Hello, couch

I wasn't going to blog about my bed rest, but then thought, I'd probably want to remember a few years from now...or maybe not.

I had preclampsia with Jacob. I wasn't diagnosed until the day I was 38 weeks...it was severe, and they had to induce right away. Looking back, it was a blessing because I didn't know what it was before hand, and I wasn't sent home to look it up, freak out, and realize how serious the disease is. I was able to deliver that day, get my baby Jacob here healthy, and start to get better myself. The recovery from having preclampsia was terrible, and nothing I would want to repeat.

But, here we are.

I started having blurred vision, some swelling in my hands, and other small signs early this week. I kind of thought I was getting high blood pressure again, but didn't really want to deal with it because I have a two year old to take care of. But, it was getting worse and I had to go in on Wednesday. My blood pressure was pretty bad, so they ended up sending me over to the hospital to be monitored for a few hours. Baby Joshua was doing great on the monitors, but my blood pressure was taken every 5 minutes for 2 hours and never went down. So, my OB put me on bed rest. Luckily, not strict bed rest, but "don't do anything you don't have to do bed rest." She knows I have Jacob to take care of, but told me the only thing that will keep me out of the hospital on strict bed rest is being able to lay down as much as possible and not get down and play, don't do dishes, grocery shopping, laundry, etc.

The next day my swelling was worse and I went back in to the OB. Was given nurse practitioner from hell. Horrible experience, left crying my eyes out and speaking with the manager of the practice. Didn't help the blood pressure.

Friday was another appointment. Unfortunately, not dilated at all, so no signs of Joshua coming on his own any time soon, which even my OB was a little disappointed in. Blood pressure was slightly better, but still in the dangerous category. Protein in my urine, which definitely put me in the preclampsia stage of my high blood pressure. My platelets dropped while I was in the hospital Wednesday, so they went ahead and drew more blood. It has been a problem I've had since Jacob where every time I am sick my platelets drop rapidly, so they are keeping an eye on it just in case.

Needless to say...Josh will be our final addition to the Lewis family! We'd be asking for it if we had another one, haha. But, really, I am thankful that we have made it this far without MAJOR issues. It could be much worse than a few weeks on bedrest. It could be a few months. Luckily, Josh has remained healthy through all of this, and they don't have a reason to induce as of now. I go back on Thursday for my weekly appointment, and we'll probably talk then about Josh's arrival, just for my health. I do NOT want a repeat of my delivery issues with Jacob, or the recovery issues. I do NOT want my preclampsia getting that severe again. As it is, I have gained 5 pounds of fluid in two days (preclampsia at its finest) and just don't feel it would be healthy for me to go all the way to my due date with that much weight being put on. Luckily, Josh is measuring a little large, so we may be a few days off on the due date which might help out. We'll see what happens this week!