Blood Pressure

melgul001

I know everyone is different, every pregnancy is different, every doctor is different etc...I have an appt on Thursday and plan to discuss but thought I'd just see what the general consensus is.

 I monitor my BP at home twice a day per the request for my doctor. Morning and night. Since my last appt I have taken my BP 42 times and out of those 42 times it has been abnormal (per my doctor abnormal for pregnancy is 140/80) 14 times. 

I never check it mid day or mid work day.

I'm not having any symptoms of anything...no headaches, visual disturbances, no swelling in hands/feet etc, no rapid weight gain. 

Just the elevated BP. Numerous other BP's have been close to the cut off point. 

I had a 24 hour UA done which came back normal (They were checking for protein as my random UA showed I had a bit of protein in it). 

When do they classify as chronic BP versus pre-eclampsia? I know Chronic BP can turn into pre-eclampia. 

Has anyone been put on BP meds during pregnancy and kept off bedrest okay? 

Obviously I will go on bedrest if I have to, but trying to avoid if at all possible. 

I'm just scared (as I think anyone would be) that I will be put on bedrest, won't have enough vacation time, wonder how the bills will be paid as the savings will only go so far etc. 

I lay awake at night going crazy over this stuff  

julandjo

I went into both of my pregnancies with chronic high BP, but progesterone, the dominant hormone during pregnancy, suppresses BP. My first pregnancy I was off my meds the whole time, then got pre-eclampsia somewhere in my mid-20's weeks but was undiagnosed... until the baby came by emergency at 35 weeks (based on his size my doctor said the pre-e had been going on for quite some time).  My second pregnancy I had a new, much more vigilant doctor.  He did a baseline 24-hr urine collection at 8 weeks and put me on daily baby aspirin from the start.  My pressure started creeping up around week 24, and by 26 I had pre-e with a ton of protein spilling.  I was hospitalized and the doctor started steroid shots for the baby's lungs because he thought he'd have to take her that week.  But a combination of bedrest and bp meds worked!  Over the next 9 weeks my protein kept dropping lower and lower.  My bp was still elevated and baby had IUGR, but I kept her in until 35 weeks.  So basically, you can have high bp without it being pre-e, and it's also possible to have pre-e for a long time without having to deliver... it all depends.  I know that months of bedrest sounds horrible (and it is!), but if that's what it takes then you just make the rest of your life work around it.  FMLA will cover your job at least.  Hang in there Mel!