Monday, November 29, 2010

I'll take NST's for 1000, Alex.

I promised pictures and thanksgiving remembering, and they will come.

But first this morning happened. I was floating along blissfully in my vacation haze that still hadn't lifted, knitting little leg warmers out of soft cotton for little soon to be legs (well, I guess they're already there, I feel them in my ribs. but not in the world yet..) when I should have been working on one of the 7 or 8 papers I have due in the next 3 weeks. But my vacation hadn't ended yet. I willfully spent every minute of yesterday cooped in my home, playing with a little girl who only smiles and giggles and is very much into cuddling at the moment.

This morning I had a dr. appt. Just a normal, now every-two-weeks doctor's appointment. It went fine, I added a row or four onto those little leg warmers, I was right now with my weight (at least where they want me to be). Feeling the baby move? yup. Any pain or pressure? nope. It's all good. Then it happened. Not something too major, I assumed it would happen sometime soon-the non stress tests were ordered.

Already? at 32 weeks? I thought I had until at least 34.

Wait, whats that you say? Another ultrasound too? Oh and fluid checks every week?
AND nst's twice a week?

Hold up. thats a LOT of appointments. Starting today? yup. thats what she said.

So I marched my way over (ok, I had to drive) to the hospital, where after wondering around I found the maternity floor (at least I know where that is now..) and was strapped up. Now NST's are bad. they just strap these two dopplers to your ever growing preggo belly and monitor the baby's heart rate/movement and contractions until they get what they need. This could take 20 minutes, and this could take an hour and 20 minutes. And all along the mama just sits there, with the bed at an uncomfortable angle, and presses a little jeopardy button everytime she feels a kick.

And of course, because I really really needed to get back and work on some papers before class this after, Number2 took a good 1.5 hours to get what we needed. And this included 16 ounces of ice water, 3 graham crackers, and a buzzer that vibrates and emits a high pitched noise that is supposed to "wake her up". Whew.

During this very long, very slow process I got to listen to that little girls heartbeat the whole time. This is an amazingly calming experience. I suggest if ever you are stressed, just listen to an in utero baby's heartbeat. Ahh....

Also during this time however, the contraction measuring Doppler measured my contractions. Apparently, as they tell me, there were many and they were very regular. A little too regular for the liking of my doctor. And so I was checked. Everything is where it should be at 32 weeks, but I was checked. and checked again after I felt one more. This took away all of the stress relieving qualities of listening to the heartbeat.

This happened with EM too, exactly the same thing. Exactly. This doesn't worry me, but apparently it worried them. I go back for my scheduled nst on Thursday, I fully expect words like bed rest to be thrown around. This is my biggest fear. There was no mention today, but they seemed a little too worried.

This was not a huge event this morning, just a lot more than I bargained for. The vacation haze, instead of lifting slowly like its supposed to was vacuumed away with a really loud and really powerful shop vac and I was thrust back into the world of stress and fear. Awesome.

So then I went to panara.
Thank you, decaf skim peppermint mocha for bringing just a little bit of bliss back into my world.

1 comment:

  1. Eek! I was thinking biweekly meant every 2 weeks, but TWICE every week?? That is crappy and disruptive! ugh. I'm sure Baby P 2.0 will be fine, but...ugh.

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