O.K. how many people here are pregnant?

EddiesGurl · March 2006

Congrats to you Hellfish!!

thats exciting!!!

I have been having the worst freakin headaches ever all week this week & last week... like its as soon as i open my eyes it feels like i am majorly hungover. And it just doesn't go away..and tylenol doesn't do jack shit for me.

So ~ we have a medical dept. for the company i work for, and they do free blood pressure checks, so on my lunch i stopped over there today to have it checked since people that i work with were telling me that headaches are often associated w/ high blood pressure...so i went over there, it was 146/92 ... my mom is a nurse & said it should be under 140/90..so i'm not really very high at all..but she said that little bit could be causing my headaches. My next Dr. appt is April 10th..so we will see what she says. And fyi ~ i'm about 21wks.

genevieve · March 2006

EddiesGurl wrote:

Congrats to you Hellfish!! thats exciting!!!

I have been having the worst freakin headaches ever all week this week & last week... like its as soon as i open my eyes it feels like i am majorly hungover. And it just doesn't go away..and tylenol doesn't do jack shit for me.

So ~ we have a medical dept. for the company i work for, and they do free blood pressure checks, so on my lunch i stopped over there today to have it checked since people that i work with were telling me that headaches are often associated w/ high blood pressure...so i went over there, it was 146/92 ... my mom is a nurse & said it should be under 140/90..so i'm not really very high at all..but she said that little bit could be causing my headaches. My next Dr. appt is April 10th..so we will see what she says. And fyi ~ i'm about 21wks.

I know that when you get pregnant your body starts producing more blood.
My sister got some horrible headaches when she was pregnant.
I on the other hand am a migrain sufferer and havent had one this whole time
yet. Im hoping I will get through this without one. Call your doctor to see if
they have anything to say. Or if you should go in earlier. My last
bloodpressure reading was 99/80. I have no idea what that means but the midwife didnt say there was anything to worry about so Im fine I guess.

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

genevieve wrote:

So how does it work with your mat leave?
Are you going on maternity leave?
If so does it mean you had to start it earlier than you wanted
or is this just like having a doctors note and taking sick days?
What did you do for work that was so stressful?
Im glad being out of there has made a big difference!

I'm on unpaid leave right now. It would be considered short-term disability, but, unfortunately, I am 2 weeks shy of qualifying for disability coverage through work. This means I am home without any pay at all. If I had been able to last two more weeks I could have gotten 50% of my salary for up to 26 weeks while on disability, but no such luck. It doesn't matter, though. I'm about 99% sure that I'm not going to go back to work after the baby, so we've just started living on our new budget a bit sooner than expected. Frankly, being away from work is worth more to me than all of the money in the world.

I work in the marketing department of a big law firm. The job itself can be very stressful (with insanely tight deadlines, working with stressed-out, megalomaniacal attorneys) but the real issue is my boss. She is literally the most horrible person I've ever known. I won't go into what makes her so bad, because it literally makes my blood pressure rise to think about her, but just take my word for it.

Abusive isn't even the word.

So...as I said, being out of there will do me and my baby a world of good!!

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

EddiesGurl wrote:

Congrats to you Hellfish!! thats exciting!!!

I have been having the worst freakin headaches ever all week this week & last week... like its as soon as i open my eyes it feels like i am majorly hungover. And it just doesn't go away..and tylenol doesn't do jack shit for me.

So ~ we have a medical dept. for the company i work for, and they do free blood pressure checks, so on my lunch i stopped over there today to have it checked since people that i work with were telling me that headaches are often associated w/ high blood pressure...so i went over there, it was 146/92 ... my mom is a nurse & said it should be under 140/90..so i'm not really very high at all..but she said that little bit could be causing my headaches. My next Dr. appt is April 10th..so we will see what she says. And fyi ~ i'm about 21wks.

Have you told your doctor about the headaches you're having? Bad headaches (that can't be relieved with tylenol) are a symptom of preeclampsia. Your doctor might want to see you sooner if he/she knows about this. I'm certainly not trying to scare you, but with your blood pressure and the headaches combined, they are probably going to want to do some labs to check that your kidneys and other organs are functioning properly. (I've become very familiar with this stuff, because my doctor started watching me for preeclampsia around 21 weeks because of my blood pressure.)

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

genevieve wrote:

I know that when you get pregnant your body starts producing more blood.
My sister got some horrible headaches when she was pregnant.
I on the other hand am a migrain sufferer and havent had one this whole time
yet. Im hoping I will get through this without one. Call your doctor to see if
they have anything to say. Or if you should go in earlier. My last
bloodpressure reading was 99/80. I have no idea what that means but the midwife didnt say there was anything to worry about so Im fine I guess.

