Wolf!

Well, on this lovely autumn Sunday morning, LA-B and I enjoyed a breakfast of proverbial left over egg on our faces.

Let me explain starting with a bit of back story. I have high blood pressure. I've had it for years. YEARS. I was first diagnosed when I was 24 years old and in about the best shape I've ever been in. Not that I am either a giant porker or an emaciated anorexic, but it doesn't seem as it would matter either way. I have high blood pressure and no matter how much exercise or diet changes or meditation I do, it's still high.

When you are "in the family way" having high blood pressure means you are considered a "high risk." This gets you a special doctor and more ultrasounds than you ever could have imagined. Most of my "normal" pregnant friends had 3, maybe 4 ultrasounds over the course of 9 months. I had 3 ultrasounds over the course of the last week and a half. Really, I go to my high risk doc twice a week now and get an ultrasound each time.

In addition to bi-weekly video conferences with Pumpkin, I am also asked to track my blood pressure at least 3 times a day. I am happy to say that it's been really good throughout the entire gestation so far. But Saturday, things were different.

LA-B took the first reading around 10am when I first got out of bed. (Yes, I actually managed to sleep in!) It was higher than usual, but readings can change in moments, so we tried the other arm. Again high. We waited a few hours and tried again. High. This went on all day; a day in which I felt GREAT. Really. My back wasn't throbbing. I was well rested. It was a great day all around except for the high readings.

Around 5:00pm LA-B and I settled into the living room to watch game 3 of the Dodgers - vs- Mets playoff series. He took my BP and...high. We took it every 15 minutes for the next hour and it was higher each time. When it finally reached 152/104, LA-B called my doctor's service.

Within a few minutes, the good doc called back and asked us a bunch of questions. After hearing my answers, she said "you should go to the hospital. We should just go ahead and induce."

UM....ok.

The whirlwind of chaos spiraled throughout the house. This twister included calls and emails to EVERYONE letting them know that IT IS ON! About 2 hours after the doc told us to go, we finally got in the car and headed in to the hospital.

I was admitted to the women's pavilion and taken to a large room with 4 beds separated by curtains. The lovely nurse gave me a backless gown, asked me to change and then had me lay on the bed so she could get me all hooked up to the monitors. Immediately we could here Pumpkin's heart beat and new she was fine. Within a few seconds, we saw the readout on the fancy, bazillion dollar hospital issue blood pressure machine. Normal. Totally, completely, NORMAL.

Feeling kind of silly we spent the next 2 hours getting a NORMAL BP reading every 10 minutes until the nurse finally said "you are so out of here." And that was that.

I know I should feel relieved that everything is fine. I should be happy that my body wasn't hurting Pumpkin. But really, I just feel silly.

Oh well, false alarm messages went out and we go back to waiting. Tic Toc Tic Toc Tic Toc.

I guess you can't rush The Great Pumpkin.