Wednesday, August 11, 2010

41 weeks: A Baby Update!

Today marks 41 weeks of pregnancy, but more importantly 1 week OVERDUE! Overall I have been feeling fairly well and am still keeping a positive attitude about things. I do have low back pain, swollen feet and hands, bad heartburn, and major trouble sleeping at night but I guess that goes with the territory. I will happily trade it all for a happy healthy baby very soon! As part of the routine testing for "late" people like me, I had an appointment today for a non-stress test and an ultrasound. The non-stress test consists of two monitors hooked up to the belly (see pic below) for about half an hour. One measures the baby's heart rate and the other measures uterine contractions. They also gave me a little Jeopardy-like clicker to push each time the baby moves. Although I had absolutely zero contractions, little Reese's heart rate was awesome and she had plenty of accelerations! The doctor even commented about how "beautiful" the print out was and what a "happy" girl she must be!
The ultrasound came next! I was most excited for this because I've only had 2 "real" ultrasounds throughout the pregnancy, one at 8 weeks, and one at 20 weeks. Around 13 weeks I bribed a cardiologist I work with at the hospital to take a peak too (but that didn't count)! Mostly I just wanted to confirm that she was "she" and not a "he"... Something I've had nightmares about! I still haven't taken off tags to most our clothes or bedding in case our little girl comes out a boy. Back from that tangent... The real purpose of the ultrasound was to check amniotic fluid levels and again everything looked "excellent" according to the doctor. Normally at this point in pregnancy a level of 5 is good for fluid levels, and my average was 11! Yay! So with all good outcomes to the tests our plan is to go back on Friday and do the same tests again just to make sure everyone is still healthy. Assuming it is we'll go back Monday and discuss induction!
Fingers crossed we make it through Saturday (at least) to be in the Lockhart wedding!!

{My view of the non-stress test}

{Non-stress test machine, heart rate on top, contractions on bottom}


No comments:

Post a Comment