I have migraines, too, but haven't had a single one while pregnant. It's awesome! I'm going to be so sad once those start up again. (I have them with my period, so I imagine it'll start up again once that does... )

Oh, and that's a terrific blood pressure! I'd kill for that.

Anything under 120/70 is in the "good" range... 120/70-139/89 is "pre-hypertension" and 140/90 + is considered hypertension. God... I never wanted to know so much about blood pressure.

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

Fighting Hellfish wrote:

Hellfish Jr, otherwise known as either Jack Michael or Grace Sheridan, will be entering the world tomorrow morning, at approximately 7:30 A.M. EST. For those interested in pics, check:

mysite.verizon.net/seangroark

No baby pics will be up until late tomorrow night at the earliest

Congratulations! I can't wait until it's my baby's turn to enter the world!!

I'm getting so excited now that I'm into the home stretch...

EddiesGurl · March 2006

Brain of J.Lo wrote:

Have you told your doctor about the headaches you're having? Bad headaches (that can't be relieved with tylenol) are a symptom of preeclampsia. Your doctor might want to see you sooner if he/she knows about this. I'm certainly not trying to scare you, but with your blood pressure and the headaches combined, they are probably going to want to do some labs to check that your kidneys and other organs are functioning properly. (I've become very familiar with this stuff, because my doctor started watching me for preeclampsia around 21 weeks because of my blood pressure.)

thanks for the info & i think im going to call my Dr. office right now & just let them know what is going on....if anything is going on ~ i want them to catch it early! Ugh! Anyway, glad to read that things are going good for you!

oh & can someone please explain what the heck this preeclampsia is exactly?? and does this mean more blood work? and maybe another ultrasound (that would be great - another ultra sound)

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

EddiesGurl wrote:

thanks for the info & i think im going to call my Dr. office right now & just let them know what is going on....if anything is going on ~ i want them to catch it early! Ugh! Anyway, glad to read that things are going good for you!

oh & can someone please explain what the heck this preeclampsia is exactly?? and does this mean more blood work? and maybe another ultrasound (that would be great - another ultra sound)

Preeclampsia is a condition where your body sort of reacts badly to being pregnant and it can be hard on the mother and the baby. I would recommend looking it up on the internet, because there's a lot of information about it out there.

There will be some blood work involved if your doc wants to rule it out. The tests are to check for certain markers in your blood that would indicate that your kidneys and liver aren't functioning as well as they should be, such as uric acid. There's also a 24 hour urine test. That's TONS of fun, trust me.

You literally have to collect your urine for 24 hours and then they test it to see if there's an abnormal amount of protein in the urine. While they check for protein in your urine every time you visit the doctor, the 24 hour test is the gold standard because protein levels can fluctuate over a 24 hour period.

If you're diagnosed with preeclampsia or even just chronic or pregnancy-induced hypertension, you will end up having more ultrasounds and also at around 28 weeks they'll begin monitoring the baby's heartrate on a weekly basis. I go for the ultrasounds once a month now, and I consider that to be a silver lining in all of this. I got some beautiful profile shots of my little girl last time! (And she totally has my nose!!

) And we also got a really cute one of her sucking her toe!!

The best thing you can do for preeclampsia is to catch it early. And don't be too freaked out by things you read on the internet. It is a serious condition, but doctors are very very equipped to deal with it in the western world and there's no reason to think anything bad will happen to you or your baby. Since I started being watched for it, I've encountered SO many people that have gone through it and had very happy results. (In fact, ever person I've encountered has had a perfectly healthy baby.) It just requires a lot of care and rest to bring the blood pressure down.

Good luck! I'm sure everything will turn out fine.

Toywoman · March 2006

Wow... I feel so out of touch, I'm glad to hear you're doing better, J, and I'm sorry I didn't know you were having a rough time to begin with:(

My last pregnancy pretty much tried to kill me. My kidneys and liver were trying to shut down, my body swelled like there was no tomorrow, my BP wouldn't come down without my feet being up and being on extremely potent meds, my sugar was sky high without three doses of a fast working medication per day... and lo and behold, nine days before his due date, Jacob came into this world at a whopping 10 lbs 10.8 oz (he's only three and a half months old and is 16 pounds now). My doctor went against hospital policy and did my tubal right then because she said if I wanted to be there to raise the three kids we had not to have any more. The first sign of trouble (other than extreme nausea and abdominal pain) was headaches. Not all headaches will be signaling something so severe, but definitely DEFINITELY anyone who's pregnant needs to keep a journal of them and contact their doctors with all information.

