36 week checkup

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've had severe swelling in my feet this past week. There have been some other weird things going on this week along with my cankles. My hands became so swollen that I had to remove my wedding rings :( My hands and wrists ache pretty bad, but it's the worst when I first wake up in the morning. For the past few days, the tips of my fingers have been tingly and numb. I've also been having headaches.

Today, my mom took me to my weekly checkup. I mentioned all of these things to the nurse practitioner. She told me that my blood pressure was very high today (which up until this week, my blood pressure has been perfect and even on the lower side). She said they wanted to keep an eye on me for Preeclampsia--a condition that sometimes occurs during pregnancy where the mother has sudden swelling, high blood pressure, headaches, protein in the urine, and blurred vision. Sound familiar?

She measured Lincoln and as Chris put it, "he's a monster baby!" :) He measured the size of a 39 week old baby although I'm 36 weeks pregnant! They measured him a couple times because they couldn't believe it. After they discussed all of this with Dr. Riely, she decided to keep me there for 45 minutes to monitor my blood pressure. I was so happy to have my mom there with me. After a looong while, my blood pressure had went down enough to send me home. Dr. Riely told me to take it easy and to stop working if I was. My mom asked if that meant I could stop doing my housework :) Chris has a theory that my high blood pressure could be connected to us trying to give Rufus a haircut last night...but that's a whole other post ;)

I go back in a week to see Dr. Riely and it's pretty unpredictable what will happen. If my blood pressure is high again, or if I have Preeclampsia they will likely induce or schedule a c-section. If my blood pressure is normal but Lincoln is still measuring big, they will do an ultrasound to get a better idea of how big he is and decide what to do from there. OR I could go next week and my blood pressure be fine and Lincoln measure in the normal range, and we would do nothing but wait for March 14th! Please pray that Lincoln and I remain healthy for the rest of this pregnancy...and that I don't have to have a c-section!

Well, it's 1:00 a.m. and Chris is getting out of the shower after working out. Tonight he told me that one of the things he loved about me is that I support him in his nightly workout sessions, even on Valentine's Day :) My sweetie is so easy to please! Time for me to catch some zzzz's. Good night!