Baby finally kicked Daddy... yay! ;)

I keep trying to get my dear husband (DH) to feel when the baby moves, which is often when we're waking up in the morning. I'll have him put his hand on my tummy, but he's usually so groggy waking up that he falls back asleep and starts snoring away. Either that, or if he's still awake and the baby kicks, I ask him if he felt it and he says, "Huh...what?"
But today... victory! DH had his arm across my tummy this morning and baby nearly kicked it right off of me. I said to him, "There's NO way you didn't just feel that!" He agreed.
Woo hoo!

Follow-up with cardiologist

Saw the cardiologist yesterday afternoon. My blood pressure was a little on the higher-than-normal side, but not overly concerning (130/88). He said that it looks like I am just experiencing side effects of my heart pumping harder to keep up with the extra blood flow, which may be aggravated by my chronic hypertension. So he increased my blood pressure medication dosage again, in the hopes that this will allow my heart to calm down a bit and not work so hard. He said too that the reason I may feel the most pounding and throbbing in my neck at night is because when lying down, my heart is not fighting gravity anymore and so the blood flow is even stronger. He also told me to make sure I drink enough water such that my urine is totally clear (this is hard to do when taking prenatals, though!)

So I'm hoping the meds adjustment will make a difference. I actually did sleep better last night and only felt a little bit of throbbing early in the morning.

Valentine's Day (or, Another Trip to L&D)

First off, the end result is that baby and I are fine. I had an episode of a high blood pressure reading this afternoon, which prompted my OB to send me to the ER and to L&D for monitoring. BP is back within normal range now, but here's what went down:

I had been feeling weird all morning (palpitations that I was feeling in my throat and a little bit fuzzy headedness that didn't go away), which prompted me to go to CVS to test my bp. As I've probably mentioned before, I'm on meds for high blood pressure and test my bp every day, but never thought to bring my cuff with me to work (I will from now on!). At CVS my bp measured 152/101 and then 150/104, so I was a little freaked out. A friend of mine went with me, and as a control she did her bp (she is also pregnant and had just had her bp checked this morning), but hers came out fine, so while I was skeptical of the CVS monitor I still was feeling out of sorts so I called my OB.

OB told me to call my cardiologist, who I already see for the chronic hypertension. Receptionist there gave me an appointment for tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday). Didn't really help address the immediate concerns, so I called my OB office back and they told me to come in to check my bp.

My bp at the OB was 124/86, but since I wasn't feeling any better overall my doc sent me to the hospital. Told me to go first to the ER to get an EKG to check my heart and the palpitations, then to go on to L&D to make sure baby was okay.

Luckily everything checked out fine - EKG, blood count, sugar level, no protein in urine, baby did fine on the monitor (but was squirming around so much the nurse had to reposition the belt several times!) and ultrasound too.

Verdict? Stress? Fatigue? I'm not sure. I still don't feel 100%, but am at least gladly reassured that the baby's not in harm's way. I will go to the cardiologist tomorrow and see what he says about the persistent discomfort from the palpitations and heart pounding; it's keeping me awake at night and it's hard to find a comfortable position while sitting either. Seems silly to have had to go through 7 hours of monitoring and tests, but I'm glad to find out that everything is okay.

Now, I'm just pooped!

Belly (button) dancing

So I was sitting down relaxing in my recliner tonight, after drinking some juice so I could make sure LO (Little Oatmeal) is moving around like s/he should. As I watched (and tried to listen with my prenatal listener -- it's not a doppler, unfortunately), I noticed that my semi-outie belly button was moving in and out and around, and NOT in time to my own breathing!

It was a little freaky, and a lot cool... it's the first outward sign of movement I've seen! 'Course I did see a little jiggle of my belly right after, but when I told DH to come look, all was quiet on the belly front. Ah well.

My trip to L&D yesterday

I called my OB's office yesterday morning and spoke with the Doc on call. Told her my symptom, and that I wasn't sure if this was something to be concerned about, and was surprised that she told me to go get checked out, "to be on the safe side." My cramps are definitely a potential symptom of pre-term labor, though they can be attributed to other issues.

So, DH and I made a visit to our hospital's Perinatal Assessment & Treatment (PET) Unit (aka the triage or intake section of the Labor & Delivery/Maternity Ward) yesterday afternoon. They strapped me to a fetal monitor, and another one that detected contractions. Heartbeats and uterus were observed for about an hour, and luckily nothing of concern was found; baby's heart rate was comfortably variable, averaging about 158 bpm, and I wasn't anywhere near contracting. Cervical check showed that my cervix is high and thick and shut up like Fort Knox (or should I say "like a medieval fortress," to go along with the AMA theme, LOL?).

Then what's with all these cramps, you say? Well, the resident said it was most likely round ligament pain, or else it could be my fibroids acting up. I'd rather it be RLP, but I do go for a growth ultrasound tomorrow morning, so that should help determine whether my fibroids are behaving themselves.

