Labor & Delivery...

So, Allan and I spent the majority of the day in the Labor & Delivery section of the hospital yesterday.

For a little over 48 hours I was having the following symptoms: extreme fatigue, headaches, shortness of breath, dizziness, tingly fingers and an upset stomach.

So, on the third day I decided I was going to call the on-call doctor (it was a Sunday) and see what they suggest.  The on call doctor thought it sounded a lot like high blood pressure and wanted me to go to L&D to have it checked and to monitor the babies for a bit.  So off we went.

After about 5 hours of testing it turns out it was not high blood pressure at all -  the babies are just getting bigger and running out of room so where they are positioned is causing everything to be pushed on. My light headedness, exhaustion and headaches are most likely from Zara being so far down in the cervix and constantly pushing on an important big vein causing blood return issues. As Allan says, it's like my body is running a marathon constantly - my heart is always working harder b/c of the low blood return and making me tired.  The not being able to get deep breathes/dizziness is due to Isla being so far up she's pushing into my right lung and not allowing me breathe 100% to full capacity (blood work showed I'm still getting enough oxygen though!). On top of all of that they think I might have a bit of a virus. The good news is that both of my blood work panels came back great (red/white blood cells, iron, electrolytes, glucose, etc).

So, while it was nice to be checked out and taken care of (the nurses at L&D are ace) it's still a bit frustrating as I'm still having most of those symptoms and there is no way to alleviate them.  I shared in one of my moms-to-be groups that I felt a bit silly for going in and nothing big being wrong - and somebody brought up a really good point: The only way I wouldn't have felt silly is if something was seriously wrong - and nobody wants that.  Better safe than sorry and to be checked out.  

So, I'm spending the next two days in bed in hopes of getting some of my energy back (and hopefully figuring out how to breathe properly again!) before I return to work.   And while the nurses at L&D were wonderful - I hope to not see them again until D-day!!