andrew and i are becoming very comfortable with the steps necessary to be admitted to labor and delivery, and all before any labor! how exciting (sarcasm). last time, i was admitted to l&d because i was very sick and not sure if i had felt the baby moving. as soon as we left, she started moving, and we basically got admitted so that a nurse could monitor me and tell me, yes, she was moving. we were pretty unhappy with the treatment we received and with the fact that the doctor didn't even bother showing up. our experience this time was better.
this time, sunday, i had felt crappy all day, just not feeling good, very tired, lacking energy, swelling without real reason, and later in the night i felt like my blood pressure might be raised. we went to walmart because we knew they had a bp monitor, and the machine read mine as VERY high... this could be in part because it smooshed my arm so tightly i almost hit the cancel button, and it turned my arm a bright red. we checked andrew's bp too, just to see, and his was normal, so we decided to just buy an at-home bp monitor. we took mine in the car a few times, and then once we got home, and it was staying high, so we reluctantly called the ob. as you know, i've been less than thrilled with my ob, so it was begrudgingly that i made the phone call.
to my surprise and joy, the person on call was from the other practice that shares weekend call with my ob. he returned my call very quickly and was kind and understanding on the phone. he recommended i come in to l&d and promised he would actually make an appearance. i was a little upset because i know that high bp with some of the other symptoms i was having could lead to preeclampsia, and i also knew if it was bad enough, they will make you deliver (at the time i was pretty sure that would mean they'd make me have a c-section), so while i wasn't convinced that my bp was really a big deal, i was pretty scared about what would happen.
we checked in to an extremely helpful security guard, went to the waiting room, and were checked in to triage by a very nice nurse named lisa (or tina - andrew thinks it's tina). other than putting on the monitors REALLY tightly, she was wonderful. she made me very comfortable, answered any and all questions we asked, and was very attentive. i got more nervous when she started asking me questions that had to do with actually delivering like "do you have access to a carseat?" - eek! that made it feel like they were definitely going to have me have this baby right then, but i also knew it was just standard questioning given my reason for admission and my current gestation. my bp was still elevated, but she had me lay on my left side and over time it began coming down. i met the doctor from the other practice, who was very kind, and he recommended bloodwork just to be sure (i had already peed in the cup, which came out ok), so andrew and i sat around and waited for the phlebotomist, then we waited around for the results of the bloodwork, which were fine, then for the paperwork person, then for the doctor to discharge us, then for the nurse to return with our discharge paperwork, and THEN we were on our way again. i have to say, it was a much MUCH better experience than the first time, and it gave me more peace about delivering at rex. perhaps silly things like this need to happen so that bigger things (like delivery) aren't so scary for us.
i have my 37 week ob check today, so we'll see if anything exciting has happened this afternoon!
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