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[tdwhite8]

I am 26, married for almost 8 years. DD is 8, DS is 5 1/2 (those of you with kids that age know just how important that half is). I had pre-e with both of my children. In both cases it didn't raise it's ugly head until about 34 weeks and I was induced around 38 weeks. Both babies were perfectly healthy.

We lost a baby girl last March at 16 weeks with no found cause. After dealing with the grief of that loss, DH and I decided to try again. To our surprise and joy, we got pregnant on the first try. I will be 25 weeks tomorrow - due June 16th.

Between the delivery of my DS and now I have developed chronic hypertension. I've had some doctors tell me it's related to having had pre-e twice before, but I've had other doctors say there's no relationship at all. Either way, I've got it. For the first 16 weeks of the pregnancy my BP has been perfect. I was able to completely come off all medications for the first time in a long time. Around 16 weeks it started creeping up a little so the OB put me back on Aldamet 250mg 2x a day. Since then about every 3 weeks we have had to increase the dosage. This Monday we increased it to 500mg 3x a day. By Wednesday it was working well and I had pretty well decided I had bought 3 more weeks. Then I woke up this morning. I've had a headache all day, my BP is hovering at 140/90 (even after laying down for hours at a time), and my 24-hour urine from earlier in the week is "okay, but on the high side." My OB increased the dosage to 500mg 4x a day, put me on bedrest, and referred me to a perinatal specialist for further action.

I've had fairly tame cases of pre-e and I'm really scared for what could happen this go around. Can anyone give me a general idea of what to expect as far as testing, meds, etc.?

[MomTimesThree]

I'm so sorry things have been rocky this pregnancy, and I am especially sorry to hear of the loss of your daughter.

There are others here with waaaay more experience than I, but one thing that we had to do was weekly 24hr catches, and I think we started those around 25weeks which is when our bp had started to rise a bit. Once we "met" for pre-eclampsia, at 29 weeks we did bi weekly NSTs to monitor baby. I'm sure each case is different, but this was what our team decided... and we held out until 37 weeks!

Keeping you in my thoughts and hoping that they find a way to manage the pressures.
Lauren