Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Non-Stress Test


This is the me with the monitors hooked up. You can tell I'm so comfortable. lol My arm is covering most of it because I had to hold it to keep the boys heartbeat on the monitor this time. One strap is for the boy, one is for the girl and one is for my contractions. At the hospital they use a pink and blue one. In my hand I have a button that I push every time I feel them move. The machine to the left of me charts the heart rates, movements, and contractions. Just like adults, when the babies move or are under stress (during a contraction) their heart rates go up. They range quite a bit which is what they want. If one of the babies doesn't react to stress or movement, that's a sign that something is wrong with their nervous system or possibly other issues. I have these tests every Tuesday and Friday and they started at 32 weeks although I had one before that since I was having so many contractions. The doctor has to sign off on them before I leave. The lady who does them noticed how miserable I was today and she said they usually schedule csections on the 38 week mark. She said to make sure I call and get to the doc as soon as I can if I think I'm in labor so the first baby isn't born before they can do a csection. That just scares me. I mean if my water breaks, but otherwise I hope I'll know. I told her I've been feeling sharp pains low in my guts on both sides but I didn't know if that was digestion issues or what. The pain isn't at regular intervals. I think it's just my sore guts or round ligaments. She said to talk to Maternal Fetal tomorrow about how I'm feeling and see what they recommend as far as waiting until 38 unless labor starts. She said, "not that I'm telling you but I'd start walking once you're 36 weeks." lol Nick said I should try going off the meds too. That kinda scares me though, can't we just schedule the csection and skip the labor? lol