33 weeks + 5 days

Well, I certainly wasn't expecting my usual Friday OB appointment to end up in a hospital stay, but hey: surprise!

While waiting at the OB's office, I overheard his receptionist telling another pregnant lady that Dr. P likely wouldn't be available that morning, as he was delivering a baby. That meant that his midwife was seeing his patients instead. I wasn't particularly impressed, as she hasn't been the most helpful recently - and because I was hoping to talk about getting a growth scan on baby, since she was measuring larger based on fundal heights.

Luckily, things worked out. The midwife had a huge backlog of patients - and as I watched my name move closer and closer to the front of the patient files, Dr. P arrived! Baby delivered & back to business. After he did some paperwork in his office, he came out to start seeing patients too - and guess who was the very first file he pulled? Me! Totally meant to be. :) He asked how I was feeling, which was fine, except I'd had a few less movements from the baby in the last day or two. He had a listen and a feel, and her heartbeat sounded nice and normal - but he was concerned when he checked my blood pressure and got a reading of 150/90.

This is high, even for my usual borderline results - so he told me that he'd like to have me be admitted for monitoring up in the birth suite, and to complete a few traces of baby's heartbeat & a 24-hour urine collection sample. It came as quite a surprise, so upstairs I went to be admitted. First stop: delivery rooms! It felt mighty weird being up there & not actually labouring, let me tell you. They took my blood pressure again (still high at 145/95) and did a CTG scan of baby for a little while. There is nothing sweeter than hearing that heartbeat pounding away.

Afterwards, I was admitted into the maternity ward - where over the last 24 hours I managed to pee in a GIANT container, have my blood pressure monitored every few hours, and checks on baby's heartbeat and movement. Good news? Baby is doing just fine, stubborn as always. And blood pressure dropped steadily as I was in the hospital - the final one this morning was 110/70 - the absolute lowest I've EVER had!

Not a huge fan of the hospital beds {my poor tailbone and back are killing me} but the staff seemed lovely, and it was a nice trial run of what to expect during our post-delivery stay. Had visits from hubby & parents too, which passed the time nicely. I woke up super early this morning to baby dancing to Justin Timberlake on the TV.

After one final CTG screen & the very last urine sample was collected, I asked the nurses to contact the doctor - I was feeling fine, but going stir crazy being stuck in the hospital! {I also felt really guilty about keeping the bed occupied, you know?} We were pleasantly surprised that the OB himself came in to check on me, and was pleased with both me & baby - he sent us home, under instructions to keep resting and take things easy. That I can do! :) I'm to go back and check blood pressure next week, and a regular OB appt the week after.

On a side note, fundal measurements put baby girl at 38 weeks (!!!) so I have to book in a growth ultrasound sometime next week - I'm hoping she's not too huge, but I'm happy to get to see her again!