Guess! Who's! Vertex!
Jan. 30th, 2009 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaThis is a story that starts out a little scary and has a happy ending.
My midwives have never asked me to keep "kick counts," but I definitely have a strong sense of when I expect Niblet to move, and how much. His most active time of day is right around when I go to bed. At 10:30 or 11, I expect a good 10-15 minutes of active kicking and rolling - enough to make the surface of my belly ripple visibly.
Last night? A couple of mild kicks, and that was it. So this morning I was more alert than usual for fetal movement, and again, there was much less than I expected. Putting a bag of frozen broccoli on my belly for a minute or so didn't wake him up. Eventually, after much inward focus, I felt a couple of slight, subtle movements. Enough to reassure me that he wasn't dead, but not enough to reassure me that nothing was wrong. It was weird. And scary.
I called the midwife on call, and she had me go to the Center for Advanced Fetal Care at the hospital - where I'd just been on Tuesday. They did a biophysical profile, which is a combination of an ultrasound to assess the baby's "practice breathing," movement, muscle tone, and amniotic fluid level, and a nonstress test using an external fetal monitor to identify appropriate heart rate accelerations with movement.
And! Pretty much as soon as she started the ultrasound it was clear that Niblet has turned head-down, just as he's supposed to be. His feet are up by my right ribs. We've canceled the external version scheduled for Tuesday - I'm just supposed to go to my regular midwife appointment on Wednesday to have his position checked again. I can't believe I didn't feel him flip!
He passed the biophysical profile with flying colors. It was hard for the nurse to get him moving - she had to do a lot of repeated jabbing and pushing with the ultrasound wand and roll me from side to side a few times - so it wasn't just my imagination that he was less responsive than usual. But once he did move, he looked great. The nurse's theory is that I felt such a strong difference in his movements because he's moved head-down and is in a more natural, comfortable position.
I am so! Relieved! I cannot even begin to tell you. I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for a C-section - and then, this morning, I was quite genuinely scared by the drop in apparent movement. I am SO HAPPY that he is all right, looking well, and VERTEX.
Also, apparently I'm contracting much more than I realized. My contractions are painless and mild, but during the nonstress test they were happening every 3.5 to 5 minutes. This doesn't mean anything with respect to labor imminency, but it's certainly a good sign that my body is preparing itself.
My midwives have never asked me to keep "kick counts," but I definitely have a strong sense of when I expect Niblet to move, and how much. His most active time of day is right around when I go to bed. At 10:30 or 11, I expect a good 10-15 minutes of active kicking and rolling - enough to make the surface of my belly ripple visibly.
Last night? A couple of mild kicks, and that was it. So this morning I was more alert than usual for fetal movement, and again, there was much less than I expected. Putting a bag of frozen broccoli on my belly for a minute or so didn't wake him up. Eventually, after much inward focus, I felt a couple of slight, subtle movements. Enough to reassure me that he wasn't dead, but not enough to reassure me that nothing was wrong. It was weird. And scary.
I called the midwife on call, and she had me go to the Center for Advanced Fetal Care at the hospital - where I'd just been on Tuesday. They did a biophysical profile, which is a combination of an ultrasound to assess the baby's "practice breathing," movement, muscle tone, and amniotic fluid level, and a nonstress test using an external fetal monitor to identify appropriate heart rate accelerations with movement.
And! Pretty much as soon as she started the ultrasound it was clear that Niblet has turned head-down, just as he's supposed to be. His feet are up by my right ribs. We've canceled the external version scheduled for Tuesday - I'm just supposed to go to my regular midwife appointment on Wednesday to have his position checked again. I can't believe I didn't feel him flip!
He passed the biophysical profile with flying colors. It was hard for the nurse to get him moving - she had to do a lot of repeated jabbing and pushing with the ultrasound wand and roll me from side to side a few times - so it wasn't just my imagination that he was less responsive than usual. But once he did move, he looked great. The nurse's theory is that I felt such a strong difference in his movements because he's moved head-down and is in a more natural, comfortable position.
I am so! Relieved! I cannot even begin to tell you. I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for a C-section - and then, this morning, I was quite genuinely scared by the drop in apparent movement. I am SO HAPPY that he is all right, looking well, and VERTEX.
Also, apparently I'm contracting much more than I realized. My contractions are painless and mild, but during the nonstress test they were happening every 3.5 to 5 minutes. This doesn't mean anything with respect to labor imminency, but it's certainly a good sign that my body is preparing itself.
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Date: 2009-01-30 05:57 pm (UTC)