I had a tiny bit of a scare last week at my doctors appointment. I went and saw Dr. Wolsey. He pulled out the doppler to find baby girl's heartbeat and listened for longer than usual. He said that her heart rate dropped a few times while he was listening which is a little bit concerning. He had me go over to the hospital to do a nonstress test. At that point I was sort of nervous but at the same time didn't really feel like anything was wrong.
I got to the hospital and they started the nonstress test. During that monitoring period the baby's heart rate dropped a couple more times so the perinatologist suggested I go up to labor and delivery to be monitored for a longer period of time. They said it would probably be about 2-4 hours just so they could be certain everything was okay. After a few hours Dr. Wolsey then came in again and said he wanted to monitor even longer and keep me over night. During this whole time I was calm but also just really wanting everything to stop and the doctors to say all was good. Dr. Wolsey said they wanted to give me a betamethasone shot to help mature the fetal lungs a little quicker than usual just in case they needed to deliver me early. I slept pretty poorly that night. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the fetal heart monitor.
In the morning Dr. Rees thoroughly reviewed the tracing from that night. Again, for the most part it all looked good, but because there were still occasional drops in heart rate he wanted me to do a biophysical profile test. Luckily that test baby scored great. She was moving fine, doing breathing movements, had normal muscle tone, and my amniotic fluid index was normal. At that point they felt comfortable sending me home.
They are watching me much more closely now though. I have already had two nonstress tests this week, another biophysical profile, and my normal doctors appointment. Luckily things are going well and baby can still inside for at least a little while longer. I never know what they will say next.
I'm just extremely grateful for modern technology, wonderful doctors and nurses who are very aware and knowledgeable, and also my own knowledge I gained during nursing school. I pray constantly for this sweet little girl and cannot wait to hold her for the first time!
Less than 4 weeks until my due date but who knows when she'll actually arrive! EEEEEK!
