*sigh*

Well, I think I'm running a competition for how many times I can be hospitalized prior to delivery. Yesterday I had my appointment/recheck. I was anxious to talk to her about my prior hospitalization (because I saw the on-call Dr) but when I checked in, she was at the hospital and there would be a delay. "Ok," I thought, "that'll give me a chance to relax before she comes." Well. They take me back and hook me up to the monitor. No baby heartbeat. Then we'd hear it, but he'd move. We did this for 20min. They like about a 20min record of the heartbeat to watch for irregularities, but we weren't even getting 20 SECONDS on the monitor. The nurse looks at me and says "Well, we might have to send you to the hospital for monitoring if this keeps up." *GULP*. Just then another doctor walks in, says she'll be talking with me since Dr F was at the hospital and asks the nurse if she's taken my BP. Well, she hasn't and now I can feel it out the roof in light of all that's going on at this point. Sure enough! 162/94 (for those that don't know, normal BP is 120/80) That mixed with inability to keep him on the monitor landed me BACK in the hospital last night. She also told me that my protein/urine came back from last week at 298, which is diagnosable as mild pre-eclampsia.

I got there, and my BP did come down a bit, but not as much as it had on Friday. It was running about 140/78 on average. They drew stat labs, which all came back OK - even better than last week, which is good. They released me after about 3hrs, but the nurse did "advise" me to pack a bag because I can "skate by for now" but will eventually be kept permanently until delivery. Dr Franz, who was covering, said that they would probably delivery me at 37wks, which is the week of Christmas. Is it ok that I'm starting to sort of panic??

Many have asked how strict and complete bedrest is going with Maysen. I have a great family!! My sister-in-law is picking up/dropping off Maysen at school on Wed, Thurs, Fri mornings. I called the school and they're letting him stay for lunches so he'll be gone from 8:15-12:00 and I won't have to make lunch. Then the school called and offered to let me bring him on Monday mornings, too. So, I have all morning alone and free 4 days a week except for Tuesdays. He does pretty good at coloring and watching cartoons (which I hate all day), but now that he'll be going to school 4 mornings a week, that will get him out of the house and doing stuff rather than sitting at home.

On a humorous note, I'm teaching Nate how to take blood pressure. I know, crazy. But it's hard for me to do it manually. Last night he did rather well, but kept forgetting to let out the air, so my arm is blue and he just starts walking off stating what it is, and I'm like "Uhhh..." Then he lets the air out too fast and he's all "Oh! Ohhh!!" :-) Funny Mr Nurse.