The Decision to Induce

**Written 10-27-11, backdated to 10-18-11**

At my routine 38 week appointment on Wednesday October 12th my blood pressure was elevated. Through my whole pregnancy my BP was 110-112/65-75. All of a sudden it was 136/90. The Dr.'s consider it high blood pressure if the top number is 140 or higher or the bottom number is 90 or higher. The good news was I didn't have any other symptoms that would point towards pre-eclampsia, just high BP. The Dr. was concerned and immediately sent me for a 45 minute non stress test where everything was good with Cameron.

I scheduled a follow up on Friday October 14th to recheck my BP and decide what our next step would be. On Thursday and Friday I stopped at Publix and CVS to check it. Each time I checked, it continued to be high so I was prepared for that at my Dr.'s appointment. At my appointment, it was still borderline high - 138/88. I saw a different Dr. but she immediately brought up inducing me. She noted that typically once you have high blood pressure, it doesn't go away and only gets worse. She checked my progress to see if I was 'inducable'. She said that I was 1.5 cm, 75% effaced and she would easily be able to break my water. We decided to go ahead and induce and schedule my appointment at Winner Palmer for Monday October 17th at 11am!

I was instructed to take it easy on 'modified bedrest'. Basically no work, no exercise, no housework, no shopping, etc. I was supposed to relax as much as possible. I was excited to know that the end was near and to be able to plan for Cameron's birth. Bryan and I spent the weekend stocking up the fridge, putting the final touches on the nursery and cleaning as much as possible. It was hard to believe in a few short days Cameron would arrive!

Since I finally reached the end of my pregnancy, here are some final belly timelines! I can see a pretty big difference from week 38 to week 39. I think she had definitely dropped and who knows - maybe I would have gone into labor on my own pretty soon??