Thankful no baby yet!

My main job right now and what I'm focused on the most is keeping this baby inside for as long as possible. Dr. Belfort (Maternal-fetal doctor) is making that a very stressful and touch and go project. From the beginning he has said that at 24 weeks the baby is viable and once there is any sign of a problem at that point he's going to have this baby delivered. This has been a HUGE adjustment from my other two pregnancies that I got to just go to the regular appointments, felt great and had no complications. The mental stress is the worst part. If this was all I knew about being pregnant it would be different I think, still stressful but different. Since I enjoyed my first two pregnancies so much it's been really hard for me because I really hate having all the stress and appointments. Some days it sounds so much better to just skip all my appointments and tests and pretend nothings wrong and sit back and enjoy this pregnancy. I could never do that mostly because of guilt and worry and deep down I'm thankful for modern medicine and this miracle baby but I also know my doctors would show up at my doorstep freaking out if I didn't show up.
Each week I go with the worry if this will be the week that the doctor thinks there may be a problem and stick me in the hospital for the rest of my pregnancy. Last Wednesday almost ended up being that day. My fluid levels have been high for the past few months but baby has been growing great so they've just kept an eye on it. Well Wednesday I go in and they take my blood pressure (I'm feeling the best I have in a few weeks) and it comes back 220/98. I tell the tech there is NO way it's that high. She has me sit for a minute and takes it again. Still just as high so she goes and gets Dr. Belfort who immediately freaks out that I'm having the steroid shots to develop baby's lungs and going to labor and delivery to have this baby. (He's pretty much the most worst case scenario type person you could meet)and he REALLY stresses out about me. He likes to tell everyone that he talks to on the phone or comes in the room that I am the most complicated, high-risk patient they have in their entire practice. So they check baby on ultrasound and everything there still looks great. Baby is measuring exactly on dates with everything. My fluid levels were still high but they were the same as the two previous weeks so they weren't any higher. I keep telling him I feel fine and that there is no way my blood pressure is that high. I've had high blood pressure for the past 13 years I'm pretty good at knowing by how my body feels and the signs I have when it's high. He says well maybe it's different because you are pregnant and has them wheel me down to labor and delivery. The whole time I'm getting grumpy because #1 I know this is dumb and I don't need to be there, #2 Jeff had gotten home Tuesday night and I really didn't want to have to live in the hospital when he had just gotten home.
So the nurses get me all hooked up to the baby monitors and keep asking me if I have a horrible headache or need to throw up (both signs of high blood pressure) and I keep smiling and telling them no, I feel great. So they get me all checked in and get a blood pressure cuff on me and take it. The reading 136/62. The nurse looks at it with a sideways head tilt like hmmm that's weird then she says I'm going to take it again. Same thing. So they keep monitoring baby and tell me they will be back. Not much later my regular Ob comes running (yes running, so cute, I felt so bad he's not the youngest of the bunch) into my room. (Dr. Belfort had called him and told him my supposedly high blood pressure and that he wanted the baby delivered) The nurse followed him in and he looked at my chart and said these aren't the numbers he just gave me and you look great. Yeah I know that's what I've been telling them. So he has them take my blood pressure again. Yeah the same still. So he orders some lab work to test for toxemia and Pre-eclampsia and asked one of the nurses to go get Dr. Belfort's blood pressure machine. So they bring in his machine and take my BP. It comes back with 207/94. Yeah the whole time, the whole mess, all the stress was because of a faulty Blood pressure machine. So 5 hours later I got to go home. I'm so thankful I didn't have to deliver a 28 week old baby and that everybody is still healthy and I'm also glad that I get to enjoy my home and my bed for awhile longer. All the appointments, medications that make me sick, swelling, and everything else is worth it to keep this baby growing and healthy for as long as possible. Only 11 more weeks until I'm full term which seems crazy enough but to know they won't let me go that long makes it really feel like it's happening really fast.