Yesterday, we had our weekly appointment to check on Grei. The doctor was listening to his heart and decided to send us over to triage because she heard a dip in his rate. I was excited because that meant that we were going to get an ultrasound and see him for the first time in 22 weeks. They hooked us up to the monitoring machine in triage and then someone came to wheel the bed to the ultrasound room which was on the floor below us. I felt like a patient - it was kind of fun being wheeled around a hospital on a bed. They also had cool painted tiles on the ceiling which you would never know were there unless you were in my position. The ultrasound went well, he has a great heart and we were able to see his kidneys, spleen, and gall bladder as well. The nurse showed us that he has hair - more on the back of his head than on the top. His cute little hands were both up by his face which is facing my right hip. His amniotic fluid levels looked good. The only thing that he didn't do for the nurse was breathe - I know he practices cause he gets hiccups at least one to three times a day every day.
Once we were transferred back upstairs, we were hooked up to the monitoring machine again to listen to his heart rate and to try and pick up what Dr. Putenat was hearing during our appointment. He seemed to be doing fine but every once in awhile his rate would drop down around 90 bpm and then go back up to around 130/140bpm.
All of the sudden a nurse comes in and is tearing open a bag with an oxygen mask in it and putting it on me telling me "sweetie, your baby is not doing so hot" Then she grabs a gown and has me take off my shirt to put it on. The next thing I know, there are two nurses and two doctors in there. The second nurse tells me that I might as well get comfortable cause there is no way I am going home and that I need to prepare for an emergency c-section. She comments that I am handling this so calmly unless I am hiding being scared. I wasn't - I just didn't see the big emergency that they did. The second nurse put an subcutaneous catheter in the back of my wrist. The doctor looked at the pattern of his heart rate while feeling Grei kick and I saw her face change from deep concern to amusement. She said that no baby who moves this much is in trouble. He has a lower standing heart rate and his movements were raising his heart rate making the patterns look scary, like his rate was dropping/crashing. She said it was like a rorschach test where if you look at the pattern one way, it is really bad but that if you look at it another way, it is actually an extremely healthy sign. She had the nurse inject my leg with Terbutaline Sulfate to stop the contractions (I couldn't feel them) that I was having so that Grei's heart rate would not be effected by the contractions. He stabilized and they kept us there for another couple of hours just to make sure all was well before sending us home. Before we left, the doctor came in to apologize for causing us concern. I am just thankful that she was experienced enough to see what was going on and that I didn't have to have an emergency c-section.
