The Good, and the Not-So-Good (but not quite bad) News (27w4d)

I got the call this morning that my three hour glucose tolerance test came back  . . .NORMAL! I was low on all the draws, from fasting to hour three. So low on hour three that the nurse remarked, ‘You probably felt like crap.’ I declined to tell her I actually felt not-so-bad until I ate some nuts and my body got all hot and shaky and crazy.

There was MUCH rejoicing!

We had our 28w appointment this afternoon, though . . .and there are a few more curveballs to contend with. The first is that I gained 7lbs (!!!) since my last appointment. HOW?! I gained 0 lbs in 4 weeks and 7 in two? I know I was in the midwest eating casseroles and sweets like club crackers covered in carmel but . . .whew. The midwife wasn’t terribly worried, and mentioned that she actually thought a good chunk of it could be water weight, because . . .my blood pressure is also high.

Well, maybe. Like a lot of offices, my midwife practice uses those automatic blood pressure machines, which seem to consistantly malfunction when I use them, not even registering a BP. This was the case today, so the assistant took it using the machine with a small cuff on my forearm. And doing that, it popped up at 141/85. She decided to take it again, manually, but using a small cuff, where it dropped just under the cut off. The midwife took it one final time with the machine and the big cuff before we left, and it was at 139/82 – again, just below the cut off for high.

So, the jury is still out. My urine was free of protein, which is good news in any case. But since my blood pressure has been inching up throughout my pregnancy, the midwife is concerned I might have gestational hypertension. While she was explaining it, she casually mentioned induction at 37-39 weeks and I all but lost it. I feel so so so strongly about NOT being induced, and now it seemed like my fate was sealed.

Thank God for La, who saw the tears in my eyes and mentioned to the midwife how strongly we feel about induction. And thank God for the midwife, who fell all over herself apologizing and clarifying that 1) I don’t have gestational hypertension diagnosed yet 2) The practice and the hospital both want to avoid induction and other interventions and 3) Induction doesn’t mean pitocin, necessarily, and she would go out of her way to do what she can do avoid using pit if induction does have to happen.

They took some liver and kidney function labs, and are getting some other baseline data to be able to better gauge if things are going badly. I go back in a week to get my BP checked again and if it’s high (over 140/90) I will likely have to be transferred to co-management by the midwives and OBs at the primary hospital clinic. But, that hasn’t happened yet, and I’m hoping that that my BP will go down and I won’t have to be concerned about any of this – from having to see an OB (and a midwife – have to remind myself of that!) to possible induction.

Unfortunately, like GD, you either get gestational hypertension or you don’t. It can’t be prevented or really treated, aside from increased monitoring. This makes me feel less like a failure, but still bummed about about the possibility of intervention.

Seafoam, though, is measuring right on track and is happily head down, for now (and forever, I hope!) with a heart beat steady and bold, as always.

It could definitely be worse, but it could also be better.