Brian and I participated in a first-time parent’s rite of passage last night - the late night call to the doctor and a trip to L&D that doesn’t result in bringing home baby. Around 9:00 last night I started experiencing some very bizarre vision disturbances. I felt as though I was watching the world as a dream scene in a movie - the edges of my vision were completely blurry. When it was still going on ten minutes later I decided to call the doctor’s office since all of my pregnancy books said that vision disturbances warranted an immediate call to the doctor. The nurse on call called back within ten minutes and I described what I was experiencing. She asked if I had experienced high blood pressure during my pregnancy and when I told her I had she told us to go immediately to Labor and Delivery - do not pass Go, etc. Turns out vision problems are a symptom of preeclampsia so the blurriness combined with the high blood pressure readings I had at the office a few weeks ago meant we needed to get checked out.
So, we loaded up the car and headed to the hospital. I called my mom on the way in and told her what was going on. We got to the hospital and headed up to Labor & Delivery. They already had my paperwork ready to go since the nurse had called ahead and told them I was coming in. They set me up in the pre-op room (I think their rooms were full last night and we had pre-op to ourselves) and hooked me up to the monitors - one to keep track of Oliver’s heartbeat and one to measure for contractions - and a blood pressure cuff. The nurse asked a ton of questions (so many that I was really grateful I wasn’t in labor because it might have annoyed me if I had been) and checked me for swelling. They drew some blood and took a urine sample and gave me some Tylenol since I had a headache (another symptom of preeclampsia but I think was due more to stress at that point). Then they left us in the room while the labs were run and kept me on the monitors. The machine took my blood pressure every five minutes. The first readings were very high (probably due to the stress I was under) but my blood pressure came down with every reading. And, Oliver’s heartrate was strong and he was moving around really well the entire time we were being monitored so it was a relief to know that he was doing okay.
After three hours of being monitored, my labwork finally came back and the doctor came in to check me out. I was having a few contractions that I couldn’t feel but the doctor let me skip the internal exam since I had just had one the day before. He checked my legs for swelling (there was none), poked Oliver a few times (who obligingly kicked him back), and then told us that all of my bloodwork and urine sample looked fine so he was going to let us go home but that because my blood pressure was still elevated that I needed to “be a couch potato” from now until our induction appointment on Tuesday night. No more walks, no going out - just sitting around doing nothing. I’m on hour three of that and already pretty bored but I know it’s best for me and for Oliver and at the most it will only be for four days. They checked us out and gave us our discharge papers which inspired the title of this post since there was a field that says: “Discharged With: No Babies.”
It wasn’t the greatest way to spend a Friday night but I know we did the right thing in going in. Plus, now they will have all my paperwork and even some bloodwork all set for when we go in on Tuesday night (or earlier, if a miracle occurs and Oliver decides to come before I have to be induced).
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