I just went to a doctor's appointment where the doctor notified me that my blood sugar was not right the last glucose test they did and that my blood pressure was high. It's a cause for concern with me since diabetes runs in the family. Well, doctor said it would be best to do moderate bed rest until the baby comes. Basically, I can get up to do little things for myself but nothing for anyone else. No sweeping, mopping, being on my feet for too long, stressful activities or situations, blah blah blah. Like, really?! I have a 3yo son and run a daycare. What am I supposed to do?! No, seriously, what am I supposed to do? I will admit that I do feel my blood pressure raise especially during daycare hours when the kids are being particularly difficult, especially my 1yr old dcg and my 3yo son. When 1yr old dcg is not here on weekends my life is pretty much heaven. I still have 7 weeks to go and only have one full time client, 1yo dcg and two drop ins that are 4 and 5. It's not enough income to hire a helper. I guess I would feel guilty to have to shut down. I expected to work up to my labor and then close down for 6 weeks so that my little family can bond. (Parents previously knew this and are ok with it.) What would you do? I don't even know how I'd tell parents.

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It would suck but I would either shut down or hire temp help. It's a hit to your income either way but at least if you hire the help you have a chance of keeping the income after your maternity leave.

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I am so sorry. I would feel bad about about doing this too, but ... you have to. You have to for your health and for your baby's health, and no one else's needs can trump that.

Could you do it by email? I would consider doing that right now. Head it "Bad News", to warn them.

You need to do this. Then you will be relieved. But you have to do it, for your little baby

And do not feel guilty! Or if you do, post here and people will help you lose it

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What about a compromise? When I had borderline high BP (my MIL had a crisis and had to move in with us for 10 days and then attempted suicide, I was working FT, commuting, 3 kids, etc) with my 4th so I had to lay down at the end of the day for 1 hour, take my BP, do a kick count and then test my urine for protein. A nurse called me every night to report my readings. If something changed we would go from there. It was usually only borderline high and I didn't need bedrest. I was on bedrest for 10wks with my twins but thank God I didn't have kids yet and was in school so I could do it from home. Do you have protein or sugars in your urine? Do you have headaches, swelling, visual changes? If the only thing you have right now is a high reading at 1 appt I wouldn't rush to shut down yet. If you have pre-eclampsia you would have several other symptoms and they'd probably admit you until you were stabilized. I would let the families know you may have to close early, but you're taking it week by week right now. If they have coverage for the 6wks after birth maybe they could go 4-6wks early if completely necessary. And diabetes can typically be treated with dietary changes, close monitoring and insulin if necessary. Plenty of people work through their due date even with diabetes or elevated BP and have healthy pregnancies. I would assume your dr wants to see you weekly or even more to do a non-stress test and biophysical profile on the baby and you may need to take more time off during the week for that as well.

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This was me with my first pregnancy. I was stressed and working in a center. I quit my job and blood pressure went down -the nurses couldn't believe how quickly it went back down after leaving the job. Best thing I could have done for me and baby. I did use up all my savings, though and that wasn't fun

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Thank you SO much, everyone. I do also have some swelling and have been told to try to keep my feet raised as much as I can and of course change my diet a bit. At this point doctor wants to see me every week instead of every 2 weeks to keep an update. I just feel SO bad about it since dcg who is full time is also the daughter of a family friend. It's hard to do that to people that you genuinely care about but I'm hoping she'll understand. I think I'm going to give her a few days to find someone else and I'm going to call around and see if any family can help me for that time, even if it's just a few hours. It will be a hit to income but if it's what I need to do then so be it. Doctor knows I'm a daycare provider and when I reminded him about my business after he said "bed rest" he just gave me that look like, "And? I just told you what I want you to do, lady." Lol. *sigh* The struggle.

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This is one of the downsides of having your own business. It is so kind of you to try to find them alternate arrangements, but please try not to stress yourself over it. I had to do bed rest with my last pregnancy and I just told the parents I was done until after I had the baby (and I took six weeks off). They came back after my mat leave.
Best of luck!

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You should be very careful,high blood pressure is is dangerous...kids and parents sometimes get us on the top of our patient...but you are pregnant.I think you should stop,don't risk your self and your precious baby.

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I ended up with high blood pressure with my last pregnancy, I thought I could hire someone and make it work until I had her, well being the way I am I would end up trying to help out and ended up with a baby born at 32 weeks and she only weighed 2 lbs due to growth restriction because of the high blood pressure. It's not worth it, my dc parents ended up having to find someone else with less than a day's notice. But all of them came back 3 months later when I reopened. If they are good parents they will be understanding and know that babies health comes first. If not then good riddance. Take care of you and listen to doctors orders.

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Thank you SO much for sharing your story. I needed to hear that. I was feeling so badly and parents were obviously frustrated with me. I felt like my pregnancy was an inconvenience. You are right, if they don't understand and don't come back then so be it. I really have to stop caring about everyone else more than I'm caring about myself right now.

Thank you, everyone for your support. I don't know what I'd do without this place.

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