Little Man Is SO Grounded

All is well here. No labor yet. Although thanks to the two and a half hours that I spent on the monitor in L&D yesterday, we know that I am having semi-regular contractions and that it is probably only a matter of days (or weeks, or months, really nobody knows) before he decides to make his arrival.

It started Monday night when Little Man didn't get his kick count in. He has been quieting down these past couple of weeks, which the doctor had said was pretty normal as he makes his way into firing position. However, I was still easily able to get those kick counts in, despite the slowing down.

On Monday, at about 10 PM, having pushed and prodded and only gotten a few lazy movements in return, I called the triage nurses and explained what was going on. They had me do the rigamarole of drinking some juice, laying down on my left side, and told me to get ten counts in two hours or come in. We just barely got the ten movements in, but we did, and I went to bed feeling relieved.

Tuesday, he was a bit more active, but again, I didn't get ten movements in an hour. So when we went in for our weekly check up yesterday, I decided to ask Dr. S if this was okay. But before I could even express my concerns, Little Man decided to play hide-and-seek with the doppler. It took Dr. S five minutes (and I am not exaggerating, he timed it) to find a steady heartbeat. Even then, it was lower than it had ever been. I started to panic and told Dr. S about the reduced activity. That combination was enough to win my husband and me first class tickets to L&D for a "half hour" stress test.

They had me drink some root beer to get him riled (and I think to calm me down, I was starting to hyperventilate at this point) and riled he was. It took one and a half hours to establish his baseline heartbeat and several readjustments on the monitor before we could even begin the "half hour" non-stress test. Yeah, Little Man was one of the most active babies they have ever seen. We were all laughing by about a half hour into the test, because it was obvious that nothing was wrong. The L&D nurses were great, however, and didn't make me feel stupid for being so worried. The biggest bonus was getting to hear his lovely heartbeat for that long. After the initial scare (my heart rate was as fast as his), I was able to calm down and be lulled into a bit of relaxation, just listening to that swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.

Of course, it was also interesting to watch the contraction patterns. They are mostly coming about every 10 minutes apart, some fifteen, some 20, but they are what the L&D nurses call "pre-labor" contractions, but not Braxton Hicks. In other words, I am not in labor yet, but my body is definitely getting ready, and they are productive contractions as I am dilating. Although in all of the excitement, I never did get another internal exam. Oh, well, it doesn't really tell us much at this point.

The nurse that helped to discharge us said, "See you soon! Maybe even this weekend!"

I have a few more things checked off my list now. The carpets are being cleaned today and I went on a BRU shopping trip yesterday to get the last few baby knick-knacks that I wanted. Now, it's just a bit of organizing and cooking, and I will be ready.