When Fears Are Realized.....

As you all know, I am an awful pregnant woman. You can just read the previous blogs and you all know about my pregnancy with Kaylin, I just don't handle pregnancy well. It must also be said that my doctor was correct, the very first time I had a visit with him this is what he said to me: "A lot of women have blood pressure issues with their first baby but it is usually at the very end of the pregnancy right before they are due to deliver. I must warn you though that when women have the extensive problems that you had with your first, the problems tend to be worse with following pregnancies." Well as you all know there for a while my blood pressure issues had seemed to go away and he even talked about sending me back to work until last week when my BP's were crazy and they sent me to the hospital. Well I had a doctors appointment today and was feeling great, but the appointment did not go so well. My BP was 139/108, it had also been high the majority of the day at home. This startled the doctor he didn't really know what to say so he checked Lauren's heart beat had me lay down and checked my BP again (it was 144/90) and he said that he had to think about what to do next and left the room. When he came back he said that we can't increase the medication because I am already maxed out, so what we will be doing is having weekly visits. We will be doing more extensive sonograms where they will be looking more closely at the baby's growth, the fluid surrounding her and some other things as well. This is all stuff that I did with Kaylin only it was with a specialist, fortunately I don't have to go to the specialist it is something that Dr. Atkins feels comfortable handling. I also have to keep a close eye on my blood pressures at home and any kind of other side effects that may come along with it such as headaches that don't go away, swelling, dizzy spells, blurry vision and seeing spots. If I have any of these with blood pressures that are 160's/110's and they aren't going down, I have to call the doctor immediately. So my next appointment is Monday July 28th.

Now throughout this entire pregnancy my biggest fear was that I wouldn't make it to 37 weeks (which is considered full term). I had Kaylin at 38 weeks and she was 7lbs, 10 oz so I figure is I can at least make it to 37 weeks the baby would be between 5-8 lbs (depending on how fast she is gaining weight). Well, today my fears were realized. Since I have had blood pressure issues they will be doing another c-section b/c it is too dangerous for me and the baby to try to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), so they scheduled my c-section today which will be September 2, I will only be 36 weeks which means the baby will be one week premature. The really scary part though is that Dr. Atkins doesn't think that I will make it to the September 2nd date, he said today that he thinks that we will have to deliver even earlier. Please pray for this baby, I want her to be healthy and I don't want her to have to go to the NICU. My prayer is that we will make it to the September 2nd date.

Oh Joy....

I went to the doctors office yesterday and my appointment went really well. My blood pressure was 122/72 and the doctor said, "So lets start talking about you going back to work part time." Well I told him that while my blood pressures are doing well around mid afternoon that in the morning and at night they are running pretty high, usually 140's/90's. So he drew some blood and said that they could run some tests to see if there were any other blood pressure issues showing up.

When I woke up this morning I was not feeling so great so I checked my blood pressure and it was 141/90. So I decided to lay down on my left side and checked it again 15 minutes later and it was 138/92. I rested and then got up to make Kaylin lunch, was only up on my feet for about 3 minutes I checked it again and it was 153/101. Rested, took it again 15 minutes later, it was 155/93. So I put in a call to the doctors office to check on my test results and to let them know about what was going on and they took a message for the nurse to call me back. Well, the last time my BP's were up high they called me and told me to come straight into the doctors office. So I called Jon and told him what was going on and then I got up and put my clothes on and pulled out some clothes for Kaylin. So I was up on my feet for about 5-10 minutes, I started to feel faint and decided to check my blood pressure....it was 196/108! YIKES. So you can see a pattern, I stand up and my blood pressure shoots up (I lay down it goes down). Well I called Jon and he came home immediately and when he got home the nurse called and told me to go straight to labor and delivery. So we went to the hospital and I was sure that once we got up there that my blood pressure would be perfectly normal (since that is what has been happening at the doctors office) but it was actual 150/99 and that was after I had been sitting for about 15 minutes on the bed. They kept me for observation for a few hours and my BP was all over the place ranging from the 150's/90's to the 140's/high 70's. So the nurse talked to the doctor who was on call for my doctors office and he said that I need to stay on bed rest but be more strict about it and make an appointment with my doctor for next week (which I already had scheduled).

The good news in all of it is that other than the really bad headaches and high blood pressure, I am not having any other pre-eclampsia symptoms. Also the baby is doing really well through all of it, which is my main concern. So just keep us in your prayers please and I don't know that I will be seeing any of you any time soon since I will be spending a lot of time in bed but just know that if I don't talk to any of you that you are all in my thoughts!

~Natalie

FANTASTIC!

Last Week: At my doctors appointment my blood pressure was good. It was back down into the 120/80 range. The doctor said that as long as it stayed down the next week then we would go back to appointments every two weeks. He also did my measurements and said that I was measuring 5cm larger than I was supposed to, so we would have to do a sonogram the next week to make sure everything was okay. Usually when you have high blood pressure issues they worry that the baby is not growing at the right rate b/c blood flow to the baby can get restricted. But since I was measuring bigger than normal he wanted to make sure that I wasn't farther along or that there wasn't something wrong. I also had my glucose test, which kept me up all night that night. I didn't think that I would pass it since I didn't pass my first glucose test when I was pregnant with Kaylin and I did not want to go back for the three hour test. Which if I had gestational diabetes then that could also contribute to me measuring larger b/c they baby would be gaining weight more rapidly.

