dr. appt, pre-eclampsia, maternity leave, and a really disturbing little story.

I had another appointment this morning, whereby I sat in an x-ray room (for no apparent reason) without my pants on (also for no apparent reason--they didn't check me, though it was offered) and found out... that my blood pressure had gone down, though it's still "borderline" and there was only a trace of protein in the urine today. Good news! Not good enough news that it took me off the risky chart, though--he fully intended to make me come back on Saturday morning for another check-up, but the clinic is in another town this week so he settled for Monday. He nixed any thoughts I had of going back to work like I had planned, but he did agree that I could go in for a couple of hours to wrap up a few things, and say goodbye, largely--it felt weird to leave on a Friday and just not come back at all, so I worked for a little over three hours this afternoon. Then I came home and completely passed out on the couch for an hour or two so I think maybe being at home right now is what I should be doing, as much as I hate to use my maternity leave before there's a baby. Like I said, he didn't check my cervix (as a matter of fact, he said that it was my body and I had control over it--he would encourage me to do it if he thought there was a reason but it was my choice--I appreciated that) so I don't know if I'm dilated/effaced/etc... though of course that doesn't necessarily matter. He did say, however, that they were quite unlikely to want me to go to my actual due date due to the pre-eclampsia. He expressed much greater reluctance at induction than other doctors seem to and told me that mother nature is best, and he fretted a moment about the risks of the baby's lungs not being mature. As much as I hate the idea of being induced, I will let them do it for an actual reason, I suppose, and pre-e seems to be an actual reason. Let's continue praying it doesn't come to that. My due date, by the way, is two weeks from Saturday. I guess that means that there will be a baby here in less than two weeks.

Ducky, however, has decided that she would like to play a super nifty prank on Mommy. You know how well-behaved babies drop before it's time to give birth to them? My darling baby girl has decided that being that low in my belly wasn't very much fun, so she moved herself back up under my ribs again last night. I didn't even know they could DO that after they were down there. I don't think she had dropped as low as she was supposed to, but she was definitely low enough that people had commented on it, and for a couple of weeks. Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night only once, and that's when I knew there was something odd going on, as two hours is generally all I can last. So, the nice thing is that she's not laying on my bladder anymore. The weird thing about that is that her bladder-lying tendencies didn't really change after she dropped the first time. It just didn't GET worse like it was supposed to, or if it did.. not by much. However, when I was just barely into my third trimester, we went to the day-long birthing class full of pregnant women farther along than me, and I ran to the bathroom much more often than the rest of them. I guess I was just lucky enough to have a baby that enjoyed that spot even while riding about as high up as possible. I am just hoping she is using this time to maneuver herself into position (facing down) instead of flipping her whole body around. And furthermore, said darling baby has aggravated my poor broken rib again--it had healed quite nicely, but is now giving me the occasional pang. Please don't break it again, baby.

Before I was pregnant, I didn't particularly know that babies are supposed to arrive face-down. They're harder to give birth to in any of the other positions than head down, facing the back. They can also arrive face-first, which is not particularly good at all. During the childbirth class, the nurse (who had quite a lot of personality and lots of fun stories) told us about one particular incident, where she called the resident doctor to let them know that a woman there was in labor with a face-first presentation. The snarky doctor did not appreciate being told this by a mere nurse, and he said, "oh, yeah, what would make you think that?" The nurse said, "Because when I checked her, the baby started sucking on my finger." And, I have thought about that story at least twice a week every since, because can you imagine? Sticking your hand in that particular location of another woman and having the distinctive feel of a tiny mouth SUCKING ON YOU? You can thank me for telling this story later, I'm sure you needed to hear about it too.

I can't believe I won't be going back to work for months! It feels so strange. But nice! I work with nice people and I will miss them, though. My boss is retiring at the end of the month and I am really disappointed that I will miss all of the festivities and planning for her reception and dinner and stuff. I guess it depends upon the duckling's progress whether or not I can go to any of it. Not to mention returning to work months later to have a new boss! This paragraph is not very entertaining but M specially requested that this post have at least four paragraphs, and since he is going out of his way to take care of my every need these days in order for me not to need to do anything, I figure I might as well humor him on the small things like post paragraph count. Unfortunately, I was wrapping up the third paragraph when he made his request, and suddenly, all topics in the entire bloggie world disappeared from my head. Sometimes, it be that way...