39 Weeks

After my appointment last week the doctor told me to schedule a non-stress test (NST) before my appointment this week, just to make sure everything was still looking okay then my appointment.

I went in for my NST at 10:20, everything you can imagine was going wrong getting it set up, first the batteries on the machine died, then they were out of paper so it took 20 minutes just to get things started. Then the nurse had a hard time getting him to stay under the monitor. FINALLY got it going, it was supposed to be 20 minutes. After 20 minutes the nurse came in and re adjusted because there were a few times that she had lost his heart beat so she needed a longer reading. After 10 more minutes my doctor came in and he didn't like the way it was reading so he readjusted it again and wanted to watch it for 20 more minutes. Finally after an hour he came in and showed me "See this is what we want to see" and showed me the accelerations, and there were 13 in the hour which he said was great, but there was one deceleration that concerned him (his heart rate dropped down to 98 bpm and it was slow to come back up) He did my exam, still just 1 1/2 cm dilated (he didn't tell me how far effaced) but he said "I am not too concerned, but we've made it 9 months, I know your history, I don't want to take any risks."

So he had me go over for an u/s to make sure fluid levels were still looking okay. He said if it was under 7 he was going to induce me right then. Fluid level was 11.3 so he sent me across the hall to labor and delivery (his office is in the hospital) for an hour long NST because their equipment is better and he really wanted to make sure everything was looking okay.

Every 15 minutes or so a nurse would come in and talk to me about how things were looking. After the first 30 minutes the nurse was so encouraging she said that everything looked perfect and she said we would for sure be headed home today. After the next 15 minutes (so I'd been there just over 45 minutes) she said that his heart rate had dipped again so they wanted to monitor me for another 30 minutes.

After that 30 minutes was over I was surprised when it was my doctor that came in. Again I have to say how great he is. He was very reassuring, he said if there was really a reason that we should take him today he would have in a heartbeat but he felt like after the second NST that everything was okay.

He wants to see me again on Friday for another non-stress test before the weekend. So Friday afternoon we'll either be having a baby...or at my family reunion...either way should be an exciting day.

And, for those of you who wonder just how big I am...here is a picture from last Wednesday when my friend did my maternity pictures. (More to come)