Talking Hospital Stay

Another bedrest hospital stay that lasted a lot longer than the one that I did with Bossy.  Instead of only one week like last time, I ended up staying 3 weeks.  Bedrest with preeclampsia involves a whole lot of nothing.  The only thing I could do was get up to go to the bathroom and shower.  That was it.  Anything else would elevate my blood pressure which was the reason I was there.  Even having visitors would spike it.

The highlight of my days were being wheeled into another room down the hallway, being put on a monitor and hearing my baby's heartbeat.  It was such music to my ears every-single-time.  I would go twice a day.  Once mid-morning and then again mid-evening.  I looked forward to those 2 - 30 minute "outings."  And sometimes when the nurses would hook me up and leave they would end up forgetting about me so I ended up being in there almost an hour which was totally fine by me!  I could have stayed in there all day listening to his heartbeat and watching his vitals/movements on the paper grid that was printing.  It was always a bummer being wheeled back to my room with nothing to do and nobody to talk to.  

Plus, I had to wear those leg compressors 8 hours a day to keep my circulation going while laying all day.  This stuff was no joke.  Yes, I got to spend my days just lounging around but I would much rather have been with my two loves at home.  I just had to keep my mind on the prize and that was to keep that baby cooking inside of me for as long as possible.  I knew that every day was monumental for his/her development.  It was almost like a challenge for me that I was determined to win.  I wanted to challenge myself to see how long I could keep him/her cooking.  :)

About 2 weeks into my hospital stay, I had hit the 36.5 week mark.  My doctor came in a day later during her morning patient rotation and told Jer and I (who had happened to have been staying the night with me the night before) that as soon as I hit 37.5 weeks she would be okay with delivering me and that we could set a date.  We were thrilled!  I knew that this baby was already weighing above what most babies weigh at that gestational age and so did she.  I tend to make big babies.  And it was also developing perfectly.  Praise God.  So we decided that day that we would go ahead and scheduled a c-section for the exact day I hit 37.5 weeks which happened to land on a Wednesday.  Knowing this made a huge difference in my mood each day.  I could now see the light at the end of the tunnel and it wasn't going to be another 3 weeks, either.  So, I was determined to completely relax my last week of my pregnancy.  I knew I had better take advantage of that time alone with no responsibilities because I knew that the moment this baby was born, I would then have 2 babies depending on me 24/7 and there would be no more "me" time or down time for quite some time.  So I spent that last week watching tv, ordering food (which was actually really yummy for a hospital) and getting prepared for this new arrival.  It was pretty glorious I must admit.  Ha.  I can't think of another time where I will get to do that without any guilt.  :) But in the end, all of that was SO worth it!!