A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Apparently not staying IN without a fight

What a day this has been. I had an NST (non stress test) and an OB appt. scheduled for today. The NST was scheduled first and since all of my other appts. have been just fine and the hospital is a 45-60 minute drive away, I told Stephen just to stay home with Maddie since the appts. fell into Maddie's nap schedule. Was planning on stopping at the walmart for some things on the way home after the appts. So I go in for the NST, get hooked up, lounge back in the recliner, and prepare for 20 minutes of relaxation. 12 minutes into the NST I started feeling very hot, skin was clammy, started with a cold sweat, and started to feel light headed. Thinking that the baby was laying on a blood vessel that runs down my back, I rolled to my left side. The nurse that was with me kept the monitor on the baby and watched the heart rate. I wasn't starting to feel any better even after rolling off of my back and the baby's heart rate started to go down. It dipped down to the 80's and 90's and stayed there for about 3 minutes. Then the baby moved and we lost the tracing all together. The nurse went to get a doctor and another nurse and then came right back. I could feel baby moving, so I knew it was ok, but they were having trouble finding the heart beat with the monitor. They finally found it and traced it for a little while and all seemed fine again. The doctor ordered an ultrasound (which we weren't originally going to do today) and something called a BPP.....bio-physical profile. It looks at the baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, "breathing", and amniotic fluid level. After everything is done, the baby gets a grade....the highest grade is 10. Baby gets either 0 or 2 points for each of the five areas that the BPP looks at. Baby passed all of the areas of the BPP EXCEPT the heartrate (because of the NST). The doctor wanted to watch baby a little longer, so instead of going to my OB appt., I had to be taken upstairs to the L&D triage. Yay. ...so I'm wheeled up there, get into a hospital gown (my favorite thing in the whole wide world....NOT!), and plant myself onto the triage table. The very nice nurse hooks me up to the monitors and starts asking me questions for her report. About 10 minutes later all of the questions are answered and I realize I'm starting to feel hot again. I warn the nurse that this is exactly how I felt before all of this trouble started. She sat me up a little, gave me a magazine to fan myself with, and left to get some ice chips for me to eat. She no sooner left the room and I started to feel light-headed again, so I pressed the nurse buzzer and a girl came in to help me. She laid me down more, had me roll off of my back (again in case baby was laying on that blood vessel), and called for another nurse to help her out. My blood pressure was taken (90/64...too low) and they noted that baby's heart was 'decelling' again. 4 minutes later things were looking fine again, but it was clear that I was going to need to be monitored for a while longer. An IV was put in...and I must say that the IV nurse who put it in did very good as I am a horrible stick. We called Stephen to come to the hospital and then they started pumping fluids into me. 1,000 mls in 20 minutes....VERY cold fluid which felt soooooo good after that awful hot feeling. I was sure that this would be our ticket to having this kid today instead of waiting until Wednesday!!! Nope. About an hour and a half later my monitoring showed nothing unusual, a nice steady heartrate....although baby wasn't really moving that much....the attending Ob came in and said that they were sending me home. ...wonderful... she asked if I was hungry which I thought was very nice seeing as it was about 4:30 and I hadn't eaten since 11am. She said that they would order a tray for me and that after I ate I could go home. Not more than 5 minutes later in walks Stephen. I felt kind of bad since he had just driven the 45 minutes to the hospital and now we were just going to turn around and leave again. So, I ate my turkey sandwich, applesauce, ice cream, and muffin and drank my apple juice and then the doctor came back in and said they wanted to do one more test before I went home. So, back into the wheel chair I go and was taken back down to the MFM office for a doppler reading. The ultrasound tech explained to me that they saw the umbilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck (something not uncommon at all) and that they just wanted to look at the blood and oxygen flow through the cord. She did 4 or 5 different shots and said that all of the numbers looked really good.....even for as far along as I am. She said the good numbers indicate that the cord isn't wrapped around too tightly and that most likely the decelerations were caused by the baby rolling a little onto it's cord and squishing it a little. Since that test came back fine I was allowed to come home, but have to go back in on Monday instead of Tuesday to be monitored again....and of course if anything weird starts happening I have to call and go in right away this weekend. Personally, I think baby is ready to come out....and if I was a doc in the triage I would have seen that the c-section was scheduled for Wednesday and would have just done it today to avoid further complication. BUT...I'm not a doctor...I'm just the mommy. :wink: But if this happens again on Monday I am sooooo pushing to get this baby out then!

So, that is my story.....and I'm stickin' to it. :)

You have had a very busy day. I'm sorry you still have to wait. It all sounds a lttle scary to me and I've had several children. You have all of my best wishes for an uneventful (and soon) birth, Jenn.
I haven't posted much but read often. You are doing a very good job. And write entertainingly about it all.

Hi Jenn,
I'm with Tina... sounds like a scary day to me too- of course I had my kids before they had all these tests... I never even had an ultrasound... sounds like they are determined to keep you waiting but baby may have other ideas...
get some rest and will be praying for you all.
Nana

Tina, I try very hard to keep a positive outlook on everything that happens. ...after loosing soo many babies I really don't have a choice! The nurse that was with me thought I was rather funny also. After everything happened in the triage, the nurse said to me "no more making trouble!" "Hey, it wasn't me! I'm the one OUT of the womb" I said. She had a good laugh. On our way out of the L&D department we told the girls at the desk that we'd see them next week....they all just laughed.

A positive attitude will help you through tough times, I've found. Silver linings can be found a lot of places if they are looked for. And humor carries me through some of the worst times. Sometimes people have a hard time understanding that. But it helps me and a few others. We've been collecting jokes (mostly medical ones) for John to share with his oncology nurses at chemo and his hospice nurses at home. It is a fun pastime inside a not so fun time.

jenn, what a tale you will have to tell on this kid! i'm happy for you that all is well and you are maintaining but sad that you are having to go through it. hang in there girl, it's almost over

Well, I got pretty much no sleep at all last night. I kept waking up and waiting for the baby to move (which it doesn't do much of at this point anyways). I'd get up and go to the bathroom and poke my belly a few times. I'd get a kick and then go back to bed. This morning....well....this afternoon, when I got up I made the most chocolaty glass of chocolate milk imaginable....the kid is rockin' in there now!