Piggysnoot

Baby Long is obviously enjoying her stay in my uterus…because it is apparent that she’s not going anywhere just yet. I’m thinking this is a terrible case of payback for how stubborn I am…add that to how impatient I am and you can just imagine how fun I must be to live with right now. Yesterday I was a little freaked out because I noticed she wasn’t moving as much as usual. You know they say 4 times in an hour…well most times she moves 4 times in ten minutes…not so much yesterday. After spending part of the day worried that something was wrong, I decided to take a post-lunch nap to calm down a little. When I woke up I was feeling pretty lightheaded and like my heart was racing. It was at that point I decided to call the doctor’s office. I figured everything was fine…but I also thought I’d feel pretty terrible if this was my body’s way of telling me something was wrong and I ignored it. The nurse suggested I go to the hospital so they could hook me up to the fetal monitor and check my blood pressure.

It wasn’t two seconds after having the monitor in place that we could hear her little heart beating away…let me tell you, that was the most comforting thing in the world! They monitored everything for about an hour and called to report to the doctor that the heartbeat was fine and my blood pressure was only slightly elevated (145/85). He wanted the nurse to check me to see if the cytotec had done anything to get my cervix dilating at all. I gotta say, that was quite unpleasant…I’m kinda thinking the nurse was counting my ribs by feeling them from the inside…unpleasant doesn’t even do the pain justice. The first nurse determined that my cervix was too high to see how dilated I was…and it wasn’t for her lack of trying to reach it, either. Lucky for me she sent in another nurse to try. The second nurse said “barely a 1″. So…no progress from over a week ago…after three doses of cytotec. They called to report to the doctor who told them to give me another dose of medicine and watch me for an hour to monitor my blood pressure and contractions. I’m still not feeling contractions…the printout from the monitor says they’re there…I just don’t feel them yet.

After a little over an hour they checked my blood pressure and it was high…we’re talking nurse’s-eyebrows-to-the-ceiling high (167/135). She advised me that he’d never let me go home with it this high and that I should lay on my left side to see if that would help it come down. I moved to my side and she checked my reflexes and checked my blood pressure again in about ten minutes. It had come down to a more doctor friendly 132/85. The nurse called again to report to the doctor and he gave me the go ahead to go home…with instructions to rest on my left (or right) side for the rest of eternity…or until I go into labor. I’m thinking eternity is going to be most likely.

I’m to see the doctor on Monday at 8am unless I go into labor or start feeling funny before then. At that point he’s going to decide what to do about springing this little girlie from her cocoon. I’m assuming that on Monday he’ll give me a date to be induced if I haven’t gone into labor spontaneously by then. Of course if I’m not ready and he induces me I have an increased chance of a c-section…but that’s a whole ‘nother fear-filled post altogether.