Weekend Hospital Shenanigans

What a crazy weekend!!!

I had my 34 week Dr.'s appt Friday morning at 9:30am. Those of you who know me well, know that this is quite early for me;) So I woke up, grabbed a string cheese and an apple and was out the door (I did shower, don't worry). By the time I got there, I'd had the string cheese and about 1/3 the apple... I was still hungry but wasn't worried because I could eat in an hour, after my appt. I was actually really excited about this appt because my blood glucose numbers were way down for the week and I was excited for my Dr's sweet, approving praise :)

For the first time, I hardly had to wait to get in (very unusual) and was greeted by my cute nurse who is due in about 2-3 weeks herself and we engaged in fun pregnancy stories and what-not. We were still talking as she took my blood pressure and when she was done, she paused and said, "Give me a minute... I need to concentrate more." After 2 more cuffs, switching arms, calling the Dr in and 5-6 blood pressure checks, they determined that my BP actually was as high as they thought (150/90... ouch!), which was a surprise to us all and informed me that I needed to drive around the block and check myself into Triage at the hospital. What the heck?! By the way, my Dr was very pleased with my glucose numbers ;)

So I left the office with the thought, "This is what it is, everything will be just fine." The second I left the double doors I LOST IT! I was bawling, knew that I had to call Scott, but didn't want to sound hysterical, so I waited in my car for 15 minutes until I was somewhat composed and called... The composure lasted all of 2 seconds. I had to leave him a message because he was with a client and cried through the whole thing. He called me back shortly and had cancelled the rest of his day to be with me :)

So I checked myself into Triage and they were really nice and told me they just needed to run a few tests and monitor my BP and the baby's heartrate. Well, the tests came back and half of them were fine and the other half not so fine. I had protein in my urine and my uric acid was high, but my liver function was great and my platelets (sp) were low (which is good). So they told me, because I was right in the middle (just like with everything in this pregnancy) they had to check me into anti-partom for 24 hrs to collect a 24-hr urine "sample" and keep my BP under close watch. They asked me at this point (1:00) if I needed anything and I told them I desperately needed to eat because of my gestational diabetes and for the simple fact that baby and I were STARVING! She assured me that as soon as I was wheeled over (yeah, no more walking for me) she would introduce me to my new nurse and they would let me order food right away (no outside food because they wanted me on their strict hospital diet).

Well we got there, and immediately they wanted me to get an ultrasound to check on baby, so I was wheeled down there, the lady informed me my bladder was too full, so I had to be wheeled back to "collect" that urine, then wheeled back again for the ultrasound. Jayna looked great, but she was making cute little "sucky" faces like she was starving and I cried again because I didn't want her to starve (I know, irrational! But I'm pregnant... it's my job). She's weighing around 5lbs 3oz (give or take a pound) and she's in the 50th percentile... Perfect!

So now it's 3:00 and I'm finally wheeled back to my room and I'm on the cusp of insanity because I need to eat (apple and string cheese didn't sustain very long) and the nurse comes in to hook me up to more monitors. I inform her I STILL haven't eaten and she made it top priority :) (I had really great nurses the whole time I was there). So we ordered a meal, which didn't get there until about 4 and it was literally 2oz of chicken, 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes, and 1/2 cup of green beans... Seriously?! I haven't eaten in 7 hrs and you're giving me a total of about 250 calories?! I about cried again, had a heart-to-heart with the dietician (who put me on a 2200 calorie specific carb count diet) and informed her that by 6:00 I would have had less than 400 calories for the day... Unacceptable! So they allowed me to order a double meal at 6:00 of a chicken salad and chicken quesadilla. They forgot to bring me my snacks, which were set up from the beginning for the night time, but my awesome friend Lesley hooked me up with some crackers that she snuck in. There you have it... my mundain bout with food for that day... You know you would have died without knowing all of that. Haha!

