Week 36

Week 36, i.e. Nine Months-Latest OB Report

Worse than expected...blood pressure up even more. Doc is worried about preeclampsia, which, if you don't know what that is, it's basically when your body becomes toxic. Blood pressure spikes (check), swelling (check), and the biggest factor is protein shows up in urine (not yet). That is the big marker, so normally, he'd have me come to the office everyday for a check of that, but since we're about 50 minutes from the OB and the hospital, he sent the kits home with Edward who can run the reports at the clinic. So, Edward has to monitor me pretty much on a daily basis, and if things continue to worsen, they'll have to induce me to get Alex out.

Dilated, but just barely. I wanted to cry when he said that.

Ultrasound was done today, but not easily. He put in for my appt, but they didn't have any openings next week. Luckily, they happened to have a cancellation this afternoon, but that meant a ton of driving. We had to drive home, pick up the kids from preschool, feed them, arrange a playdate for Madison, rearrange Edward's work schedule, take Luke sans normal nap with us, and drive the 50 min back into town. Result-nothing really clear. Alexander continues to drop in his size, but "it's not bad enough to do anything about" (same response as my blood pressure issues). He's currently in the 22nd percentile, but he started above average sizewise at my first 18 week ultrasound. Clearly, he's restricted, but not by a clinical definition that they'll do anything. VERY FRUSTRATING. Overall, I'm really, really fed up with being told that yeah, I have a bunch of problems, but they are all borderline to having something done about them.

Overall, I'm told to suck it up and keep waiting. I have a pretty constant headache that never goes away...gee, could it be because my blood pressure is so high, and I can't take anything except Tylenol?? And no, it's not high because I'm stressed, etc. It's just high. Edward's been checking it too. It's all part of this horrible world I'm living in right now where it's let's see how sick and miserable Martha can get before things are over and done.

Next Wed another appt., but since my OB is on call at the hospital all next week (yeah, like I'd be so lucky as to actually go into labor while he's on call), I have to see a new doctor-great, just another fun aspect to all this.