genevieve · March 2006

From what Ive heard and read high BP and preeclampsia are
definatley better than some other stuff. Gestational Diabetes
can be pretty toughIve heard. Im glad I dont have that.

pacifier · March 2006

Brain of J.Lo wrote:

There will be some blood work involved if your doc wants to rule it out. The tests are to check for certain markers in your blood that would indicate that your kidneys and liver aren't functioning as well as they should be, such as uric acid. There's also a 24 hour urine test. That's TONS of fun, trust me. You literally have to collect your urine for 24 hours and then they test it to see if there's an abnormal amount of protein in the urine. While they check for protein in your urine every time you visit the doctor, the 24 hour test is the gold standard because protein levels can fluctuate over a 24 hour period.

ah, 24 hr urine tests, gotta love them (not). I've had to do a number of them in the last 8 years because of my kidney problems and I can't stand it. Especially when they give you a bag to collect it in instead of a bottle. Plus you would think they would provide you with something specially designed for catching the pee as it comes out and pour it easily into the container. It would be so much easier if you were a guy. Because of my kidney problems all this talk of high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, etc, has me very paranoid. I would love to have lots of kids, but if something happens to further damage my kidneys i might just have to stick to the one. Not to mention I would probably have to be kept a closer eye on for the rest of my life.

genevieve · March 2006

pacifier wrote:

ah, 24 hr urine tests, gotta love them (not). I've had to do a number of them in the last 8 years because of my kidney problems and I can't stand it. Especially when they give you a bag to collect it in instead of a bottle. Plus you would think they would provide you with something specially designed for catching the pee as it comes out and pour it easily into the container. It would be so much easier if you were a guy. Because of my kidney problems all this talk of high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, etc, has me very paranoid. I would love to have lots of kids, but if something happens to further damage my kidneys i might just have to stick to the one. Not to mention I would probably have to be kept a closer eye on for the rest of my life.

I guess only time will tell.
Whatever happens maybe you can adopt. Id love to do that anyway.:D

pacifier · March 2006

genevieve wrote:

I guess only time will tell.
Whatever happens maybe you can adopt. Id love to do that anyway.:D

I wouldn't mind adopting if I couldn't have kids, but my partner isn't so sure.

genevieve · March 2006

pacifier wrote:

I wouldn't mind adopting if I couldn't have kids, but my partner isn't so sure.

Work at a daycare. I used to. It mightmake you glad to be where you are.

pacifier · March 2006

genevieve wrote:

Work at a daycare. I used to. It mightmake you glad to be where you are.

I have worked at a day care

it made me realise I love kids but I'd prefer to be looking after my own or my friends and family where I feel free to look after them how I see fit and try to be a good influence on their lives.

genevieve · March 2006

pacifier wrote:

I have worked at a day care it made me realise I love kids but I'd prefer to be looking after my own or my friends and family where I feel free to look after them how I see fit and try to be a good influence on their lives.

I shouldnt be so hard. There were some good kids but the bad ones...
wow I feel for thier parents.

pacifier · March 2006

genevieve wrote:

I shouldnt be so hard. There were some good kids but the bad ones...
wow I feel for thier parents.

No, I know what you mean. I've really only work a few weeks at a childcare centre, did a six month course to be able to work as a child care worker, did pretty well at it too, but the actual act of looking after so many kids of the same age all with different personalities and backgrounds was a bit difficult to handle. Now I'm studying to become a primary school teacher.

Fighting Hellfish · March 2006

Thanks for all the kind words. Jack Michael Groark is here. He's now 13 hours old. Born at 9:11 A.M. 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 inches long. Mother and baby are both doing great, mom is quite tired, as you'd expect. We left the house at 5:15 this morning. Pics will be up shortly on:

mysite.verizon.net/seangroark

I'm sure many of you will like my shirt

edit. My shirt didn't come out in any of the pics I have up yet. You'll see it tomorrow. I smell like baby, and I miss that kid already

Brain of J.Lo · March 2006

Fighting Hellfish wrote:

Thanks for all the kind words. Jack Michael Groark is here. He's now 13 hours old. Born at 9:11 A.M. 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 inches long. Mother and baby are both doing great, mom is quite tired, as you'd expect. We left the house at 5:15 this morning. Pics will be up shortly on:

mysite.verizon.net/seangroark

I'm sure many of you will like my shirt

edit. My shirt didn't come out in any of the pics I have up yet. You'll see it tomorrow. I smell like baby, and I miss that kid already

congratulations!!! He's beautiful!

Fighting Hellfish · March 2006

Thanks. And good luck to you. I'm too tired to scroll...when are you due?

O.K. how many people here are pregnant?

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