Oh, Hanlon

The end of this pregnancy is fast approaching and we have had some eventful past couple days. Let's start with Sunday. Sunday I had to pick Madison up from a weekend at her dad's. We met half way (an hour and a half....one way). On the way home I noticed that my wedding ring was really tight on my finger. When I looked at them, they looked like fat little sausage links. This was a first. I didn't think much of it past that. Once I got home, I needed a nap. Something that has become a normal routine since I only get a couple of hours of good sleep a night. I woke up to my finger throbbing in pain. Fantastic!! The first thought was ice. I iced it with a couple ice cubes....nothing. So I tried some soap....nothing. So I went to the trusty 'ole Google. There a site recommended soaking my hand in ice water for 20 minutes, keeping my hand above my heart for 15 minutes and then icing it again for 10 minutes. Tried that....nothing. Then I saw an interesting one; Windex. Tried it....nothing. But it was the closest. My finger was so swollen and red at this point I figured I should let it rest because all of the tugging was only making it worse. To keep my mind off of my finger Casey and I played a game of Scrabble; which I won. :) When we were done I had to use the bathroom.....imagine that. That's when I noticed that my feet had doubled, if not tripled in size and were completely numb. Now I was freaking out. Preclampsia immediately went through my mind and another Google search began. The only way to know for sure was to check my blood pressure. Casey was about to run to the store to buy a cheap cuff but then recommended that I call his Aunt Kim first. And so I did. After a conversation with her we called my doctor. At this point I was so worried and stressed that I think the message I left for the doctor on call was more of a sobbing, shaking voice mess than anything else. He called back a few short minutes later and ensured me that the swelling was due to all the driving I did that day (mark that off the list of things I do again) but if I felt more comfortable going to the hospital to get my blood pressure checked then I should go ahead and do that. I felt much better after talking with him, but not 100%, so I decided that I would run to WalMart and use their blood pressure machine to check myself out. Of course knowing I was so upset, everyone else went with me. So at 9:30 at night we all made a nightly trip to Wally World. My blood pressure was fine, but my nerves were still on edge. At least now I had some peace of mind and I could possible get some sleep.....yeah right!

I woke up the next morning exhausted from the lack of sleep that night and still swollen. Luckily I had a doctor's appointment that morning. I had also convinced myself that I was going to convince my doctor to induce me that day. I had had enough between the lack of sleep, the increase of pain and the swelling scare. I was close enough....surely! At the doctor's I was still swollen, but my blood pressure was good. (I had secretly hoped it would be high so I could convince her to induce me.) While talking to my doctor she said that I wasn't dilated AT ALL! NOTHING!!!! NOT EVEN CLOSE!! She said that based on my first appointment my due date was June 30, but the ultra sound showed a due date of July 4. She said paperwork wise, they go off of the June 30 date...so I was 3 days away from my due date and not dilated at all. She said at this point if I did want to be induced I would have to go to the hospital 12 hours before so they could give me some medication that would thin out my cervix and then after that they would give me some medication to start the labor. That sounded worse that just getting induced. I quickly changed my mind on wanting to get induced. So at this point I have appointments twice a week to keep an eye on everything and to see how I progress. I had a BPP that day as well, which is an ultra sound, but they only check to see if the baby is head down, her vitals are good and there's enough fluid still in there for her. Everything checked out perfectly fine! Now we just have to cross our fingers and see how things go from here.