Thursday, April 9, 2009

1st trip to L&D...not by choice

My 36 week appointment started out like any other. U/S to see Baby Girl's fluid level (all good). At that point her heart rate was measured at 154. I was then taken into the NST room to be hooked up to the monitor...the nurse weighed me (only gained 1lb this week, for a total of 12 overall), took my blood pressure (130/74, a little high for me) and started hooking me up. As soon as I heard Baby Girl's heart on the monitor I knew something was off. It sounded too fast. When I looked over, the monitor said 192! The nurse said she was going to get the doctor...I learned later from my DH that her heart rate had been up to 210 at one point! Dr T came in and looked at the readout...her heart rate had not gone below 190, and she wasn't moving. He had me sit up and lay back down...still didn't go down, still didn't move. He buzzed her with that buzzer thing, she kicked it away but didn't move again. He thought that if she was really active her could account for her high heart rate, but since she wasn't...he couldn't. So he told me he wanted me to go to the hospital, possibly to stay overnight. Which really freaked me out! I was able to go home first and log out of my work network and call some co-workers to let them know I'd be out of pocket.

When we got to L&D they put me in an exam room, and put the monitor on...heart rate was in the 150s. I answered all their questions...had blood drawn and was then sent down to imaging to have a bio-physical ultrasound done on Baby Girl. If she scored 8 out of 8...I'd get to go home and not spend the night in the hospital. When the u/s was done, I was sent back to L&D and put back on the monitor and waited for all the results. At this point, we'd been at the hospital a little over 3 1/2 hours. When the nurse came in, she said Baby Girl scored 8 out of 8 on the u/s...my bw was normal, and her heart rate was measuring fine on the monitor. Baby Girl measured in at 6lbs 2 oz...a 9oz gain from last week. The nurse called my doc and I was free to go home. We'd been there for 4 hours. But it was the best 4 hours and most nerve wracking 4 hours of my life. Best because I knew that if ANYTHING was wrong, my doc would deliver her...he made that known in his office. Nerve wracking...well you can imagine why it was nerve wracking.

I slept really well last night, given that I was exhausted from worry. As I've been sitting here typing this, Baby Girl has been squirming and rolling. I am now on 2x per week dr visits. Monday's are just NSTs...Thursdays are AFI's and NST's and see the doc.

Oh and I forgot to mention...I did get my first internal exam...wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Cervix is still high and tight.

I have to say, I'm completely freaked out by everything. I mean, I was scared shitless when I started bleeding at 7 weeks...but that doesn't even come CLOSE to how scared I was yesterday. I knew I needed to keep calm, so that my b/p didn't sky rocket, which I must say I did a good job of, but the thought of something going wrong? OMG! I'm still nervous. And I know I'll be nervous now until Alexis is here.

5 comments:

Jendeis said...

I'm so glad that everything worked out for the best. You've got a great support team, so try not to stress too much. Hugs!

Jen said...

oh honey, that is so scary!!! Glad it all ended up ok - and praying that it continues ok until the end!! I wonder what happened to make her rate go up like that?

Mazzy said...

How scary!! I cannot even imagine how terrified you were, honey! I am so glad everything wound up being ok and surely it was just a fluke?
*hugs*

HereWeGoAJen said...

That would be scary! I am so glad that everything turned out okay.

Plus, you are far enough along that she'll be okay if she's early.

Jen said...

Woah! Scary for sure! I'm so glad everything checked out OK!