I had a midwife appointment yesterday…and managed to gain 7 pounds in TWO WEEKS! For once I actually wish it was because of hot fudge sundaes, french fries and cheesy poofs, but in this case, we’re pretty sure that most, if not all, of it is water weight. And, once again, my blood pressure continues to creep up steadily. Brenda is concerned. She says that while I don’t actually have pre-eclampsia…she fears that I am headed to it. Apparently, swelling of the hands, feet and legs is totally normal in pregnancy…but not when your face is swollen…and if you’ve seen me lately or even the pictures in the previous post, you’ll see that my face is very puffy looking (and it is many times the first sign of a problem). The fact that I’m retaining so much water and that my blood pressure is continually going up (instead of remaining steady) is worrying her.
Pre-eclampsia is very dangerous and can be fatal to mom…but especially to baby. The only “cure” for it is having the baby…and being that I am only 33 weeks, I am much too early to be birthing anytime soon (well, at least without having a preemie). I made the mistake of reading stories online of moms who ended up having stillborns, so I was a bit of a wreck yesterday and came home to do work from home. I’m better today. After all, I DON’T actually have it…
In the meantime, I am on a strict regimine to see if somehow we can get my blood pressure down. It consists of:
- Eating one whole cucumber per DAY (and I HATE cucumbers!)
- Drinking a concoction of the juice of 1/2 a lemon, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 1/2 cup water (once a day/3 days)
- Severely limiting/eliminating processed sugars
- Eating LOTS of greens
- Protein, protein, protein
- 45 minutes of exercise per day
Hopefully all it is is high blood pressure and it won’t progress to pre-e (which only affects 5-7% of women). I’m pretty freaked out about it. But, I guess all I can do is pray like a fiend, give it to God, and eat those disgusting little cucumbers! :(
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Okay, that explains why you are looking so round. Well, by this time, Keely was born and Colin was just about to come out. I had pre-eclamp with Keely really bad. We all turned out okay…. well, I actually think that statement is rather subjective :) You have had a rather healthy and joyful pregnancy thus far… and I only wish mine went a third as smooth as yours has. If Master Gibson would like to be born early, there is nothing you can do except look to God for support.
You will be fine!! So will Master Gibby.
XooX
oh man jeanett. i’m sorry. you are beautiful and your almost done! i’ll pray for you!
You probably can’t dip your cucumbers in ranch dressing can you? I’m not a huge fan of plain cucumbers, but cucumbers dipped in ranch dressing is a whole other story. =)
Anyway, I’ll be praying for you and your little one. What a scary situation. I’m glad you’re able to be more calm today.
By the way, I think you look really cute. =)
She HATES ranch dressing. However, I think Italian is ok?
Opps, that last comment was me, Gib. I forgot to sign her our.
You and your little little guy are in my prayers. Having a baby can be so scary. When I was pregnant with Dillon, my blood pressure went through the roof – I actually gained 7 pounds in ONE week! Just try to relax and remember – you are almost there and in a few short weeks, you’ll be holding your little bundle of joy and will forget about all the cucumbers that you had to eat for him (and, as a bonus, you can always use it against him as leverage when he gets older :))
Yay- you’ve joined the “creeping high blood pressure club”! I’m proud to say I’ve been a member all 4 pregnancies. One thing that really helped me was having the weekly (or more) non-stress tests, just to make sure the baby was doing ok. They’re kind of a hassle, but very worthwhile if you’re worried. Basically, you just lie down and push a button every time you feel your little guy move. You’re attached to a machine that tracks your little one’s heart rate to see how it reacts to the movements. Every time my blood pressure measured higher, Dr. Lickness would have me do this, and every time everything was fine. Now I wonder if he did that just to calm Mama’s nerves? After the test, I’d have my blood pressure taken again, and it would be lower. AND I had an excuse to buy “Us” and “People”, to read during the tests! :)
Good luck and God bless little Gibby Jr.
Penny
My favorite indian side dish is raita
1 cucumber,
1 tomatoe (or 1c grape tomatoes cut in half)
6oz of plain yogurt (full of protein!)
sea salt to taste
peppermint tea helps with the water weight but I’m sure you have enough advice on that already! You are in our prayers.
oh, boy. i’m sorry to hear about the water weight and high blood pressure. but it sounds like you are in very good hands! thanks for listing all of brenda’s remedies for high blood pressure. during my pregnancies, particularily with nehemiah, my blood pressure was not “creeping high blood pressure”–it was “shockingly high blood pressure”, like the kind that makes you retest and retest, pray, breath, retest and retest again. the nurses wouldn’t even tell me the numbers after awhile. yikes! that’s why i was doing stress tests every week toward the end there.
so eat your cucumbers! glad to hear they aren’t so bad. juicing them is a good idea. and nehemiah turned out just fine, by the way. but it is serious stuff.