The joys of pregnancy

I went into my appointment yesterday (3/23/11) thinking it was going to be fairly regular with nothing much to worry about. I’d been having contractions that were somewhat painful on Monday and Tuesday, so I told the doctor about them and that the baby hadn’t been moving quite as much. She asked if I thought he kicked at least 10 times per hour, to which I replied “absolutely—at least that much.” She said we didn’t necessarily need to do a non-stress test but that we could if it would make us feel better. Tony thought it would make him feel much better, so we went ahead and did the non-stress test.

Michael probably would have passed the test with flying colors if I’d had something to eat before we went in, but since I hadn’t, he didn’t move as much as they would’ve liked (even after some orange juice), so the doctor had to send us over to the hospital for a biophysical profile and an amniotic fluid check … which turned out to be another ultrasound.

Funny thing is, he moves more than I even realize. Apparently, parts of my stomach are numb from being stretched so far and when he kicks in those parts, I can’t feel a thing. I’m not going to lie, it freaked me out a little when Tony and the nurse could see the bottom of my stomach moving but I couldn’t feel ANYTHING! It was so strange.

The Good News
Michael is practicing his breathing (meaning they can see the diaphragm getting larger and smaller as though he’s breathing, but it can’t actually be called breathing since it’s all fluid in there).

His heartbeat looks great.

He is still moving around like crazy and he passed the different movement tests with the ultrasound.

We found out that he currently has hair on his head, which is kind of fun because Bailey was BALD for the first couple years. We could see the hair sticking straight up on his head waving around in the fluid. However, she did say that just because he has it now doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll have it when he’s born because they shed so much before then … Still, it made me start wondering what color it will be when he has it. She said it’s a pretty decent length right now (not really sure what that means, but it kind of makes me think—perhaps illogically—that he’ll still have it when he’s born).

As an aside, I asked what was different in the biophysical profile (BPP) compared to the regular ultrasounds they do in the doctor’s office, and the lady at the hospital told me the BPP has to be read by a radiologist.

The Okay News
He’s not lying quite right. He’s in what they call a transverse lie—meaning his head isn’t down where it’s supposed to be. Instead, his head is above the left side of my pelvis and his bum is up by the right side of my ribs—so kind of angled down diagonally. The radiologist said that sometimes babies in this position won’t go back to the head down position, which would cause a problem if I were going to try natural birth … which I’m not, so it’s really ok, except that it’s kind of painful for me.

He’s also in pike position, as opposed to fetal position, meaning his feet are up beside his face, so he’s kind of folded in half. I asked if that was okay and if it was painful for him, but the radiologist didn’t seem too concerned. She said at one point it looked like he was trying to suck on his toes. Neither the doctor nor the radiologist seemed too concerned about this. The only reason it’s in the “okay” category is because it makes me a little uncomfortable thinking about it. At first, I wondered if that meant his legs don’t bend correctly because in another ultrasound, he was all stretched out where his legs were completely straight. However, I asked the doctor specifically about that, and she assured me that it’s really not uncommon for babies to be in the pike position.

She did warn me that if he stays in that position until birth that his legs will probably stick straight up for a couple hours before his muscles let them come down to a more normal-looking position. Dr. Isaacs said it’s completely fine, and even somewhat amusing if you know ahead of time that it’s okay and nothing is wrong, so I’m glad she told us that.

I have a ton of fluid. I thought that might be the case, since I had so much with Bailey, but I never realized it could be an issue until yesterday. The radiologist told us that it is possible to have too much fluid that causes too much pressure on the baby and could crush the baby. Why she would tell a pregnant woman that is beyond me because I instantly wanted to scream and cry but managed to hold myself together. Dr. Isaacs calmed me down a bit when she called though (have I mentioned I love her?). She said as long as my blood sugar level is good (and it is) that there’s really nothing to be concerned about with the fluid. She said she’s thinking that’s why he’s not head down ready to come out though—because there’s enough fluid that he’s still “swimming around in there.”

Dr. Isaacs also made the comment that she’s actually surprised I am not having more contractions than I am already because I’ve been measuring past due for the last three weeks.

What it all means
More monitoring. I’ll have to have another ultrasound to measure his growth and fluid levels when I go in next Friday (April fool’s day, no less). Dr. Isaacs also said I’d have to do more stress tests if his movement continues to be noticeably lower.

Basically, I went from completely out-of-control stressed back to an everything-will-be-fine mindset. Granted, I’m in much more pain with this one than the last with my scar burning and much more back pain and his kicks to the ribs being more painful (although now I’m wondering if they’re actual kicks or if his entire rear-end is in my ribcage) … but they never did the fundal height measurement with Bailey, so they didn’t have cause to check to see why I was measuring so big … So it’s all probably just the way I carry and I got worked up for nothing. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

Needless to say, I’m finally to the point where I’m ready for him to be here. That way, I can at least see whom I’m worrying about.