Now we are really close!!!

Hi again,
A long period of silence has come to an end, time for some updates!

Yesterday we had two appointments at the hospital (St.Julien) about 40minutes from our home by car.
The first meeting (13:15) was to answer some questions/fill out a formulaire needed for anesthetics (epidural), this was a quick meeting and went. The nurse also checked the blood pressure and found it to be 13/9 (French value) corresponds to 130/90 (Sweden). Within limit but on the verge of being to high.

Secondly we had a meeting with a gynecolog at 16:15 and she had a second look at the blood pressure and now found it to be almost 16/9 or 160/90. On top of this she saw that Caroline had rather swollen feet/hands and face. (Caro has gained about 12kg since the beginning of the pregnancy). She also listened to the heartbeat of the baby but that sounded normal.

Because of the high blood pressure we needed to stay about 45 minutes longer to make a complementary test for the blood pressure but also to monitor the heart rate of the baby. For this test Caro was to lay down on a bed and was connected to 2 machines, one for her blood pressure wich recorded new values every 5 minutes and one for the baby where you could see heartrate and Caro's contractions.

I sat beside Caro during this monitoring and it was clear that Caro's blood pressure was high, normally you can be a bit stressed when you go for a visit like this but if you lie down and rest for a while the values should drop a bit.
In Caro's case they stayed at around 16/9 during all 45 minutes of measurement.
The baby was at sleep when the measurement started so after a while a nurse came and offered a fruit drink to Caro, the sugar would wake our baby from her sleep quickly she promised.
It did! It was quite interesting to see the effect of a small glass of orange juice. While the baby was asleep the heartrate was somewhat lower and very "straight lined" when looking at the heartrate printout. When the baby was awake the heartrate was between 130-150bpm depending on if it was moving or not. The number of contractions read between 12 and 21 (per minute I guess!???). In the end of the measurement the baby fell asleep again and curves where flatened once more.

Caro also gave some urine and blood samples to be analysed and when the results came they showed signs of "Albumin", I guess that is what we in Sweden call "Äggviteämnen" (Egg White substances?).
This is not a good sign!
Results indicated that Caro's kidneys where not doing their job fully...

The personnel at the hospital decided that they should keep Caro for the night to monitor her more closely and to do further analyses of blood/urine. At 19:20 Caro was beeing served some dinner in a room reserved to her and I went home to have something to eat to.

Today I read a bit on the web and found that Caro must have what we in Sweden call "Havandeskapsförgiftning" or "Pre-eclampsie" (french). This happends to about 5-10% of all pregnant women and is something to take seriously as the outcome can be lethal if not attended to. Normally this occurs in the 3 last months of pregnancy and more likely towards the end. Treatment is rest and medication to lower blood pressure can also be given by doctors orders.
It is also common that an earlier birth is forced to minimize the risks for both the mum/child.
When a woman has high blood pressure it is common that she delivers by "Kejsarsnitt" (Swe) or "Caesarian" (Eng/Fre).

Caro is still at the hospital and the latest information I have is that actions will be taken to provoke the birth "the normal way" on Sunday or by Caesarian if needed.

It looks like our princess is eager to come to this earth, and she is more than welcome! :=)

... to be followed!