The countdown

Well, it looks like Baby Whetham will officially be here sooner than later. After 10 days of bedrest my preeclampsia improve enough that I was upgraded to "moderate bed rest" last week, and was allowed to return to work part-time.

It worked out great for me to have time to tie up loose ends at work. But it was also publication week for pretty much the biggest project I've ever done in journalism so far (see Julian's story parts one and two at www.sltrib.com), so that brought on a lot of stress to get the final things ready, and by Friday, my doctors ordered me back on strict bedrest through the remainder of the pregnancy. Lucky for me, I work for a great company and they are more than fine with me leaving early. Getting that project done was the last big thing, so I feel I have a huge weight off my shoulders, even with the medical issues I'm still dealing with this week.

Joe and I did end up going into labor and delivery on Saturday for about four to five hours to have some fetal monitoring done, since I am now not feeling so great much of the time (severe headaches, nausea/vomitting, seeing spots, some swelling --all the ol' symptoms of preeclampsia). I was discharged, but told to keep monitoring my symptoms and had another doctor's appointment today.

Today we met Dr. Andrea Smith, who is the new doctor that will likely deliver the baby since my normal OB had a baby herself two weeks ago. I liked Dr. Smith very much. I will see her again on Thursday, when I will undergo more tests and see a perinatal specialist who will check up on the baby. At that point, they will decide when to induce. They are thinking next week is most likely and we are discussing whether to try for a "normal" delivery or schedule a c-section. It will depend somewhat on the next round of tests and how it appears the preeclampsia is progressing. So far, bedrest seems to be slowing its progress, but doctors have told us that there is no way to know how to might progress and I could be back in tomorrow. The only cure is delivery, and we're just glad the baby has made it far enough along with even if born this week, it's unlikely she'd spend much if any time in the NICU. Making it to the 37 week milestone next week means she'd be 3 weeks early, but is still full-term. We think that will end up being what happens, but we'll see. The next blog post could be telling everyone that she is here!