Complicated

The first and second trimesters of my pregnancy were uneventfully exciting.  I barely had morning sickness, cravings were more of the "I can eat anything I want!!" variety, going about my life was easy.  I was able to go to Louisiana to see my grandma one last time.  We found out he was Jackson, not Alison.  His midtrimester ultrasound was great. I started feeling him move early, around 13 weeks, very lightly telling me he was doing okay in there.  Christopher felt him for the first time on Father's Day.  The first thing we bought for him was A Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag that we saw in Nordstrom, but for way less on an outlet.  His first gift was from my Aunt Wynde.  It was a robe and booties, and a t shirt and jockey shorts.  I felt incredible.

Near the beginning of August my blood pressure was a little high at my appointment, but it was normal at home so I assumed it was white coat hypertension.  They told me to keep an eye on it at home.  On August 26, it went above 140/90 consistently, so I called.  They told me to go to L&D triage.  The triage nurses hooked me up to the fetal monitor and BP cuff.  Jackson was fine, but my BP was definitely elevated, so they put me on bedrest.  So far, I had no protein in my urine and my blood work was fine. 

Bedrest was hell.  It souunds like a wonderful vacation, but it gets old quick.  I could only lay on my side. Reclining on my back propped up made my BP spike.  Going to the bathrrom made it really high.  Eventually I wasn't even allowed to get my own drinks or snacks.  I could sit for 1 hour total per day for meals.  Iwent to the hospital 2 or 3 times a week for an ultrasound and NSTs.  I was admitted every weekend.  It kept sounding like I was going to be there the rest of the pregnancy, but they would let me go home, only to readmit me from my Friday NST.  The food was pretty decent, suprisingly.  The ice cream and grilled chicken were excellent :). 

Jackson never knew anything was wrong.  He was so active inside me. He kicked and squirmed and wriggled and hiccuped.  He was almost impossible to keep on the monitor.  I was convinced he was going to be a wild child when he came out.  Every measure of how he was doing was perfect, but I kept getting worse.  My blood pressure  was rising and there was definitely significant protein in my urine.  BUT NEVER IN DIPS.  This drove me nuts because noone believed me.  I was so thirsty for whatever reason, but I was drinking about 2 gallons of water a day, not counting my caffeine free diet cokes.  My urine was too dilute to show protein in the dipsticks, but the 24 hour urine was between 400 and 800 whenever they did one.  This made me oficially preeclamptic, instead of just PIH.