So, backtracking a bit, my Dr. came in at about 4:30 to talk to me before she left for the weekend and told me she wanted to put me on bedrest... NNNNOOOOO!!! So I asked her if I could still teach my voice lessons because they are my stress reliever and social outlet and she said as long as I was sitting and spacing them out so I could rest in between, she didn't see a problem. Halleluia!!! So I felt pretty good, but she did say that the Dr on call would have to make the final decision based on my BPs and test results. On Friday, my BP peaked at 156/96 and the lowest was 126/68... all over the place! She also informed me that they would be giving me steroids to help Jayna's lungs develop in case they had to deliver her this week. What?! I freaked out a bit at this point... as ready as I thought I was, I'm not ready to be a mom yet! My baby needs more time to develop! I never, ever thought I would have to have an early delivery (very rare in my family)! She also said the steroids would elevate my glucose numbers so they'd probably have to put me on insulin, as well... so much for all my hard work to not have to take it! Oh well, I'll do anything to help little Jayna at this point!

As you can probably guess, I only slept for about 2 hrs that night... So much going through my head, not to mention, lying in an uncomfortable bed and having all the water drain from your body (5 lbs worth, in fact) makes you have to go to the bathroom about once every hour... no fun! I got to sleep at about 5am and then they came in to draw my blood at 7am. I don't know what the lady that poked me did, but my arm wouldn't stop bleeding... I bled right through the bandage. Gross! By then I was WIDE awake and for some odd reason hyped up on adrenaline (or steroids) and had a ridiculous, unending energy all day!

Nurses kept accumulating in my room because (I think) Scott and I were their favorite guests :) It was like a big party all day. They would come in and I would tell stories (like I so like to do) and we would talk for an hour, until they decided they should probably get on to their other patients... We tried to make the best of the situation and had a pretty good time.

So the Dr on call came in mid-day on Saturday and said because my BP had somewhat stablized at 148/84 that day, they MIGHT (heavily emphasized) send me home, but it all depended on my 24-hr results. He did inform me that IF they sent me home, I was to do exactly what I was allowed to do at the hospital... pee and shower. Other than that, I was to be lying down or have my feet up... They didn't even allow me a wheelchair ride to tour the NICU. So I asked if I was allowed to attend church... "Absolutely not! The good Lord will understand!" and when I said I just needed to find a substitute to play the piano for me, he made it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that I was to not touch the piano for the rest of my pregnancy. :(  There went my dreams of teaching! I had to call all my students and inform them that I wasn't allowed to teach anymore and that now I may have to take more than a month off... Gulp! "Ouch" to not being able to see and chat with them, "ouch" to all the breakthroughs we had last week that hopefully won't go away, and "ouch" financially!!! This really is the hardest part for me! I'm kind of a work-a-holic! The other REALLY hard part is having to rely fully on other people to do things that I feel perfectly capable and energetic enough to do... my independant side will definitely struggle with this one!

So, finally at 5:00 Saturday night, my urine test came back and the proteins were at 4500 and they are supposed to be under 4000... I'm officially preeclamptic! They did send me home and Scott has been fabulous, as always! I've been put on a low sodium (and still low-carb) diet, which makes it a bit difficult because Scott knows very little about nutrition. I'm trying to come up with an easy menu that he can have ready for me to grab while he's at work and so he doesn't have to be in the kitchen the whole time he is home.

What I do have to say about this whole situation is that EVERYTHING has fallen into place for it all to work out. Magically, the night before my Dr's visit, I thought to myself, "Too bad I can't take August off instead of September" because many of my students were having to cancel in August, but have a more steady schedule in Sept. Magically, Scott is completely booked up on hours in August after struggling for months to get hours... Which is a blessing financially, but a curse seeing as he has to take care of me. Magically, Jayna was measuring small for months and had a huge growth spurt 2 weeks ago taking her from the 14th percentile to the 50th. My Dr was talking about inducing a week early anyways because of my gestational diabetes and assured me she would take all precautions to make sure Jayna was ready. If I had been hospitalized even a week later, they would have more than likely made me deliver during that stay at 35 weeks (talk about overwhelming)! Now, I'm given a chance to be on bed rest in the comfort of my own home and have the chance to hopefully make it to 36 or hopefully 37 (full-term) weeks before they deliver. They told me that if I can keep my BP down and be really good and make it to 37 weeks, more than likely everything will be able to go well and I won't need a c-section and Jayna should be developed enough so there won't be any major complications.

I'm soooo grateful for all of you who've kept us in your prayers and for all of your support in every way! I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us! Even though I'm extremely overwhelmed by the thought of meeting my little girl possibly in the next few weeks, I'm absolutely excited and know that everything will work out for the best!

Love you all!!!