blood pressure woes...again

Well folks, it has happened again.

 

My body has experienced 38 weeks of pregnancy and just like last time, apparently it has had enough.  

Yesterday's appointment at the birthing center felt like a reenactment of EXACTLY what happened in July of 2009.  Like exactly.  Yesterday I was 38 weeks and last time I was 38 weeks and 1 day. 

Midwife checks my pressure, gets a weird look on her face,  I ask what's wrong, she says my pressure is up, I lay on my left side for 5 minutes, she checks it again, and my blood pressure is back down to normal.  

What does all this equal??? BED REST.  And in case you don't know, bed rest sucks. Booooooooo

Except this time it sucks even more because our circumstances are different than last time.  

We now have an 18 month old to take care of and a very chaotic house to get in order. 

Needless to say, the remaining days before the baby is here will be boring and frustrating for me and busy and hard for Kyle.  

Mainly, we just need to get things ready at our house and find someone to watch Cambria for me during the day. 

 

I hate being on bed rest because it makes me feel like something is wrong or that I'm sick, but I know this is just what my body needs to do.  High blood pressure is how my body handles the last few weeks of being pregnant.  I'm not worried about it or stressed, I just wish I didn't have to lay around all day.  I know this probably sounds ridiculous and having high blood pressure IS something to take concern over, I just know everything is going to be fine.  And since everything about this pregnancy has been just like last time, I think we can expect this baby to arrive in about 2 weeks. And yes, this could possibly cause me not to be able to deliver at the birthing center, but we won't think about that right now...Hospitals are great for many reasons, but I don't want to deliver my baby in one. End of story. 

 

At yesterday's appointment the baby's head was lower than last week which shows that he or she is slowly getting ready to make their arrival.  Kyle and I think this "dropping" may be what causes my blood pressure to go up.  The baby does this and for some reason my body responds unexplainably by raising my blood pressure.  The fact that this is happening again is almost comforting in a strange way because I know my body is preparing itself for labor.   We're going to be meeting our baby soon! I'm going back Monday for some blood tests just to make sure nothing else is happening but I strongly think everything is fine and the only thing going on in my body is this whole blood pressure thing. 

I'll be here, all weekend, resting in bed.  I'll update on Monday.  

37 weeks 5 days during my pregnancy with Cam.  3 days later I was put on bed rest.  I look at this picture and think about how unaware we were of what was soon coming.  I feel that same way now.