The Danger Zone

31 weeks, 1 day today. Exactly three days before I was admitted to the hospital with P & E, hence the title of this post. I am trying to shake the feeling that this is all going to go to hell in a handbasket any day now, but it's tough. I just can't quite wrap my mind around the idea that maybe this reproductively challenged body of mine could get it all right this time.

I saw the doctor on Tues., and everything is more or less ok. The blood pressure was fine and there was no protein in my urine, so preeclampsia doesn't appear to be on the immediate horizon. That's the good news. The indifferent news was this: there is a trace amount of blood in that urine. Of course I freaked out when the tech told me this, even though she assured me it was, in fact, only a trace, not visible to the naked eye, and that such a small amount is totally normal for some pregnant women. The doctor then told me the exact same thing, adding that it was not the first time my urine had tested positive for a trace of blood this pregnancy; it was just that no one had mentioned it to me before since they don't consider it a cause for alarm at this point. She said they will continue to monitor it post-delivery, and if it persists past my six week postpartum appointment, THEN she will send me to a urologist, but not before. You probably just have an irritable uterus, she said. I then came home and consulted Dr. Google, who assured me that this can be normal and may be no more than a side effect of the baby aspirin I'm taking to ward off blood pressure problems. After all that, I was somewhat reassured, but I'm still hoping it disappears by the time I go back in three weeks.

In other news -- I have a C-section date! The big day will be June 1, assuming I make it that far. I was really hoping for a May date, just so I could say right now that the baby is coming next month, but June 1 will do. That's five days prior to his edd, and it's a Friday, which will be nice for anyone planning to visit while I hang out in the hospital for three days with the little guy. He's still nameless, by the way, but I think we've got it narrowed down to three. We'll just have to find out who he is when we finally see his gorgeous face in eight weeks and one day. Not that I'm counting or anything . . .