oh dear

in my last post i talked about how i was having horrible pains and things were just sucking super badly... well we went to the doctor yesterday and it's not totally normal and i'm not crazy. he said i was going to develop preeclampsia, which is also known as pregnancy induced hypertension or toxemia. so let me tell you a little bit about this before you freak out and worry incessantly.

preeclampsia is characterized by a lot of swelling, weight gain from water retention (for me it was 10 pounds in the last [less than] two weeks), severe gastric pain, and high blood pressure. those are the symptoms i have had so far, but there are a few others. look it up if you want, but don't freak yourself out. it can be mild or severe, and it looks like i will have it mildly, but as the doctor said, we don't mess around with it so once you completely have it, we're taking the baby out. (delivering the baby is the only way to get rid of it.) the reason they do that is because they don't want it to develop into eclampsia which is very dangerous, leading to seizures and comas. now, i'm not worried because i have a very very good, capable, knowledgeable, experienced doctor whom i completely trust. i will be delivering jonah at an amazing hospital that has a level 3 NICU. plus, most importantly, God is in control!

a few things that all of this means right now are that i have to take it easy like i have been, but i probably need to up that a notch, and i have to avoid all salt. i am going to be going into the doctor twice a week to monitor my progress, and jonah is going to be born a couple of weeks early (woo hoo!/ahhhhhh!). the only issue that any of us see arising is the fact that white males' lung development isn't typically complete until the 39th week (whereas black females' lungs mature at 35 weeks), but even with that information, there is no need to worry, because besides the fact that i'm in very capable professional hands, God is in control of everything. i trust Him. please do pray for jonah's lungs, though. :)

on a lighter note, while we were at the doctor's office we got to see that little cutie for a second! i'm excited because when we go on monday we are going to have a detailed sonogram so we will get some pictures and get to watch him for a longer time. i love getting to see him on the sonogram machine! it makes me so excited to see him for real and makes me freak out less about the fact that we are about to have a baby!

also, jonah has started to drop, which is painful and exciting. on sunday i think it was just beginning because that's when my hip and back pain started to ramp up, but when i was checked out at the hospital the nurse said he was still pretty high up. yesterday at the doctor's office, though, he said his head was low. and the pain is still there lol, and i can breathe more easily when he's pushing his little butt up and out. supposedly that usually means that i would be about 3 weeks away from going into labor, but i'm not really going to hold onto that hope... plus my doctor is most likely going to get him out at that time anyway for the aforementioned reasons.

i can't think of anything more to say on the subject, but i really love matt and i just wanted to say that on here. :)