Expect the unexpected

If there's anything I've learned throughout the pregnancy process(es), it's that you have to expect the unexpected. And if you don't have lots of unexpected moments, then I think you are extremely fortunate! We had another one of those moments, and now a change of plans, today.

When I was driving home from the grocery store, I noticed that my vision was funky. It was as if my eyes were working independently and it definitely freaked me out. When I got home, I put some of the groceries away and immediately started chugging water. I hadn't had quite as much water as I usually do by that point in the day so I figured it couldn't hurt. I also threw an English muffin in the toaster since I hadn't eaten in a few hours. By the time I did these two things though, my vision was looking worse. I picked up a piece of paper and had a difficult time reading the words on it. I was also starting to feel just "off", so I called the doctor's office and waited for the midwife on duty to return my call.

Luckily for us, Julia called us back right away. I told her about my vision and she said I needed to come in (no surprise there!). On the drive in, my nausea set in. Maybe it was due to the vision issues, but all of a sudden, I was feeling terrible!

When we got to the hospital, they took my blood pressure and it was high (130/84), so that, combined with my symptoms, resulted in an interesting comment from the midwife ("Oh I bet I know what the doctor's going to say ..."). I didn't ask her to elaborate then, but I had a good idea she was referencing getting induced. My husband had the same thought.

Onto the monitors, blood drawn for labs, pee in a cup. The standard protocol really at this point. The midwife also said she wanted to check me again (to see if I was any more dilated/effaced) and would do that in a bit.

My husband took this picture - I look much happier in it than I was feeling! Sorry for the blurriness. As I've mentioned in my blog before, Palm Treo phones SUCK.

Anyway, back to the gory details. Julia checked me and I was still 4 cm dilated and 80 percent effaced - so no change from Thursday. At that point, I asked her what she was thinking would happen and her response was that she thought the doc would want to induce me, the question was whether that would happen today or tomorrow (lab results dependent). She said even if my labs were fine, the real question was, why would they want me to stay pregnant at this point? The baby is full term (and looking great on the monitor) so he or she is good to come out, and my blood pressure has been spiking a bit and now I have other symptoms. This is what we anticipated, but it was still weird to hear it.

My labs came back and they looked fine. My nausea by that point had subsided and my vision had cleared up, but I still had a headache. After talking with the doc on call, Julia returned and gave us the option of either spending the night in the hospital and being induced tomorrow morning, or coming home and returning to the hospital in the morning to be induced. For comfort reasons, we chose to come home, but we'll be back at the Snuggery tomorrow morning at 7:30 am to start the induction process. CRAZY.

We don't really know how the induction process is going to go. I know there are a couple of medication options, and Julia also said that the midwife on duty may just start by breaking my water and seeing what happens. It's absolutely bizarre to think that we're going to go in to be induced in the morning ... it's not how I thought this would all go down, but as long as the baby is healthy and I end up okay too, then I'm fine with it.

I'm conflicted right now as far as emotions. Part of me is excited to me this little one, part of me is nervous for the actual labor and delivery process, and part of me is just really calm. I'm hoping the third one will win out tonight when we go to bed so that we can actually get some sleep. The nurse that discharged us warned us that people that get induced don't always give birth on the first day. I'm hoping that's not the case with us!

I don't know when the next blog post will come, but I will try to keep my twitter feed (www.twitter.com/jenhutchins) updated, at least every once in a while. Wish us luck!!