So excited!!!

Good news, and bad news. The past two days have been a mixture of both.

I woke up Wednesday morning feeling perfectly normal, went about the day as usual. Justin came home for lunch, we ate together and then when he left Tommy laid down for a nap. I decided to catch up on emails and sat down at the computer. After a few minutes I started

feeling kind of strange and I stood up and noticed my right leg was really swollen, while the left side was perfectly normal. I've been swollen the past few months here and there, but nothing like this. I was also seeing little floating stars in my vision.

So I called my doctor, as usual her line was busy. So I called the hospital and they said I should come in, swelling in just one leg is usually a bad sign of either pre-eclampsia or a blood clot. So Justin came home and we went to the hospital. My blood pressure was low, my temp. and pulse were all normal. My blood work came back and they said my iron was really low and could be causing the sparkly flecks I had been seeing in my vision the past few weeks. Pre-eclampsia was ruled out, so they decided to keep me for two days to monitor my swelling and do more tests to see if it could be a blood clot.

It was a boring two days. My swelling went away, and I had to have the baby's heart beat monitored twice a day for 30 min. each. Everything came out fine. This morning they did a really extensive ultrasound to check absolutely everything on Tristan. They said he seems to be a really healthy baby but were concerned because he's not getting enough blood flow from me. I'm going to be getting more ultrasounds to see if it gets better. The baby is really big, the doctor says the baby will probably come early since he is so long and has put on a lot of weight. He is 5 lbs and I'm not quite 33 weeks yet. Healthy boy!

I got to see a lot of the hospital and meet the doctors there, it was awesome. This hospital has EVERYTHING! I'll have a midwife that stays with me throughout my labor and delivery giving me massages, walking around the hospital with me, and coaching me through the delivery. They have several big jacuzzi bathtubs that I can stay in as long as I want to help me relax, with classical music playing. It's so cool! It has me so excited that I'm actually thinking I won't need an epidural this time. My doctor is convinced my labor and delivery will be quick, I fully dilated with Tommy in only 3-4 hours. He says I may not even have time to get an epidural if I progress fast again, which I should. So I may try to do this completely natural and see how it goes. I don't want to be stuck in the hospital bed the whole time like I was with Tommy. That is the goal, we'll see if my mind changes while I'm actually in labor. :)

So good news: the baby is big and healthy and most likely coming early. Bad news: my iron is low as well as my blood pressure, and the blood flow to the baby may not be ideal. I have an appointment next week and the doctor is going to double check everything then, I hope my iron and blood flow rights itself by then. I should have taken some pictures of the awesome hospital I'll be in but I just didn't think about it! I did find some on the internet though. You can see how big it is, and lucky for me the labor and recovery rooms are at the top, so it's a beautiful view. You can see my house in the second picture, I live literally 3 minutes away. I'm feeling good now and so excited to meet our new baby!

~Brittney