Finally some good news

[PixieAlly]

Well I had a u/s yesterday and they still couldn't tell me if it's definitely a girl but the head is down (we thought it might be up due to the huge amounts of ribcage pain I've been having).

The good news is, my midwife wrote me a note saying that I really need to go to a 6 hour work day. My blood pressure has been creeping up over the last two weeks and the pains I've been having in my ribcage have increased as well as my trouble breathing which I am sure are aggrevated by having to sit at a desk/computer 8 hours a day. As soon as I get home I'm in my recliner or bed for the rest of the night...if I'm not the pain gets worse. And standing doesn't help because I get light headed after 10 minutes or so. So my job is working with me on my hours even though I don't have an FMLA (and now I won't qualify for it at all because of my reduced hours...oh well).

I don't know if I should be worried about the blood pressure though. Is it normal for it to creep up towards the end of pregnancy? I normally have low blood pressure but it's gone from around 100/58 to 110/68 to 122/82 in two weeks. Still not high obviously but 122/82 seems high for me and at this rate it will be high by the time the baby gets here...I'm hoping the reduced stress at work will help.

Ally

[ELKMama]

Glad you can slow down some!

On the bp question, I'd ask the mw for more information about her concerns... I was told that "you only get 20 or so points" even if you start out with relatively low bp. My very weak understanding is that rising bp can be a sign of pre-eclampsia and some believe that increased protein can help you avoid pre-e. Again, this is all my vague understanding so I'm definitely not trying to scare you. But I'd call the mw and ask for more info about what the increased bp might mean and whether there are natural strategies, besides slowing down, for dealing with this.

[lilkat]

My bp has gone up in the past week, too, although mine started out higher than yours I also have some protein leaking into my urine, which is another sign of pre-e. Has your mw tested for that? Like ELKMama said, I don't want to scare you, but pre-e is nothing to mess around with and you should probably check into this.

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to mediate the effects of pre-e and support the systems that are affected. These are the things my mw is having me do:

- eat AT LEAST 60g protein a day (I'm actually shooting for 75g-100g); that is supposed to prevent/treat pre-e.

- drink lots (like 2L or more) of pregnancy tea made with red raspberry leaf, nettles and dandelion root. The RRL is a general tonic that keeps systems balanced and is especially good for uterine toning; the nettles are also a good pregnancy tonic, as well as supporting kidney and liver function; and the dandelion is really good for liver function.

- eat one or two cucumbers a day; cucs are good for lowering blood pressure.

- rest as much as possible (I know it hard when you're working fulltime); but still keep moving by taking 5-10 minute walks 2 or 3 times a day.

- visualizing and meditation can help, too; mostly I'm visualizing all my systems working together with joy to nourish myself and my baby, and visualizing opening up to let my baby come out. Also, I've bee talking to my baby, letting her know that I'm ready for her to come as soon as she's ready (I'm 38w). The only proven "cure" for pre-e is delivering the baby.

You may want to use any or all of these strategies to help control your bp. You should definitely talk to your mw about it, though.

Good luck! That's great news about cutting back your work schedule

[MonP'titBoudain]

On the BP question, your numbers do show a pretty big jump, both in dystolic and systolic. But what most mw look for is the difference between your baseline bp and your end of pregnancy bp. If you look at the arc of bp over the course of the pregnancy it starts out normal (Mine was 110/60. Then it drops during the blood expansion period (mine dropped down to 90/50 at it's lowest), then it rises a little again in the third tri (I'm now up to 115/60). So if I'm just looking at the last 2 numbers that looks kinda scary, but overall it's only a 5 point increase.

Pre-e is nothing to joke around about and you should really talk to your mw about your bp. Lilkat has some good suggestions. You can also look on the pregnancy resources forum for the thread on Pre-e. There's some good information there (and a fair amount of fear mongering so read critically).

[DBZ]

I had high bp toward the end of my last pregnancy and it's starting to creep up a tad now, but I'm still closer to my baseline then you are. At the end of my last pregnancy my doc put me on total bed rest. Great fun as a single mom. The doc was ok with that, because if I was laying down my bp stayed down. When it no longer did that, they said the baby had to be born. My DD was born very healthy and I had no ill effects. I don't think I could have been officially diagnosed with pre-e as my protien was still pretty low.

[PixieAlly]

Thanks everyone. I will be looking into the pre-e info given. I really feel that the stress of work and being single with no help (no father, no family) is what's causing the increase. My next appointment is 3/6 though and if it's continued to rise I will discuss what to do with my mw. I know I don't eat enough protein, especially now (I still feel sick most evenings and have no desire to eat let alone cook so I end up snacking on not so healthy stuff...plus my craving now is tuna sandwiches which I don't want to eat too much of due to mercury....) but my urine is tested at every visit and protein is pretty low..it was actually higher a couple months ago and has gone down of the last month.

[avasmomleigh]

congratulations on the good news and fewer hours at work!!! I bet that will make a difference in your stress level and bp-have you tried taking baths at night? I never did it with my first pregnancy, but I have been taking nice deep baths with dd every night, and man-does it just melt away tension! I never knew a bath could be so nice! Really helps me sleep too, nothing like having a full day at work after zero sleep...I have been craving tuna sandwiches too...toasted cheese with tuna...oh man, wish I hadn't thought of that now!

[esmlranch]

Just wanted to comment about blood pressure.

At the end of my last pg in month 9 my blood pressure shot up, I had a little protein in my urine, and was swelling like crazy. I had to see the mw's back up ob to be sure I was still safe for an out of hospital birth. She told me that sometimes a woman's body just responds like that. I did not have pre-e and delivered a healthy baby boy only a few days before his edd.
I spent a lot of time monitoring my bp during that last month at the fire station. Not such a bad thing...........some of those fire fighters are so darn cute!

So hopefully your bp rise is not a serious issue. Definitely check it out and monitor it but also keep in mind that could just be your body responding to the stress of pg in a normal way.

I am entering month 9 tomorrow and am hoping not to have a repeat of last time.

[DBZ]

Originally Posted by MonP'titBoudain

On the BP question, your numbers do show a pretty big jump, both in dystolic and systolic. But what most mw look for is the difference between your baseline bp and your end of pregnancy bp. If you look at the arc of bp over the course of the pregnancy it starts out normal (Mine was 110/60. Then it drops during the blood expansion period (mine dropped down to 90/50 at it's lowest), then it rises a little again in the third tri (I'm now up to 115/60). So if I'm just looking at the last 2 numbers that looks kinda scary, but overall it's only a 5 point increase.

Pre-e is nothing to joke around about and you should really talk to your mw about your bp. Lilkat has some good suggestions. You can also look on the pregnancy resources forum for the thread on Pre-e. There's some good information there (and a fair amount of fear mongering so read critically).

It's cool that I read this the other day. I have a nurse that comes to visit me once a month. She is quiting her job and her replacement happens to be a CNM. The CNM told me all this stull about the bp rising and lowering. She also told me that the concern about high bp is with the placenta. All those blood vessels aren't protected by muscle, so they are more fragile and prone to breaking under pressure. It makes sense. I don't know why doctors can't explain stuff like this.