How it all came to the climax

At my last appointment at the very end of July my blood pressure was elevated. Let me tell you why. First, throughout this entire pregnancy I got sooo worked up with worry prior to every doctor's appointment. It was seriously rediculous. Well, this particular appointment was at 9:00 a.m. so I just stayed at home and planned to not go into work until after the appointment. So, I'm sitting there chilling trying to calm myself down (to keep my blood pressure down) when a local news brief comes on about a car accident that happened around 6:30 a.m. This accident happened on the same road that my best friend/sister of the heart drives on every single day to go to work. She drives through there around 6:30 every morning. I panicked. I called every number I could think of and I couldn't reach her. Finally the operator at her work connected me to a friend of hers that I know that she works with. I have never met this person, but somehow through my blubbering he was able to understand what I was saying and could tell me that he had just seen her and that she was fine. Yea, after that I had to go to the doctor. Of COURSE my bp was elevated. Anyway, when my doc saw that my bp was elevated she told me that I would be coming in to see her twice a week from that point forward. Once a week for a biophysical profile (u/s) and once a week for an NST (non stress test). Oh, Joy. Needless to say by the end of it all my doc and I were tight because I had been seeing her SO MUCH!

The week after that I went to see the endocrinologist and she wasn't happy with my blood sugar numbers. They weren't bad, they just were starting to creep up. I was put on insulin. A small dose in the morning and evening. What can I say? It was just one more thing. It really didn't bother me because being on insulin just made me feel more assurance that the gestational diabetes wasn't going to adversely affect Petey. Insulin is a natural substance...it actually made me feel a slight bit of relief.

So, August passed and I went in for a doctor's appointment on the Tuesday after Labor Day. It was an afternoon appointment. I went by myself. This was an ultrasound day. I go in, we see the kiddo, his heart rate is good, but he's not moving. She pokes around on my belly, has me move from side to side. Nothing. We do this for about 10 minutes and at the end of that time he does move, but only like once or twice. We didn't see any "practice breathing" happening either. So, I'm trying to not panic...I just figure he's asleep. He had been active all day long until that appointment. Due to the failing grade at the ultrasound we are sent to a room for an NST. I get hooked up (I hate those things) and I hear the now familiar blip blip blip of his heartbeat and I have my buzzer in hand to press every time I feel movement. When the nurse leaves the room I poked around on my belly, shake it all about to try to get him to move. Verrry little movement. Plus his heart rate is lower than normal. The doctor comes in, but it's not my doctor (she had to go perform an emergency c-section). She looks at the strip and is not happy. She says that his heartrate is not accelerating and decelerating like it should be. GRRREAT. She's sending me to the hospital for overnight observation...just to be sure. Complete. and. utter. panic. As I'm walking over to the hospital I call The OP and my mother...I'm bawling. It was not a pretty sight. I KNEW in my heart that the baby was fine, but I was still worried. Thankfully my doctor met me at my room and helped me get hooked up to the monitors. She reassured me. She was great to me. As the nurses began following my monitoring they realized that I was having strong full on contractions! Who knew?!?!?! Not me. So I was given a shot of teburtaline which made me shake like the devil as they said it would. Long story short I spent the night in labor and delivery being monitored all night long. He was a stinkin' acrobat in there all night long. THAT's when I knew that I was going to have a very onery boy on my hands. The next morning we had a high level ultrasound with the perinatologist which we passed with flying colors. Our boy was estimated to weigh 6 lbs 11 oz. Then we were sent home. It was terrifying. The rest of my visits would end up going fine. My induction was set for September 29th. I would be 38 1/2 weeks pregnant.