Pre-eclampsia

It is official.. my pregnancy-induced hypertension has now a high risk of becoming pre-eclampsia with traces of protein in my urine and blood pressure of 160/192. This is a disease occuring soley in 8-10% of end of term pregnancies and can be quite dangerous to both the mother and baby. The only known treatment is delivery (to rid the body of the placenta). It is related to a condition within the placenta which restricts blood flow and thus reduces oxygen and food supply to the baby. In my case it is only mild, but nonetheless the doctor is concerned because during the stress of labour it is likely to worsen. Therefore, the delivery date has been set - Tuesday 19th May - if it doesn't occur naturally prior to that day. Having a good look at my cervix today though indicates that this isn't likely to happen tomorrow.. but we are leaving a window of two days open for it to occur naturally.. hence the wait. This is due to the fact that though my cervix has softened and thinned (2cm to 1cm), it still hasn't lifted from a posterior to an anterior position nor has it started to dilate. The more time given for this to progress naturally, the easier labour could be.
How do I feel? Quite relieved to finally have a date to look forward to and definitely more relaxed. At the same time, I am sure that on Monday evening it'll be difficult to sleep in anticipation of what is to come. Sometimes it is better not to know .. :-). We have to be there at 7a.m and the doctor predicts that, provided there are no complications (blood pressure, oxygen levels) it could all be over in 8 hours. He will be keeping a watchful eye on the pre-eclampsia symptoms and did warn us that we may need to do c-section if labour doesn't progress as it should. I'm fine with this.. all notions of natural birth for me have blown out the window.. I just want our baby - with the least trauma possible :-)
As for the date, for some reason I was fixed on the 18th.. no real reason why, but it just 'felt right'. I like the fact that our baby will be Taurus and also the Chinese year of the Ox (highly compatible with Leos and the year of the Snake which both Amandio and I are).. of course, I don't read into astrology all that much but I do find it interesting. Amandio, forever the 'numbers man', made an interesting observation too; the 19th lies exactly in the middle of both his birthday (08th) and mine (30th) meaning that 11days separate all three of us. What is he like!!? In addition, 9 is also the luckiest number in Thailand. Right, now we know - Amandio Gabriel is due on 19-05-2009.