What a day. Today was the much anticipated ultrasound. Originally we were supposed to find out the sex today but an over-zealous tech told me at 13 weeks. We did get confirmation- it's a boy!
I had the first appointment of the day, at 7am, to make it convenient for my husband. The ultrasound was very successful. They checked his whole body (kidneys, spine, heart, brain, diaphragm, fingers, toes) and all looked normal. He is 11oz now. Tell that to my stomach. We got one 3-D image and it looks like he is smiling.
After the screening, my husband left for work. He had his performance review that morning. I had to meet with a doctor because at my check up last week my blood pressure was high. I typically get white coat syndrome where you blood pressure gets high because you are nervous about the doctor. So I assumed that was my issue.
I do have to say, I worked myself up into a tizzy during the week with nightmares of having pre-eclampsia and delivering at 24 weeks. The nurse brings me back and I asked for a few minutes to calm myself down. She didn't honor my request and it showed, my BP was 140/100. They highest it has ever been. Last week it was 140/80 and that had been the record to date. She said she would leave and the doctor would take my BP when she came in to see me.
Well this made matters worse, the doc is the last person I wanted checking it. When the doctor comes in, I thought I had calmed myself down. I was sadly mistaken. It was still 140/100. I explained I get nervous and this has happened to me before and if I just relax for a bit it will come down. She said she couldn't chance it and couldn't let me go home, and I needed to check into the hospital for observation. I was somewhat incredulous at this point. She wasn't kidding. I said if I do need medicine will she just give it to me and she said no, it has to come from my internist, they don't deal with medicating for blood pressure. I am sure my blood pressure rose even more at that point.
So ten minutes later, I am moving my car from the street (a huge coup in downtown Chicago) to the hospital parking lot. It was about 8:30am. I didn't want to tell my husband yet what was going on because he was already worried about the review and I didn't want to add to it.
Around 9:15 I get in a room. It was an actual delivery room on the labor and delivery floor. It was very nice, but word of advice, bring your own pillows. The bed was pretty uncomfortable and the pillows had a plastic case under the pillow case. But the floors were hardwood, had a large bathroom, and a flat screen TV. The nurse was incredibly kind and after asking about 100 questions about symptoms, she said I think your issue is you were nervous, you don't have any other symptoms.
The numbers started trending down. Meanwhile they ran labs on me. I was then introduced to a third year med student. I have lots of doctor friends and have the utmost respect for my doctors, but between this one and the ones I had during my fibroid surgery, it is hard to believe they will ever turn into confident doctors. She seriously took the exact same medical history the nurse did but with less confidence. Had she just looked at the computer screen in my room, she would have seen all the answers.
About an hour into my stay my numbers were completely normal and by the time a doctor from my OB's practice came in to check meI was down to 115/55, which is quite good.
The doctor said it looked like I had a classic case of white coat syndrome, but I need to figure out how to get it in check or I am going to end up in the hospital every week. For now, they want me to come in weekly to check it. And bonus- she doesn't want me exercising all week! Doctor's orders.
So all in all, day started out great with the baby's smile but the white coat syndrome left me a little freaked out and blue.
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