7 Month Appointment

Today was our 7 month appointment. Which had been highly anticipated since all of the new developments in the last couple of weeks, but this morning I woke up with the worst backache I have ever had in my life. It has been coming off and on for the past couple of days but was the worst today.
I tried everything I could think of this morning before our appointment to get it under control including stretching, a warm bath, Tylenol etc, but nothing helped. I tried really hard to be cheerful and pleasant when they checked me in for our appointment but ended up crying from the pain. I told the nurse, “I know my blood pressure is going to be high from the pain” and of course it was. It was the highest it has been throughout the whole pregnancy, 160/100. This had everyone one a little concerned because this is pushing the limit as to how high they will let your blood pressure go. The nurse said, “We want to keep those babies in there a little longer but I don’t know how much further we are going to get you”. Thankfully there still has not been any protein in my urine so that has been reassuring.
After getting my weight (I only gained 3 lbs since my six month appointment) I got parked on my left side again. Dr Berg came in shortly after and said, “Uh Oh, you have been sentenced to your left side huh?” She rechecked my blood pressure and it was 114/64, which is very close to my pre-pregnancy blood pressure. She was pleased to hear that I had been taken off work because if it hadn’t have happened last week, it would have today.
She did her usual ultrasound to find the placement of the babies which are both feet down at this time. She believes this may be the cause of some of my back pain, since two weeks ago Baby A was transverse and was lying across the lower part of my belly. Both babies’ heart rates were great; Baby A (Braylon) 148 and Baby B (Kaden) 154. She also measured my belly which has again grown 2 centimeters in the last week. I now measure 35 centimeters although, I am only 28 weeks.
We talked about the Braxton Hicks Contracts I have been having and decided it would be worth doing a Fetal Fibronectin Test. This test is used to help predict if a mother is at risk of going into preterm labor in approximately the next 2 weeks. At 3:30pm this afternoon we got the results which were negative, this means that the odds that I will go into labor in the next 2 weeks are highly unlikely. She also checked my cervix to be sure the contractions were not causing me to dilate and my cervix was still closed.
Because my blood pressure was so high during this appointment I have to go back weekly for the next two weeks. She has decided to leave me off strict bed rest at this time but I have to spend the majority of my day off my feet.
After a long nap this afternoon my back finally started to feel a little better and actually popped when I sat up which relieved about 50% of the pain. Hopefully it will continue to improve and my blood pressure will be back down at our next appointment.