Day 3 in the Hospital

During Christine's last doctor's visit, she was diagnosed with Pregnancy Induced Hypertention (PIH) also known as Preeclampsia. There is no known cause of this disease, but it happens 5-8% in pregnancies. Obvious symptoms of this disease is raised blood pressure. Christine's previous BP readings early on in the pregnancy has been pretty steady and just spiked up recently. Her BP reading was pretty high, measuring at 156/103 last Friday, which alarmed our doctor, Dr. Connie Tan. Dr. Tan immediately took Christine off work and put her on strict bedrest and only gave her bathroom privileges as reason to be up and about. Other symptoms are swollen hands, feet and face, which explains Christine's swolleness in the last month or so. We suspect that this probably started early in June. Luckily, our doctor caught this on before her condition worsened as high BP could cause her to have seizures, which is deadly for mom and baby. The only cure is to deliver the baby, which we don't want to happen yet at her stage in the pregnancy. She is only 28 weeks along her pregnancy, which means that there is 12 more weeks to go until baby is scheduled to arrive. Average weight of babies at this stage in the pregnancies is only 2.5lbs. and approx. 15 inches. Obviously, we want to keep the baby in the womb as long as possible so our doctors decided that it's best for Christine and the baby to stay in the hospital until it's time to deliver. This way they can monitor her and the baby regularly.

So, it looks like El Camino Hospital will be our new home for the next 3 months hopefully! It's now day 3 in the hospital and we're getting accustomed to the routine and environment here. Christine has her own small private room complete with a full bath! It's equipped with a TV, DVD player and internet access! I have managed to set up a little office in the corner of the room too...so I can do some work from the hospital.