A Day at the Office

A day at the doctor's office that is...sigh....and I mean all day.

My appointment for today consistsed of three things: ultrasound, non-stress test, and my regular 37th week exam.

Ultrasound went very well. Got more profile shots of Jack's face. He is growing well. The ultrasound tech. told me that there is a 10% margin of error (high or low) as far as weight goes but these were the figures she would put Jack at this time. He is at the 75th percentile for his gestation, and is anywhere between 6 lbs. 14oz and 7 lbs. 2oz.

37th week exam: not much to report here. I am still 1cm dilated, and 30% effaced. NO changes from last week. However, dilation or how much a woman is dilated is not indicative to when she will go into labor or how easy/hard it will be. Still, I wanted to hear that I was still progressing along. Maybe next week's exam will prove to show more progress.

NST (non-stress test): Last week I had to sit there in room hooked up to the NST machine for 45 minutes (test should take 20 minutes). Today I was hooked up to it for a good 1.5 hours. Jack wasn't doing very much. His heart rate did not very (acceloration/deceloration) but stayed at a constant between 137 - 144. What they wanted to see was accelorations in the 150 - 160 range and for the accelorations to last about 15 seconds minimum.

I was fluctuations in his bpm, but not long enough, or the numbers high enough. The nurse even gave me some fruit juice to see if that would liven things up with Jack. It didn't work. I think this is because I hadn't had a real breakfast before coming to the doctor's office. Just some juice and a sliver of left overs from last night's dinner. I will not make this mistake again.

Finally, they asked me what I'd planned for the rest of the day and if there would be any way I could come back later in the afternoon to do the test again. Forturnately, I was able to skip work altogether. They told me to go home, eat lunch, run a few errandds and/or walk around a bit and come back in the afternoon to do the test again. So that is exactly what I did and I went back to the office.

This time, he was too active from lunch. He kept moving around, so the monitor had to be moved around. Or I'd have to move because my hips hurts, or my sciatic nerve was being pressed on, and then he would move position and the heart monitor would have to be adjusted again.

This went on for the next 2 hours. Finally, the doctor said the NST session was over and I could go home. They didn't see exactly what they wanted to see like last week, but they'd seen enough to assure that Jack was in no danger, and enough variation was seen to show he was being reactive.

My next appointment is 9/14 and 9/22. I am beginning to resent the NST tests.