This Week: So Jon went with me to my doctors appointment this week b/c he wanted to talk to the doctor about some concerns he had. I may have already mentioned this before so if I have be patient with me. After Kaylin was born my OB/GYN at the time had told Jon and I that I had uterine fibroids which are benign cysts that can cover the outside/inside of the uterus and can grow on your ovaries. Now mind you I was on a lot of pain medication and I don't remember the doctor telling us any of this. The fibroids grow larger with an increase in estrogen (which happens during pregnancy), they can cause fertility problems, during pregnancy if they become larger that can cause you to measure father along than you are, etc. So Jon wanted to talk to the sonographer and the doctor about all of it. We went in for my sonogram and they said that the baby looks fantastic! They said she looks to be about 2lbs 9oz and 14 1/2 in long. Which is right on target for how far along I am, she also said that she only saw one fibroid and it is about the size of a penny, so that is nothing to worry about. She also told us that we have a very limber little baby on our hands. In the last two sonograms Lauren has had her legs straight up over her head. The last sonogram she had moved into the position where her legs were over her head but this time they were over her head the whole time. So it was good news all around. Next we went in to see the doctor. My blood pressure was AWESOME!!!! The best it has been the entire time I have been seeing him for this pregnancy, 110/80. So when we sat down and started talking to Dr. Atkins I asked him about the bed rest and work and he just smiled at me. I asked him when I might be able to go back to work and he said that considering I have only had about two good blood pressure readings in quite a while he wanted to wait a couple more visits. I have a feeling though with the way he just smirked at me that he doesn't think that it will stay down and Jon came to the same conclusion. My weight at this point is something else I am super proud about I have not gained any weight! A few weeks ago I had gone up about 4lbs but it is back down to where I started. My glucose results came back and I passed! YAY! Dr. Atkins said it was 119 and that abnormal ones are around the 140s so I had a lot of leeway. He also talked to us more about the sonogram and said that everything looked perfect. He did say that I am still measuring larger than normal so they will probably do one more sonogram before the baby comes but right now there appears to be nothing to worry about. The only bad thing that happened during my appointment....I had to have another shot b/c of my rh factor but hey since everything else was fantastic I am okay with the shot.

Kaylin is doing really well, she is so excited about her baby sister and every time I go to the doctor she asks me if they are going to take the baby out that day so she can see her. I have been talking to her a lot about how they are going to cut mommy's tummy open to take out the baby and that after they take the baby out I won't be able to pick her up for a long time. I have also been trying to not pick her up as much as I use to, hopefully it will get her use to it before the baby comes.

Kaylin just turned three on June 23rd and we had a Cinderella party. This year we invited her little friends Kallie and Luke Johns, Tucker Sloan and Noah Chapman (who by the way she told us the other day she was going to marry and we have no idea where that came from). Not all of her little friends came but that's okay, she had so much fun and ever since the party she has not stopped talking about Kallie. We had all of our family there too, and it was a perfect, beautiful day. It is amazing how fast the time goes by! She is such a smart little girl, she picks up on things very fast. She has an incredible memory (which sometimes is not a good thing), she has a big heart for all people, she is very loving and likes to cuddle with her mommy. She is extremely clumsy, Jon and I joke about how she hurts herself just standing up (and I'm being serious she will be standing up and somehow manage to fall over nothing and hurt herself). She makes the funniest faces sometimes and all of the family says that she gets her attitude from her mommy (which I have no idea what they are talking about....hehe). She is an absolute blessing and joy and we are so privileged that God has placed this little girl in our lives. I can't wait to see what kind of characteristics Lauren will have. Kaylin is very much a girly girl and a mommy's girl. It will be interesting to see if Lauren is the same or if she is a daddy's girl. Either way both of our girls are blessed with amazing, godly grandparents, great-grandparents, one great-great- grandmother, aunts and uncles. We have such an incredibly strong family to support us and we are blessed beyond measure.

So I figured for those of you who know Jordan and Kristina I would also give you a short update on how they are doing. Kristina went to her specialist yesterday and is going to see her OB/GYN today, her specialist said that they baby looks to be about 6 1/2 lbs. She is definitely all baby and she still has about four weeks left, which they say the baby gains one pound a week the last month so if she makes it to August 4th (which I don't think she will) baby Kali will be anywhere from 10 to 11 lbs. Jordan is predicting that the baby will come around July 14th, so we will see if he is right. The only concern at this point is that there seems to be a problem with Kali's kidneys. I'm not exactly sure of all the details but there is a chance that she may have to have surgery on her kidneys after she is born. So we are praying that the problem will clear up on its own, at this point it has already cleared up from when they first discovered the problem so hopefully it will continue to do so.

My next appointment is July 16.