Week 25 Pregnancy Update

Here I am ... halfway to my next goal of 28 weeks.  I'm 26 weeks today!
And... it has been a rough week to say the least.  Last Thursday night, I started coming down with a nasty cold.  I'd had  little touch of something all week, but this was when it started to get bad.  My throat was super sore, and by Friday evening I couldn't get up off the couch!  I spent all weekend lounging and sleeping either on the couch or in bed.  I used an entire box of Kleenex on Saturday, and on Sunday the coughing started.  By Monday, I'd pulled a muscle in my stomach from coughing.  I was even starting to make a wheezing sound as my cough "sucked in".  I knew come Monday morning, I needed to call my doctor.  I don't remember a cold ever taking me out so much in my life.  I guess I understand why pregnant people die from the flu now! 

My doctor wanted to see me, so I trekked over there for a visit.  The visits are NEVER short.  I spent
1-1/2 hours there... mostly waiting.  She felt I just had a virus.  Listened to baby girl's heartbeat - 143 beats per minute and sounding fine, and took my blood pressure - I was unhappy with the result there, it was showing 128/85, which is definitely higher than I've been in this pregnancy.  She felt that may just be the stress the cold was putting on my system.  She did write me an Rx for cough medicine, and definitely suggested I should take some time out to rest.  Rest and fluids was the only thing that was going to get me better.  I was already staring down a more than busy week at work, but I'm proud to say I took some initiative to actually say I needed a time out to rest, and took a good portion of the day off on Tuesday.  I am feeling like I am finally on the mend now, but I've been warned it could be slow.

Tomorrow we have our standard every 2 weeks check up.  We will have a full ultrasound this time, which will include checking on the baby's growth.  I am nervous as usual, but especially nervous for this growth check.  We are still hoping and praying that she is doing better or at least the same, and we can have a little more relief to make it to 28 weeks.  I also am really hoping that my blood pressure will be down from Monday - as it is much too early for me to start down that road here at only 26 weeks.

July 5th - next Tuesday - I will be going in for a fetal MRI and another echocardiogram.

So... lots of upcoming appointments and tests to clear a few more hurdles.  All providing more information on our baby's prognosis and giving doctors the information they may need to help her once she is born.  Lots of anxiety where we are hoping to find small moments of peace.

Speaking of anxiety... the bills finally started coming in the mail this past week.  While we are extremely blessed to have really good health insurance, I've been informed that my prenatal care will not be covered 100% by my plan, because they only cover "routine" prenatal care at that rate.  And they think I'm not routine...

I'll leave you this week with a picture of how chaos can actually promote peace.  Thanks to some great friends and family both buying and sharing previously loved little baby girl clothes.  I laid everything we had out on Sunday and this is what resulted... I called this - PINK EXPLOSION!