Every night between 8pm and 10 pm there is a mini gymnastics routine that takes place in my belly. Usually during this time Ty and I will lay in bed watching and feeling the movement as we daydream about who she will look like and what her personality will be as well as the type of woman she will become. Well Sunday night I felt no movement. We tried waking her by pushing on my belly and drinking cold water. That didn't help...
I thought in the morning I'd drink some coffee--that always seems to get her moving. Still no movement. Did a quick Internet search to see what else I could do to wake her, which included anything with sugar or anything cold. After orange juice and an orange (plus a granola bar and other mid-morning snacks...) and still no movement I called the doctor just to verify I wasn't overreacting. They scheduled an appointment for me to have her heart monitored a few hours later that day. I wasn't overly concerned as I called about 7 and they didn't have me come in until 10:30.
About 10 I picked Ty up and we headed to the doctor. They hooked me up to a machine, told me to sip on ice water and push a button anytime I felt movement. Her heart beat has ALWAYS been in the 160's so it was a little unnerving to see it fluctuate from 110 to 170 beats per minute with hardly no movement in 30-45 minutes. Then we saw the heart rate drop to the 90 beats per minutes and stay there for awhile... The nurse came in and took the printout, and we overheard her and the doctor talking in the hallway and they said, "at 29 weeks she should definitely feel more movement!". Great. You just made us go from Nervous Nellies to Freaked-out Freds. They then decided to do an ultrasound to check fluid levels (to see if I was in labor) as well as check the umbilical cord and if it was providing nutrients like they thought it should. Both of these were fine on, we also caught her doing practice breathing. Which the ultrasound tech said they rarely ever see babies this early already practicing this, so she was excited to capture this on the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech said everything looked fine, but we would probably need a more extensive ultrasound at the hospital. She asked if we wanted to see anything else while on the ultrasound. So of course, Ty asked if she could double check to see if it indeed was still a girl. It is! :)
After talking with the doctor, she thought it would be best to go downtown to the hospital where they would monitor the baby for 2 hours and record movement as well as have more of an extensive ultrasound. They were concerned that her heart beat dropped so drastically and stayed there for a couple minutes. We checked in (which was good practice to find the maternity ward and how to get there), and they immediately set me up on a monitor. Awhile minutes later the nurse came in and said she wasn't seeing any activity from baby and she had me drink orange juice and apple juice, which after about 10 minutes, we saw movement (still couldn't feel it). After about an hour another ultrasound tech, from the high risk pregnancy department came in to do more of an extensive ultrasound and take baby's measurements as well as her weight. She said everything was looking really good, and we could see movement on the screen. The tech also pointed out that the placenta is on top (most placenta's are under the baby). Since mine is on top it is acting as a cushion between baby and myself, which is also "muffling" most of her movements, at least till she gets stronger! They measured her femur, stomach, spine--all which put her at somewhere between 28-29 weeks--right on schedule! Then they measured her head... I had mentally prepared myself that any baby Tyler and I made would have an enormous head, but to actually see it on the screen and it measured to be 30+ weeks in size already...there was a moment of panic... They also weighed her, she comes in at a porky 3 lbs 3 oz already! Average at 28 weeks is between 2-3 lbs. Another moment of panic, but soon replaced by the fact that is she is healthy and BIG! The ultrasound tech again asked if there was anything else we wanted to look at while still on the screen, to which Ty asked (again) if it was still a girl. Yes, it is! (That makes 3 ultrasound techs all telling Ty it is in fact still a GIRL!) :) Tyler than said, I guess I really need to stop thinking about boy names "just in case" and really start thinking about girl names... Uhh, you think? We're less than 3 months till D-DAY with no name!
After 4 hours in the hospital and doctors office, 2 ultrasounds, and 2 different sets of monitor readings they concluded everything is fine. They think little miss grabbed the umbilical cord and cut off all blood/oxygen supply at that point the monitor just happened to catch the drop in heart rate, she then let go of the umbilical cord and her levels went back up... Sounds to me that Ty and I might already have a drama queen on our hands! :)
I will leave you with an image from our ultrasound. The tech was just AMAZED at how much hair she already had!!! We watched it floating in the amniotic fluid, and it was well past her ear already. This kid has a head of hair already! :)
what a crazy day. so glad to hear everything is fine - i'm sure that was scary! and totally jealous about all that hair - need some more bows?!:)
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