July 15, 2021, I became the mom of a bouncing baby boy. After years of proclaiming myself as a cat mom, I finally had a human baby of my own.
Since I was a little girl, probably when I was about two or three, I imagined growing up and having a baby of my own. I’d stuff my shirts with my dolls and pretend to be pregnant. I would mimic the laboring women I saw on television. I couldn’t wait to grow up and have a baby!
I never expected a “perfect” birth per se. Some moms want to go all natural without an epidural. They hire a doula and take birthing classes to prepare. I am not that much of a planner; I just wanted to go into the hospital when my contractions started or my water broke, walk through the pain and maybe get in the tub. When the pain became too stifling to bear, I’d beg for an epidural, then when the time finally came, I’d push my baby out.
Well, that’s not what happened, and somehow Facebook knows, because I keep getting recommended blog posts dealing with traumatic posts to trigger me and remind me the source of my tears.
It was my 34 week appointment that my numbers crept above 140.
My blood pressure was high my whole pregnancy. Before I got pregnant, it was almost perfect, but I noticed at my first prenatal it was around 130/70. I thought I was just anxious because I didn’t know what to expect.
My doctors never commented on it. I dropped regular urine samples to test for protein, and there never seemed to be any concern. After my 21 week anatomy scan, my blood pressure was normal again, so I attributed my higher numbers because they always took my blood pressure before listening to my baby’s heart rate. I’d heard too many sad stories of moms finding out they’d lost their baby from a prenatal appointment, and I didn’t really start feeling my baby regularly until 21 weeks when I saw his movements on the ultrasound and was absolutely sure they were him. I thought my blood pressure would return to normal now that I could feel him (and he was an active little guy in the womb! He’s quite the wiggle worm outside, too).
It was my 34 week appointment that my top number crept above 140. My blood pressure had never been that high. I knew about women being induced due to high blood pressure, and I knew I had so much to get done. My anxiety was boiling, which was not good for someone with high blood pressure.
I got sent to the ER after my 36 week appointment for monitoring. I had to do the 24 urine collection and everything. My tests were negative for preeclampsia, so they sent me home, but a nurse mentioned I would probably be induced at 37 weeks and it would be discussed at my prenatal appointment the following Tuesday.
Alarmed, I went home and bought a bunch of stuff on Amazon I still needed. I tried to relax. The Tuesday of my appointment, I ran as many errands as possible. Overall, I felt fine. I didn’t have any symptoms they talked about—headache, stomach pains, blurred vision. I believed I was having some Braxton Hicks, but nothing terribly painful.
My blood pressure was the highest it’d been at my appointment, and I got sent straight to triage. There, I was told I was being sent upstairs to work on having a baby.
I had no idea what I was about to endure.
To be continued…
Fur to Human Mom 