The resident discharged me, telling me that pretty much, all looks normal, and I can take Tylenol to relieve the pain, but to come back if the symptoms persist or worsen, or if I don't feel the baby move. I felt the baby move a bit last night, but s/he's been quiet today so I'm trying not to get anxious, as the cramps haven't really let up... and of course I forgot to bring my Tylenol with me to work. :(

Cramps? :(

For a while now, I've felt tightness in my lower abdomen at times, which seemed to correlate with sitting for "too long." The length of time varied, and might have had as much to do with the pants (and underpants) I was wearing as anything else -- if the pants cut into my belly at all, I'm sure that hastened the discomfort. Usually this tightness has gone away after moving around or shifting positions (leaning back, etc.), or both.

Well, last night, the tightness changed a bit. Instead of just tightness, I was really feeling cramps, like when I get my period. Lasted a couple of hours and didn't really let up until after I fell asleep.

I have this sheet given to me by my doctors on signs of preterm labor. One of the symptoms is:

Menstrual-Like Cramping: Cramps low or near your pelvic bone, like before or during your period. Cramping may come and go or be constant.

Ugh. I'm only experiencing this one symptom, so I'm not sure if this is normal or a warning sign. Guess it's time to call the doctor, just to be on the safe side. I have my next growth ultrasound at the perinatologist's on Tuesday, but I don't think I should wait until then. It's all fine and dandy that I've reached the viability stage of my pregnancy (24 weeks), but I do not want my baby born too soon!

By the way, I feel the baby kick and can tell s/he is getting stronger... so it's reassuring to feel those pops and punches while all this stuff is going on.

Thumpdate

So, I saw my cardiologist (Dr. F) on Friday, and he said the likely culprit of my heartbeat variations is just that my heart is working harder to get all the extra blood flowing... on the whole, a fairly normal occurrence during pregnancy. Well that's good! My blood pressure was a bit elevated when the nurse checked it, 140/80, and my readings at home have been in the mid 120s/mid 80s, with occasional 130s, and the rare 140 or 90... so, Dr. F decided to increase my medication dosage. I had been on the lowest dose of methyldopa (Aldomet), 250mg, 3 times a day (at least I think that's the lowest dose). Now I'll take 500 mg twice a day, and 250 mg at night, in the hopes that lowering my BP will help calm the pounding a bit.

Dr. F also hooked me up with a Holter monitor to get a 24-hour reading on my heart beats. I think I gave him some "good" material. I had several "episodes" of thumping irregular beats throughout the afternoon and evening, so hopefully he will be able to see if there's anything else amiss -- which I sincerely hope not! I started the new dosage of medication, but it probably takes a few days to kick in, but I certainly hope that helps!

Pitter Patter... THUMP

Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter... THUMP. Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter... THUMP. This is the sound (sort of) that greeted me as I checked my pulse while lying down trying to nap on Monday afternoon. Heart was beating (always a good thing), a little fast (that's all right, I suppose), but then would pause for a beat (uh oh), and then go BOOM with a really strong beat (um, WTF?). Needless to say, I didn't fall asleep that nap time (kind of afraid to, and was a bit uncomfortable anyway).

Called my OB, and talked with Dr. P., who said it sounds like palpitations and that they're not too unusual, but then:

- Oh wait, you've the one with WPW, right?

- Well, yes, I had WPW until I had it "fixed" about a decade ago, and my cardiologist says it no longer shows up in my EKG, but yeah that's me.

- Okay then, why don't you make an appointment with your cardiologist, and he can do an EKG and maybe a Holter monitor to check it all out.

So, on Friday morning I will go see Dr. F. and see what the deal is. Hopefully it's nothing, and was just the result of me starting to freak out about the price of day care in Northern New Jersey.

Oh, about that WPW. It stands for Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, and means that I was born with an extra conduction pathway for the electrical signal that starts the heartbeat. At times this pathway can get activated (sort of like my heart beat taking a shortcut) and start a rapid heartbeat or tachycardia. I first started having episodes when I was about 6, and they were pretty manageable until I started rowing freshman year in college (so I quit the team, had tests done, was put on medication, and then was able to row all of sophomore year). Medication worked for a while until an episode in grad school (working out at the gym) that sent me to the emergency room with a heartbeat of over 200 bpm. This prompted my doctor's urging that I finally did something surgical to fix the issue. So in 1997 I had a catheter ablation to get rid of the extra pathway. Since then I've been episode-free. I'm not sure if WPW can come back after that, but I certainly hope not, especially not now!

Is it catching? One thing that I will be interested in finding out is if I have passed on this wonderful cardiac quirk to my wee little babe. Though it doesn't look like I acquired the trait through heredity, it does have a genetic component and I could pass it on myself. Since our trisomy results at the NT screen were so good, we opted out of the CVS and amnio, and didn't feel the necessity to go through those tests just to find out whether the WPW gene was present. We can test for it after birth, which I think we will. And while I don't wish WPW on anyone, at least, if my baby has it, it's something Momma has spent her lifetime dealing with, so hopefully it won't freak me out too much to see it happening. LOL, yeah, not. It's one thing to go through something yourself, entirely another to watch someone else suffer (witness my anxiety over DH's hernia surgery Friday -- which went super well, by the way). Guess I should talk to my Momma, and see how she felt!