Today, I finally returned home after a four day, three night stay on the labor and delivery floor of our hospital.

This escapade began early Saturday morning when I was repeating some failed lab work and also doing additional testing. By Saturday afternoon, I had already received a results phone call, my values were that bad.

Upon arrival and admission, I was officially diagnosed preeclamptic. While monitoring me and trying to get my pressures under control, it was discovered I was also suffering from hypokalemia and hypomagnesemia.

I was on bed rest the whole time and while being pumped full of medicine to address these three issues, I was also give massive amounts of steroids to help baby’s lungs be ready a little sooner. The easy fix to all this is delivery, but at 31 weeks, they want us to hold out as long as my body will allow.

My next few weeks are riddled with self-monitoring and multiple doctor visits for NSTs, dopplers, growth ultrasounds, and lab work.

To top everything off, baby stubbornly stays in a breech position and now has given me pregnancy induced carpal tunnel – which let me tell you, made all the blood pressures I had to do undeniably painful.

To end this most current chapter of this pregnancy, I have to diligently follow all these rules and also faithfully take my meds. But if things begin leaning in a poor direction, baby will be coming. So, from now on, whenever anyone asks about when I’m due, the answer is no longer Christmas Eve. “This baby could arrive any day now.”