First NST and Fluid Check

Well, as I believe I mentioned in a previous post, I am now scheduled for weekly Non-Stress Tests (NST's) and ultrasounds to check my fluid levels.  This is due to the GD, and the fact that babies can start to show distress due to the effects of the GD.  They check the fluid levels because if the baby gets big, sometimes they can start pushing fluid out..... which is not good!

Well, my first NST and fluid u/s was last Thursday.  It's in the same building as Dr. B's office - the same building I will deliver in - so I know this location well!  The fluid ultrasound was quick, and definitely a lower quality machine than the others I've seen..... but an ultrasound is an ultrasound - fun to get a peek at our son! :-)  The tech measured the amount of fluid he could see, and pointed out Colby's head and a couple other parts for me.  At the end, he had a cool shot of his spine, and kinda zoomed out (when I said - "ooh that's cool").  He laughed because Colby had his head totally craned back (think extending it / pushing it as far back as to arch his back as humanly possible).  Yup..... that's my lil' stinker.  Trying as hard as possible to get that massive melon down low, and to push on my bladder and other parts as much as possible! ;-)

He said my fluid levels looked great.  I forget what the unit of measurement is, and quite frankly what the number was, but I want to say around a 23 (which means nothing to me.... other than the fact it was at like a 16.5 or something on Monday at my growth scan ultrasound).  Apparantly that's lots of fluid, though, 'cause the tech said something about it, and the nurse who came to get me for the NST also made the comment that I had "enough fluid in there for at LEAST one baby".  Good to hear I guess!

The NST went well.  They just strap me onto two monitors - one monitors the baby's heartrate, the other monitors for any contractions.  They want about 20 minutes of solid tracking and then they let me go.  Colby was pretty active at the beginning ('cause I had eaten breakfast right before I headed in), which they like because they like to see what happens to the heartrate when they're moving around, etc.  But then he fell asleep.  Haha.

The nurse ended up coming over and said she needed to try to wake him up.  So she poked, prodded, shook (no joke!) my belly until he was obviously awake.  I told her Jimmy always gives me a hard time for doing what she had just done - she said he shouldn't - that sometimes we just have to wake 'em up to say hi!  After that, he was dancing all over the place!  He was either celebrating being awake, or trying to fight back and revolt.  Either way, I loved it - I love feeling every roll, kick, jab, punch, and hiccup! (yup, the nurse confirmed he had the hiccups when we woke him up - so funny!)

All went well, and I look forward to my appointment this Thursday to say hi to him again!

Oh.... and I just have to say that the timing of me losing my job couldn't have been better.  While it will be a little interesting financially, I can't even imagine having to make these appointments while working,  even more so while working as a nanny.  The specialist is only available to do the NSTs / fluid checks from 8:15am - 3pm, and I have to do those weekly.  My appointments with Dr. B are now every other week, and will soon go to weekly.  It would've been absolutely insane.  I guess sometimes things really do happen for a reason!