I'll give you a quick timeline of my Tuesday night (March 11th, 2014):
11:30 pm - Phillip goes to sleep. I'm not very tired so I decide to stay up later and make his lunch
12:00 am - Finally get ready for bed and lay down to sleep
12:30 am - My heart starts pounding at an extremely rapid rate. This happens to me sometimes so I didn't think much of it. It usually passes within 10 minutes.
1:00 - 2:30 am - Drift in and out of sleep, but wake up every 10-15 minutes from the rapid pounding.
2:30 am - Wake up from pounding, switch side that I'm laying on (I know that pregnant ladies should only sleep on their sides!!) and suddenly notice the room spinning. What the heck!!!
3:00 am - My heart is still pounding. By this time I begin to think that there may be a problem! The stress begins.
4:00 am - I decide to get up and pee.....it's clear! I'm not dehydrated, so that's ruled out. Dang it!
5:00 am - I go to the couch with hopes that sitting up will make me feel better. It helps a bit & I sit there for a while....of course the whole time I'm looking up my symptoms on my phone :)
5:30 am - I lay down again, and of course my rapid pounding heart beat returns!!! So I wake up Phillip, who feels my forehead, and apparently I'm burning up also! A fever, excellent.
~ 5:35 - 7:30 am - I finally fall asleep, with continued waking up every 10-15 minutes with the same symptoms. Boy was I tired!
So at 7:30 I take Phillip to school, and by 8:00 I realize that my stupid heart has been rapidly pounding for SEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT. That's unheard of!!
At this point I'm starting to worry if whether or not if my heart is doing it's job and supplying enough blood to the baby. Luckily, he was kicking the whole night and it didn't seem to affect him, but I still can't help but worry!!!
I call the doctor's office at about 9:00, and when I told the nurse my symptoms she said "Yeah, let's not even play any games here. Come in at 10:00."
I could have cried!!! I was so scared that they'd be like "Oh you're just dehydrated" or something, but it was obvious that this wasn't normal at all.
I got to the doctor's office, and the nurse took me in and did all the weight/blood pressure and stuff. My blood pressure was 108/something, which is actually less than the 118 I had the week before, so that was good. However, my weight jumped up 5 pounds in ONE WEEK. What on earth!!! I don't even recall noticing any weight gain, haha.
The nurse then proceeded to attempt to find the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler device. She found it in like 2 minutes....which is a first. Usually it takes the doctor at least 10, haha. He had a healthy heartbeat of about 154....what a relief!!!
Then the doctor came in. I told him my symptoms, and I had a huge fear that he would be like "Oh it's normal for pregnant women to experience this" or "were you dehydrated or stressed?".
But that wasn't the case, and much to my surprised he actually seemed rather concerned.
YES!!!
Once again I'm not crazy and what I'm experiencing is not "normal".
He listened to my heart and told me that I have a heart murmur, which I actually already knew about, and have had for about 10 years or so. It's called sinus arrhythmia and when I breathe in, my heart beats faster, and when I breathe out, my heart rate slows down. It's never been a big deal, and it still isn't.
What my doctor did say, though, is that he would like me to be on a heart monitor for 30 days. Holy shiz, 30 days?
The device is called a "King of Hearts". While wearing it, I'm supposed to press the "record" button every time I have a symptom. The device picks up my heart rate or EKGs or whatever, not sure of the terminology haha, and then I send it to a company in Idaho Falls that then evaluates the symptoms I record.
Pretty cool, eh?
I like having it because it gives me peace of mind, knowing that anything weird that happens can be recorded and evaluated, so I can't complain!
Here's a picture of it:
The downside, which was actually an upside for me, was that I felt the need to finally quit my job 3 weeks earlier than I had planned on. It's just too stressful for me to work and be pregnant at the same time. Especially with my huge appetite and the limited amount of food that I can bring to the office, haha :).
So my weeks have slowed down considerably, but I am grateful that my symptoms haven't FULLY returned....and I think less responsibility/stress can definitely get some credit for my improved condition :).
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