Baby Classes and Blood Pressure

We had our first birthing class this evening with Shelley Scotka at Any Baby Can. We took one class at Seton Hospital, but our doula recommended the one with Shelley. It meets four Mondays for 3 hrs. each. After the first class, I am really glad we are taking the series! Shelley is much more thorough, and puts a much heavier emphasis on relaxation and other natural methods of coping with labor. The class is mostly grant-funded, so it only costs $10 per mom and birthing partner, which also means members of our group range from married, middle-aged couples to teen moms attending with their own mothers as their birthing partner. The first class was very cool, and I am looking forward to the next one.

On a health note, we had a little blip last week that I am now confident was just a blip. After a couple days of very swollen feet that weren't going down at night, I called the doctor's office. At their request, I had the nurse at school check my blood pressure to look for signs of preeclampsia. The nurse checked my blood pressure and it was 140/82--very, very high for me. After calling the doctor's office back, they asked that I come in to get checked. In the office, my blood pressure was high, but not quite that high. When talking with the physician's assistant, I started doing some real thinking about what might make my body freak out: a move, exhaustion, crazy stress at school, not getting enough water, and so on. The p.a. sent me back to work with strict orders to check my blood pressure every day, relax, and take care of myself.

Now, the reason I am sharing this: after following her orders, my blood pressure has been back in the 100s-110s over 70s for the past three days, a true testament to the effect that stress and simple things like sleep and drinking water have on our health! Crazy!