Pregnancy- Third Trimester

By this time I was starting to have a definite baby bump and my symptoms were starting to get a little more noticeable. I was feeling the back aches and the heartburn but I was also feeling the good ones too like the stronger movements of her kicks. My heartburn had started to get so bad that I had to keep a stash of tums with me at all times. I was eating them like they were candy. To help with my back aches I used a heating pad during the day and at night I slept with a body pillow. I really liked the U shape of this body pillow and it was also very soft and fluffy but was still very supportive for my hips and back. Around this time I was clearly showing enough that customers at work felt comfortable about assuming I was pregnant. The biggest question people had for me was if my husband and I had picked out a name yet. My husband and I are somewhat of procrastinators. We had been looking at names but we didn't really find anything that we both liked. It wasn't until the day that she was born that we finally picked out her name. At the beginning of my third trimester I had to take a glucose screening test. This is where I would go in for one of my routine appointments and they would first draw blood when arrived. I would then have a short time to drink this sugary lemony drink and then wait an hour for them to draw my blood again to see how my body responded. This was to test if I had developed gestational diabetes. Luckily my results showed normal but if they hadn't then I would have had to do the test all over again but over a longer period of time. I was so relieved that I did not have to take the test again. If I had developed gestational diabetes then I would have to start following a stricter diet which I already felt my diet was becoming stricter because of my heartburn. Later in my third trimester I was starting to go to see my gynecologist every other week to every week. At every appointment they would weigh me and take my blood pressure. I also had to bring in a urine sample from my first pee of the day. I always felt awkward bringing in a cup of pee in my purse every check up but it was necessary. It was to check to see if I had high levels of protein in my urine which would be a sign of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the liver and kidneys. In all of my check-ups I never showed signs of preeclampsia up until the very end in my 37th week. I went in for a routine check-up and my blood pressure was higher than normal and I had a little swelling in my feet but no protein in urine. My doctor then instructed me to be on bed rest and to start me on a 24 hour urine collection and then to return later that day to test my blood pressure again. After I left the doctors I went to my work to get my affairs in order and went home to try and relax. I had heard pregnancy stories from coworkers that once they found out they had high blood pressure that they would go into labor later that day. Just the thing to think about when I am trying to relax right. Well later that day when I went back in to check my blood pressure I did in fact have a higher blood pressure reading than previously that morning. Just as I had suspected, later that night I would be admitted to the hospital. If I wasn't able to relax before now I really was not able to relax. I had so many emotions running through my brain. I was happy, excited, relieved, nervous but mostly afraid. This was my first pregnancy and I had no idea what to expect. All I could think about the labor and delivery. I was nervous about how much pain I was about to endure and how my life was about to change both for the better and worse.