Marc and I had our regular weekly checkup at the doctor's office on Wednesday and like always, the MA took my vitals before the doctor saw me. However, this time was not like every other time...my blood pressure was unusually high. I generally have 100 over 60 (a little below average) but when the MA took my blood pressure it was 140 over 85. Since this was high (especially for a pregnant person 5 days from the due date) she took my vitals again. This time, it was higher. We waited a little bit, I lay on my side, and Marc talked to me about happy, peaceful things :) After awhile they re-took my blood pressure and no change, it still was slightly high. The doctor came in and decided to send me for blood work, then scheduled me to come back on Friday for a checkup and to get the results of the blood work. I wasn't showing any other signs of pre-eclampsia but she wanted to make sure all was well. Of course I was a bit worried and wanted to know everything was ok but I had to work on being calm :) I didn't want to be induced into labor, which is what they would do if my blood pressure didn't go down. The next two days, waiting for my Friday appointment, I was trying to push it all out of my mind.
I went to work at 8am like always and did what I could to accomplish things before my appointment at 11am. I didn't want to jinx myself by sorting out my loose ends (again, I didn't want to have my labor induced) so I left all my stuff at work and told everyone I was taking a lunch break...I would be back. I knew my blood pressure would go down because I figured Wednesday was just a stressful day for me. So Marc and I met at the doctor's office and anxiously awaited the blood pressure check. The MA took us back, put the cuff on, and listened for my blood pressure....she didn't say anything. I said "umm, what was it?" She stayed quiet and took it again. This time she said, "it went up" and left to get the doctor.
Our doctor came in, sat down, and said "Well, are you ready to have this baby?" Apparently my blood pressure was even higher than Wednesday, now 170 over 90, so my doctor said I had to be induced that day. Which, as most of you know, having a baby in October was not in my plans. I started to convince the doctor that we could wait until Sunday (since Monday was November) but she and Marc refused…it would be too unsafe. Whatever :) So from then on out, everything happened very quickly...my doctor called the hospital to let them know we were headed over, asked Marc and I if we had a car seat ready, and told us to get over to the hospital.
At this point I think the two of us were running on adrenaline. I had so many emotions going but, of course, I was trying to organize everything in my head. We had both our cars, all my stuff was at work, our "hospital bag" was at home with the camera, our dogs needed to be fed, and we needed to let our parents know. Being who I am, I had to get everything taken care of before we checked in at the hospital so instead of going to the hospital, we drove the 45min home :) We dropped off one car, grabbed our bag and camera, took the dogs to their "daycare", went back to my work to get my stuff and tell my boss, and after all was taken care of we went to the hospital.
By the time we arrived at the hospital it was 2pm. We checked in and they started inducing me at 4pm on Friday. Since my blood pressure was high they wouldn't let me leave the hospital, they also wouldn't let me get up. The only time I could move was to go to the bathroom...with a nurse. If someone told me at that point what was ahead I never would have believed it. Since everything happened so quickly I didn't have a chance to really learn what being induced meant. My pregnancy was normal all along and there was no reason for me to believe I would have anything besides a "typical" birth. Because of that, I didn't care to learn about inductions or c-sections or anything along those lines. Hell, we only packed a bag with one change of clothes for me, no shower stuff, and nothing for Marc. We both figured it would be less than a day. Maybe that's why people go to birthing classes or read about labor :) I guess those people know. We were taking the "we'll learn as we go" approach. This left us completely unprepared but maybe that was a good thing.
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