Supermom Chronicles

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but isn't she cute?! We bought a new digital camera yesterday, and after figuring out the basics I snuck up on Ginger sleeping - so precious! Too bad she's a PITA (pain in the a**) most of the time she's awake. She's not that bad, she's just still got a lot of puppy in her (and a little too much basset hound, too). I'm a beagle junkie. Bassets are cute to look at in the clinic (hence the picture on my blog wallpaper), but I lived with a really stubborn, not too intelligent one for 14 years of my childhood. Loved her, but boy was she lacking in the brain cell department. Anyway, getting a decent camera was (I thought) the last hurdle before we were ready to finally have this baby. Read on...

I'm 37 weeks today! That makes this "FT-day" (full-term) - yeah! The plan for the last 16 weeks of bedrest was to get up today, jump for joy, run around the neighborhood and celebrate until I go into labor. I'm still 4cm dilated, so it shouldn't take too much to get me going. Well I should have known better. If there's nothing else that motherhood has taught me it's that we can't rely on a PLAN. Kids find a way to change the best laid plans, and all 3 of my kids started this while they were still in the womb.

I decided yesterday that I was close enough to 37 weeks to go ahead and get up. I'm tired of being bed-ridden and I've got a lot to do. I made a massive grocery list for John, my plan being to cook yesterday and all day today to make a lot of freezable meals for us to eat after his majesty's arrival. I made 2 meals yesterday, did some piddly cleaning around the house and went with John to Circuit City to buy the new camera. At some point while I was cooking I realized that my legs were really hurting. My feet felt like they were going to explode and there was a sharp pain traveling up my right thigh. My hands were starting to hurt and later when I was reading a book I noticed my vision in my right eye was a little blurry. Last night as I tried to get comfortable in bed for the 3oth time the joints in my hands hurt so bad it was hard to move. I really sympathize for arthritis sufferers. But heck, I'm 9 months pregnant and I've been lying down for the last 4 of them. So I chalked all this up to being extremely out of shape and typical swelling of pregnancy.

Unfortunately, I've met my newest PITA: PIH (pregnancy-induced hypertension). I gained 5 lbs this past week (normal is 1-2), so 3-4 lbs is water weight. My blood pressure has been creeping up the last 2 visits, but today it was 156/96. Both upper and lower values are officially high and now we are on the lookout for pre-eclampsia. I developed PIH with Faith, but was past 38 weeks so was sent immediately to the hospital for induction. With Cole, I had an occasional high reading, but I was already on bedrest for preterm labor (PTL) and so my bp stabilized. I had to monitor it at home for awhile, but it stayed within normal limits. My doctor said today that I may have had PIH sooner with this pregnancy had I not been on bedrest for PTL. So guess what my orders are? STRICT BEDREST. Good grief, you've got to be kidding...expletive, expletive.

Now comes the irony. A few people have asked me along the way what will happen once my bedrest was over at 37 weeks. "Will they induce you?" was actually a common question, to which I laughingly replied, "No, I'll just stand up, walk around for awhile and the baby will come out." This is all based, of course, on my last experience with PTL (Cole) and the fact that I'm already 4cm and the fact that everytime I stand up I have a lot of contractions. BUT, after nearly 17 weeks of bedrest trying to prevent labor, next Wed, Oct 11, I am scheduled for induction at 7:30am at South Austin Hospital. So one way or another, I will no longer be pregnant 6 days from now.

Could I go into labor before then? Sure, but the odds are low because I'll still be on strict bedrest. Without standing up and allowing the baby to put pressure down on my cervix, it's unlikely that things will get going on their own. Bummer. I feel like I'm being somewhat robbed of my final birth experience. I was really looking forward to the excitement of going into labor and rushing to the hospital. I know that may sound crazy or frivolous, but my experience of going into labor with Cole was one of the most exciting moments of my life. I know I'll get over this feeling soon. I'm tremendously grateful to have a healthy full-term baby. Once he's here, it won't matter how he got here. But just for today, I feel a little let down.