33 Week Appointment (And a scare)

I wish I could say this week's appointment went swell, but in fact it was one of the scariest appointments I have had to date.

I had been having a very, very, mild headache for the past several days, but nothing to write home about.  The night before my appointment, I walked Vegas and did some stretching exercises from one of my prenatal DVD's.  I felt pretty good, but then Puddin' decided to do some serious shifting, which left me very uncomfortable for the rest of  the night (not sure what he was doing in there, but my stomach got very lopsided for a while, and it hurt.  Hope this means he was turning around!)

My appointment was at 8:15 that morning, so needless to say, I was pooped.  Everything started out normal, until they took my blood pressure.  It was running a little high, which usually doesn't mean anything, since that has happened before and once they take it again it's normal.  So, we moved on and did the usual weigh measurement (gained 3 pounds), measured my belly (perfect), etc.

Then, the doctor pulled out her little heartbeat monitor to check on Puddin's heartbeat.  Usually, this is a fun little moment where you get to hear the baby's heartbeat and rest assured they are plugging away in there.  Today, however, we heard a very noticeable deceleration in his heartbeat, which was scary.  The doctor said that a slight deceleration is normal, but not this low (cue the fear for me).

She said that just to be safe, she wanted to hook me up to a NST (Non-stress test) to monitor me and the baby for about 20-30 minutes to make sure everything was ok.  Keep in mind that I was by myself AND had forgotten my phone at home that day.  So, I was walked back to another room and hooked up to two monitors - one to measure Puddin's heartbeat, and one to see if I was having any contractions.

I was able to stay calm throughout the whole thing, but only by a thread.  It wouldn't have been so bad, except for they keep the sound of the heartbeat booming through a speaker, so you hear every single beat.  Normally, this would be sweet, but when you are afraid of hearing another dip or some type of distress, it's not fun at all.  Every time he would move away from the monitor, the beat would get softer, and then you would wonder if his heart was slowing or what.  It.stunk.

On top of that, they tried to measure my blood pressure a couple more times, and I told them they were crazy if they thought my blood pressure was going to go down anytime soon!  After about 20 minutes, they took the report to the doctor for her to review.  Thanks to God, he was fine and she saw nothing of concern on the printout, except for my blood pressure (which had then gone down to 131/89).

So, after a couple of deep breaths (and a few tears of relief, I will admit), I was sent to have blood work drawn to see if there was any concern for my blood pressure (my urine was completely clear, so it was a bit of a mystery at this point).

I made it back to work, but only stayed for a few hours, then went home and crashed.  I slept for a good three hours once I got home, and I swear it's just what I needed.  I had a call from the doctor later that evening that said my blood work was fine, and that most likely my issues were from exhaustion (seems to be a constant issue throughout all this, huh?)  I still have not grasped the idea of "taking it easy" she said - duh.

So, after all of that, I suppose we both are just fine, and I will chalk all of this up to our doctors being overly careful - which I still appreciate, but geez!

Some stats:

For me:

Weight gained: 3 pounds - told you - haha.  Total pounds gained now is 12, with Puddin' making up a little over 4 pounds of that by now...

Blood Pressure: See above.

Fundal height: Right on track at 33.

For Puddin':

Heartbeat: See above.