Baby Update

So, I realized I haven't posted anything about the baby that is on the way. I guess we've been really busy with other things, like holidays and Madison that this poor little one is kind of on the back burner. Sadly I don't even have any belly pics to go with this post. I keep telling Mahlon we need to take some and we will, some day when we have time (maybe on the way out the door to the hospital! j/k! Anyway, I figured I better write a little bit for journaling purposes and for those who are interested. I am now 33 weeks and 1 day along (I'm due January 11) So far everything had been great and routine, but the last two weeks we've had some events. Every time I go in for a check up they measure me and I measure small so the last visit I had my Dr. told me she wanted to do another ultrasound to check the babies growth (Picture is from ultrasound, her hands were covering her face). So we went in and although everything looked symmetrical, the baby was measuring round 29 weeks and I was 31 and in the lower 10th percentile of normal baby growth. When this happens they are concerned that perhaps the baby is not getting enough nutrients from the placenta or is under some other stress causing it not to grow. Or, it could be that mom is small. Which is obviously true. They are having me go in again for another ultrasound in a week or so to make sure that the baby is still growing at least at the same rate and hasn't dropped into a lower percentile range. Meanwhile, my doctor had me start doing Non-stress tests twice a week until I deliver. I have to get hooked to monitors and they monitor the babies movements for 20-30 min. They look for 4 accelerations, or movements in that time period and check the heart rate. If the baby is moving and the heart looks good then its a good sign that the baby is healthy. During this they also monitor contractions. In addition to this I have an ultrasound once a week to check on the amniotic fluid levels. So last week was my first one and I was thinking it was all unnecessary because everything was checking out great, baby's great, I'm great, fluid is great so I'm thinking "Why do you have me coming in all the time, if everything is great?" I was frustrated because it was more of nuance to go to the hospital take two hours (including travel and check in) of my day AFTER Mahlon was home from work so that he could stay with Madison when everything looks great. But then, I went last night for the second time and although baby looked great- after sitting there for 30 minutes the nurse comes in, looking very concerned, and says "I may have to send you to OB Triage, you're only 33 weeks and you're contracting every 3-4 minutes" I was a little surprised to hear this because I wasn't even aware I was having that many contractions. I got a little freaked out thinking "What if I'm in labor and don't even know it?-I can't have a baby yet!" (I had been joking about being done being pregnant, but obviously I was not serious!) So sure enough I kept having contractions so the nurse took me upstairs to OB Triage and I had to have an exam and a test done to check for an enzyme that your body creates in preparation for labor. A positive result would say "you will have a baby in the next two weeks" and a negative result will say "you won't have a baby yet, at least not in the next two weeks" Thankfully my cervix was very closed, meaning the contractions were not changing my cervix so I wasn't in pre-term labor, just having pre-term contractions, also, good news my test came back negative so Baby will not be coming in the next two weeks either. Unfortunately, in order for me to go home, they needed the contractions to stop so I had to get a shot of medication to relax my uterus. It worked right away and I didn't have one for about 20 minutes and then I had two more so I had to get a second shot and that time I didn't have any more so they sent me home. A 4:30 apt. that should have been 30minutes long ended up being 3 hours and I left about 7:30pm. What a scare! After last night (and talking to the nurse a little about why I was coming in all the time) made me understand a little bit better why my Dr. has me going in for these tests. I don't feel so frustrated about going, I only hope that I don't have to go through all that again and that I can go back to "everything looks great!" results until I'm a little further along. Other than having a pre-term labor scare everything has been fine and I feel great! And I'm a little more willing to stay pregnant for a little bit longer.