The picture of evil

I detest these things. I have no idea how long they've been around, but I had my first child 13 years ago, and they were just as evil then. You think they could improve these somehow. When Maria was born, I spent 23 hours fighting with the nurses over the fetal monitors. They would only work if I was perfectly still and laying nearly flat. Every time I tried to reposition myself, or shift my legs, or BREATHE, they would lose her heartrate and some nurse would come in a gripe at me to be still. For 23 hours. Of active, pitocin-induced labor. Evil. And that memory of being strapped into a bed for 23 hours was probably my main motivation for seeking out homebirth information for my next pregnancy.

Well, the other night I got to revisit the fetal monitors. After my last post, my blood pressure zoomed on up to 220/120, and we ended up in the ER of a local maternity hospital. I was attached to the monitors for just three hours this time, which might not have been so bad in an actual bed, but since it was an ER I was on a gurney. It was so, so uncomfortable and my back is still feeling it. Why oh why can't they come up with something that works better than this?

Anyway, gripe over. The rest of that story is that once I got to the ER, even though my blood pressure had been rising at the midwife's office and high at home all weekend, it was normal when I got to the hospital and stayed normal...better than normal, in fact. When I left, it was 116/68! I thought maybe it was the herbal stuff the midwife prescribed kicking in, but I haven't taken it since...I've just been monitoring my blood pressure to see what happens first...and it has stayed down. I do believe we've had a mini-miracle. Heaven knows (literally!) that I had plenty of good people praying for me. Here's hoping for an uneventful next few weeks!