Monday my midwife checked my belly and she says baby is definitely head down. She helped me feel for myself so I would know what to look for as I check my belly in the days ahead. Lindy seems confident that baby is fairly engaged and that as she continues to grow, it will be more difficult to change out of her head down position. I certainly feel more pressure and discomfort, which is a good thing.
At my nonstress test on Saturday, in talking with my nurse, I discovered she's been at Alta Bates for 40 years. She worked with both Beah and Lindy, my former and current midwives as they were training. She also worked with Peggy Vincent, a midwife in the Bay Area who wrote Baby Catcher, a book I recently reread. I was excited to hear Bonnie share that Peggy has written another book of birth stories. I immediately bought it, and reading it is helping me to envision myself giving birth again.
My Wenesday test wasn't so non-stressful. Even though the nurse commented that baby passed the test early in the allotted timeframe, they had to monitor her for the full 20 minutes At the very end, for some unexplained reason, her heart rate decreased from the normal range. And then, in my ultrasound, we found out that the baby is no longer head down, but oblique. Oblique is halfway between transverse and head down. Because of my history and the baby's heart rate, we proceeded to the next step: a bio physical profile, which is a 30 minute ultrasound in which they check for baby's movement, the tone of movement, the fluid, and whether or not baby is practicing breathing.
Even though she was super active during the nonstress monitoring, baby went into a sleep cycle the moment the ultrasound started, it seemed. She did her movement all toward the end, her heart was fine, but she never practiced those breathing movements.
So, the perinatalogist was called for advice. They requested that I come back the very next day for additional monitoring. We returned to perfectly normal test results, and are scheduled to return on Saturday. I appreciate the extra thoroughness and caution with monitoring this baby, but it certainly has me on edge.
My midwife isn't too worried about the baby's position. She says oblique is better than transverse and as the baby gets heavier and larger, gravity will pull her to the right position, and there just won't be space anymore for these antics! My regular ultrasounds will help us be aware of baby's position.
I had another one on Saturday. The tech quickly announced that baby is head down. I had some trouble believing her, but I saw it myself and am hoping for the best in my following appointments.
Lane and I took a last Costco run before baby comes, sticking up on everything. I have also started organizing the homeschool room and kitchen cabinets which the baby won't care about at all, but I suppose this means some sort of nesting is kicking in, even though most of my house is a giant mess still.
Last night, just for a very brief moment, I saw myself holding our baby girl in our home. It was just a tiny vision, but it happened. All this time, my heart and my brain have been too terrified to picture life after this baby arrives and it has been impossible to envision. We just want her so badly...what if something terribly wrong happens again. So this was a big deal for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment