.!