Alexia's Birth Story

7:00-They put me on the monitor for an hour to watch Alexia. She was doing great. When the nurse came and took the monitor off she said I had 1 contraction. I had felt it, but it wasn’t anything major!
11:30-They came and gave me my ambien!
11:40-Came in to check my BP 172/117! The nurse said she was going to call the dr. and would let me know what she said. She came back and told me they were moving me to a labor/delivery room. I started calling Jacob, my sisters, and mom to let them know what was going on. I still thought that it would be a while though. Once I got down to the labor/delivery room they started to check me for dilation. She asked when I was last checked…Monday, I was a fingertip. She proceeds to tell me I’m 5-6 cm dilated! Wow, this is going to happen a lot sooner than I thought! She went to call the dr. and let her know and call the anesthesiologist to come down to do my epidural. Everyone started to get there. Only 3 people could come back at a time, so everyone kinda took turns letting me know they were there and then Jacob, Mom, and Sheila settled in for the long haul! They came and did my epidural, which wasn’t near as bad as what I expected it to be! The hardest part was crunching over, since I’m so short and so pregnant, and there’s nowhere for my belly to go. The nurse was really great although because of the ambien I can’t even remember her name! After the epidural it gets a little foggy! I recommend everyone take ambien during delivery! I was the most comfortable I had been in a long time! So, I drifted in and out of sleep for the next 5 hours! At 5:00 am they told me I was 8-9 cm and could start pushing. If you would have asked me, I would not have told you it was 5:00am. It felt like I had just been down there a few minutes! I could feel the contractions just enough to know when to push. I got in 3 good pushes per contraction…I felt like I could do more but apparently my face was purple from not breathing! They put the oxygen mask on me towards the end. At 5:36 am Alexia Rosemay arrived! She was 5lb 5oz and 17 ¾ long. She is the most amazing thing I have ever seen.
I guess after delivery my temp dropped pretty low and they were concerned about that. My reflexes were also doing something weird, either way too reactive, or not reactive enough, I don’t really remember.
After they brought me back to the postpartum room they put me on an IV of magnesium sulfate for my BP, and IV fluids. They came in to check on me and take me to the bathroom (they took the catheter out right before I delivered.) I felt like I could walk to the bathroom, but made it there and almost passed out. Everything started to box in and I felt like I couldn’t hear. So, they wheeled me back to bed. I guess it was from the magnesium. So from then on they let me use the bedside chair. It was all I could do throughout the night to get out of bed and use that. I felt like my legs were jello. They came in every 2 hours to check my BP and reflexes. I tried to stay awake as long as I could during the day while my family was here, but it felt like I just couldn’t hold my eyes opened. I slept really well considering a felt like crap. They came in at 5:30 and took me off the magnesium. Within a couple of hours I felt so much better. They won’t take the heplock completely out until 24 hrs later though.

Don't know what to do

This is just a vent. It's probably not going to flow, or make any kind of sense...but I need to put it out there just to get it out of my head.
My BP has been out of control for a week now. I've been having crazy headaches, probably because of it. I've also been to labor and delivery twice. It's all disconcerning. All I want is for Alexia to be healthy. Everything I've read about high BP in pregnancy is not good...especially over a long period of time. All the blood vessels get constricted, causing the headaches, but even to the baby. So, the baby loses out on oxygen and nutrients. She has always been fine on the monitors when my BP has been high, so that makes me feel better. And even now she's moving pretty good (especially for morning)...she's more of a night person! But, I've also been told that the inconsistency in the BP isn't good either. And mine seems to fluctuate. It's just so wierd because I never had high BP before. Throughout the whole pregnancy it's been perfect at every visit. Then I get a week long headache and somebody says I should get it checked...come to find out it's through the roof.
I don't want to go back to labor and delivery if it's not necessary. Especially since I've been there twice. I don't want to be that freaky first time mom who goes in 200 times! But, I worry! I go to the dr. twice a week now, and I don't want her to send me to labor and delivery every time I go in!
I'm on bedrest...and I'm not so great at it! But, it's especially hard on the weekends and evenings when Jacob is home. Or this weekend we had so many people in and out of the house, cleaning, etc. I'm so thankful for all of that, but I felt like I should be up doing something! Even though every time I got up someone told me to sit down. By Saturday night my feet were swollen and my BP was high enough to warrant a page to the on-call dr. She told me it was up to me...thanks a lot! She said it may be the same as before where I stay for a couple hours and then go home, or they may admit me to hospital bedrest...because "some people just don't follow the rules on at home bedrest." Yep, that would probably be me! But, I also don't want to be on hospital bedrest for any amount of time.
My dr. had talked about inducing if we couldn't get the BP and headaches under control, even though there hasn't been protein in my urine. I will do whatever my dr. tells me to do. I trust her fully. I just know these last few weeks are so important to Alexia's health. So, I would like for her to stay in as long as she can. But at the same time, I'm ready for her to be here. I'm ready for this to be over with. I absolutely love being pregnant, and I will miss it terribly. And this may be the only time I get to experience it. But, with all the ups and downs, I just feel out of control. And that's not good! I'm a very controlling person. And I've planned and planned...which of course, just makes it more disappointing when you get thrown for a loop!
At this point I just want someone to give me a definate answer. "DO THIS." I would be more than happy to give over control this one time!

Labor and Delivery: Part 2

I had my dr's appt. today. We were there forever! My dr. seems to constantly be running behind. My BP has been high all day and I've had a headache since I got up this morning. Still no protein in my urine though. But, she sent me over to labor and delivery for monitoring since it's the weekend. Before I left she said "I'll see you on Tuesday if you don't have the baby before then." WTF! She had me kinda scared, because she was talking like they were going to induce! We went over to labor and delivery and got hooked up. Stayed about 2 hours. My BP was high the entire time I was there. They did more bloodwork and it all came back good so they sent me home. The dr. on call from my office said that if my headache got worse to come back. She also told me if I just got scared or worried I could come back in, or I could call labor and delivery directly and talk to them. Also, while I was hooked up she said I was having some contractions, but nothing regular. I guess I'll finish packing my bag! And give someone in my family a key to my house, because I was so worried about how they were going to get in to get the rest of my stuff for me!

1st time to labor and delivery

Yep...we went to labor and delivery last night! I have been having a migraine pretty much all last week. Someone suggested that I check my blood pressure. So, Jacob's mom has a blood pressure cuff from walmart and she brought it up to us last night. The readings were around 160/104. I've heard that those cuffs aren't very accurate so we went down to the ambulance station to have them check it. And it was right on. We came home and called the dr. and she said just go to labor and delivery. We got there and they hooked me up to the monitors. Alexia was doing great the whole time...moving like crazy, she didn't appreciate all the drama! My blood pressures were still high except when I was laying on my left side. So, they came in and said we were going to stay for 23 hours. We moved to a different room, had bloodwork done, and started a 24 hour urine sample (which sucks). We were there for a while and they came in and said everything with my bloodwork was good so they were sending us home. They gave me a percocet for my headache and told me to rest. My dr. is supposed to call today to set up an appt. for tomorrow. So far my head still hurts and my BP's are still high this morning. But, I guess as long as Alexia is doing okay, I'll be okay too! There will probably be more to update on after our appt. tomorrow.