Monday before last, I was drying my hair after the shower when the bathroom filled with little bright flashes, like fireflys.  I didn't think that was a good thing, so rang the hospital to ask about it.  They said to come on in, but didn't sound too worried, so I drove myself out, and only paid for an hours parking.  
Silly me, I had a blood pressure of 160/100 and edema (swelling) and so I wasn't going anywhere.  That was the bad news, the good news was that my blood work showed that my liver and kidneys were still happy with life and I wasn't spilling protien in my urine.  
I spent Monday night in the hospital, my blood pressure came down and since I didn't have pre-eclampsia, they let me go home on Tuesday.
The next Thursday saw me back at the hospital, early in the morning as I had seen my pulse with my vision getting lighter and darker.  Blood pressure 150/86, edema, bub perfectly fine, liver and kidneys still content with life, home after 6 hours with my pressure down to about 135/86.
All this meant a change in our Christmas plans.  We had been going to Newcastle to spend it with Mr b^3 parents, but we didn't want to have the possiblity of something going wrong a long way from our favourite hospital. (See alittlepregnant for what happens when one goes away and ignores pre-eclampsia symptoms).  So we had a quiet Christmas at home, my parents came over for dinner.  Bracketing Christmas are regular trips to the hospital for monitoring of bub and I.  My pressure was down to 128/76 yesterday, almost back to my baseline, so maybe this hallabaloo is almost over.
There's lots of talk over the importance of giving birth in a familiar enviroment.  I have seen that much of the birth suite and maternity ward over the past week and a half, that it really is a familiar enviroment now.