The World According to Mommy

We had another appointment with the doctor this morning, and my blood pressure was high. The doctor said that he had already re-scheduled my C-section for this Thursday, but then when he saw my blood pressure he was questioning whether or not he should do it tonight instead. Luckily after resting for a bit, and a few more readings, my blood pressure came down.

So now it looks like Baby Nate will be born this Thursday, January 17th, at 2:30 pm! I can't believe it's finally here!! Matt and I are just so excited and feel so blessed that we get to welcome this new little guy into the world.

Yesterday we had another appointment with our doctor. My blood pressure was again high. They also hooked me up to the non-stress test so that they could monitor Baby Nate's heartrate. They were looking for a heartrate that was kind of all over the place, because this apparently indicates that the baby is happy, healthy, and moving around a lot.

After being hooked up to it for about five minutes, one nurse came in and said that I should drink some ice water, which she brought to me. Then a second nurse came in about five minutes later. Then a third nurse came in after that and told me that I should have another glass of ice water to try to get him revved up a little. So at this point I was getting a little nervous. But he must have just been taking a nap, because after that second glass of water, he really started moving. Thankfully they saw the variances in his heartrate that they wanted to see, and we were able to leave.

But before all of that, the doctor told me that he was concerned my blood pressure could get worse, and he didn't think it would be best to wait until the 23rd to deliver. He said Baby Nate is fully developed and was a good size, so he would be fine if delivered early. He said that it would be more dangerous for him to stay in there with my high blood pressure than for him to be born a few weeks early.

So it looks like late next week we will be having a baby! We have another appointment with him Monday morning, so hopefully he will give us some more info on exactly when. I am so excited that we will finally get to meet this little guy, but I am also a little freaked out. I mean, we're going to have a BABY!!!! It's just so wild....and oh so exciting!

Well, I still have the PUPPPs. The itching is really terrible. I'm not sleeping very well. And now Baby Nate, since he's still breech, has settled his little bottom into my pelvic bone, making it really sort of painful to walk. I think I'm on the verge of being miserable.

We went to our OB appointment on Thursday, where we also had our 36 week sonogram. Baby Nate looked great, and the nurse said that he was weighing about 6 lbs. 8 oz. You could also see on the sonogram that he was moving his eyes around and also sucking his little lips. He looked really cute!

After the sonogram we went to see the doctor. The nurse took my blood pressure, and it was high. She also looked at the PUPPPs on my arm and was quite surprised at how bad they looked. Then the doctor came in, said the PUPPPs didn't look good, then took my blood pressure again. As soon as he took it he said that we needed to go over to the hospital because it was so high. So we went to the hospital and spent a few hours there, and luckily my blood pressure came down and stayed that way. The doctor also prescribed an anti-histamine to help with the itching from the PUPPPs. We also had to go back in Friday morning for some blood work and to have my blood pressure checked again. It was a little high again, but not as bad.

On our way home we bought an at-home blood pressure monitor, and luckily all weekend my blood pressure has been good. I have also been taking the prescription for the itching, but unfortunately that has not been the magic bullet I was hoping for. It is helping me sleep better, since I was getting only about three hours of sleep a night before, from all the itching and scratching I was doing, but it's not helping with the itching. But at least now my scratching is done in a peaceful, almost-getting-enough-sleep sort of way.

We had another OB appointment this morning. All my blood work came back fine, and my blood pressure was a little elevated, but it came down once I had rested for a few minutes. I also asked him about the PUPPPs not going away until after delivery, and he confirmed this, although he said that he would like to avoid delivering a premature baby. So, so much for hoping to delivery Baby Nate soon so that I could get some relief from the PUPPPs! The doctor did say that he could give me a steroid shot to help further with the itching, but I'm not sure I feel comfortable with that for the baby's sake. I think I would rather just continue like this rather than take steroids. He said it would be fine for Baby Nate, but I think I'd rather not risk it.

He wants to see us again on Thursday and then again on Monday. He did say that I would probably not make it to the 23rd, so we'll see how this next week goes.

About four days ago I noticed these small red bumps on my arms. Then they started to itch. Then I started noticing the bumps on my belly and legs. And then they really started to itch.

I was finally able to see our family doctor today, and it turns out that I have a condition called PUPPP (pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy). This is apparently a pretty rare skin rash that occurs in less than 1% of pregnant women, but luckily it's harmless to both me and Baby Nate.

However, what it lacks in the harmful department it more than makes up for in the annoying department. My skin itches like crazy! It's so bad that I have not been able to get more than about an hour or so of sleep at a time before I wake up scratching. It's only been a few days, but it's already starting to become unbearable.

And, another interesting fact about PUPPP is that it usually lasts until about a week or two after delivery!! That means another month with the PUPPP, I guess. We have a doctor's appointment with our OB tomorrow, so hopefully he will be able to help me out a little more with this.