1 Pass, 1 Fail

July 21, 2011

Guess who is going to be trekking to CVS or Walmart for daily blood pressure checks?  Yep... yours truly!  I'm not about to spend only a couple of weeks with my beloved first trimester, so I guess I better figure out a way to get it down!
Every time I have a doctor's appointment I get myself so worked up.  This morning was no exception.  I was feeling especially anxious given the revealing of the possible encephalocele last week.  I also feel as we get closer the "when will I go to the doctor, and not come home, but go straight to the hospital" feeling.  I have a lot of anxiety surrounding that as a result of my previous pregnancy.

The good news is baby girl passed her biophysical profile today with flying colors.  The ultrasound tech gave her an 8 out of 8.  BPP measure 4 things - amniotic fluid, gross motor movements, fine motor movements (muscle tone), and breathing.  Baby girl did all things perfectly - she of course is like her mama - and even moved from a transverse (cross ways position) to head down during my ultrasound, which caused the tech to take about a 2 minute break, while we all watched her go nuts on the screen!  I also had her growth checked today and while she isn't growing as normally as a "normal" baby would she is growing compared to herself.  Overall I am measuring at about 28 ish weeks, and I'm 29.  Baby girl is about 2-1/2 pounds.

The not so good news... because there ALWAYS has to be some, is that I unfortunately did not fair so well.  I have pre-hypertension.  My first blood pressure was 138/86.  Clinical hypertension is 140/90.  I was told that when they took it again, and if it was that high, they would start running my labs.  Not how I wanted to spend my day.  The second time they took it, I thought happy thoughts of Hawaiian beaches and I was able to get it down to 133/79.  I'm still unhappy with the top number, which is up 18 points from last week, but the bottom number is actually a little lower than last week.  I have to take my blood pressure daily, and call my numbers in tomorrow and Tuesday.  I see the doctor again next Thursday. 

I really, really need a couple more weeks before this starts creeping up.  I didn't have any protein in my urine, so it could just be an isolated incident.  If no preeclampsia signs follow and it stays higher than normal, they would just put me on blood pressure meds, according to the doctor. 

True confession time - I did eat a lot of potato chips, it has been ungodly hot here, AND I haven't walked in over a week.  So now, I need to stop eating potato chips and start walking, right?  The heat is out of my control.  I told the doctor and nurse to STOP stressing me out so much.  Jeez, you'd expect with a pregnancy this stressful, that it might be even higher!

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4 comments

  1. Deep breaths. Drink tons of water, rest some, and take the tests. It could have been an anomaly. It isn't like you are under any STRESS or anything.

    I'll be praying as always.

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  2. I was so stressed out Addison's entire pregnancy, and started having high blood pressure around 30 weeks. They ended up putting me on bedrest at 36 weeks because one day I was at work and went to the nurses' office because I wasn't feeling well and my blood pressure was 186/110...yeah, they sent me straight to the hospital and then on extreme bedrest...
    Hope it doesn't come to that for you...keep thinking about those Hawaiian beaches...

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  3. Praying that it goes down. After my last pregnancy I bought my own blood pressure cuff and am already paranoid (at only 14 weeks, crazy I know) but if I feel a little off I take my blood pressure. Hoping that you can find a way to relax and "de-stress" about it all.

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  4. Deanna - I always find it so interesting that your pregnancy with Addison and mine have so MANY parallels... sometimes its a bit eery. So now I'm almost 30 weeks, and I start with the BP stuff...

    One of the reasons I scared of high blood pressures is that I am terrified of bed rest. I have no short term disability coverage, b/c I work for a small company that doesn't carry it... I cannot... my family cannot really afford for me to be on bedrest. Thinking about that certainly doesn't help my bp go down! As with everything though, I will do what I have to do to get this little one here as safely as possible.

    Marie - they wrote me an Rx for one (hoping insurance will cover it) in case I wanted to get one... I'm going to wait a few days and see if this is an anomly or if I need to get it.

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