Peeper Report: 31 Weeks 6 Days

Update 10:00 pm: Photos posted below!

I know it's only been five days since my last report, but I had appointments with both the OB and the perinatologist this morning. 

(My normal Wednesday schedule at the perinatologist will be all wacky for the next few weeks, as my regular guy will be out for the Jewish holidays, so we have to go on different days and see different doctors.)

The main take-away from both appointments is that all's well, and Peeper is looking great, but she did try to make it a bit more exciting for us than usual. 

Yesterday I was having quite a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, around the time that we were working on the border in the nursery. 

After the first few (not painful, not regular, not very close together) I did drink a few glasses of Kool-Aid (sweetened in whichever way you're not going to freak out about), but did not lay down. 

By the time Shrike's dad left, this had been going on for a couple of hours, so I reported it to Shrike, and did lay down for thirty minutes or so. 

Things seemed to settle down, but they didn't go away completely, so after having some lunch (prepared by my lovely, doting, semi-freaking-out wife), I called my OB's office, just for some reassurance. 

One of the doctors called back pretty quickly, and of course he said everything was fine, but to take it easy, and if they intensified to call back. 

I didn't stay in bed, but tried to chill out the rest of the evening. I was still contracting every now and then, especially when I was up and doing things (Like helping to reassemble a changing table. Oops.) but still very random and not painful. 

This morning, I woke up early, and lay in bed trying to go back to sleep while Peeper was dancing around like a crazy-baby. 

I was beginning to thing she'd invited some friends over, there was so much action going on in there!

At my OB appointment, I talked to the doctor (one of the OBs this time, but not one I'd met before) about the contractions, and she basically said, "That's your uterus' way of telling you to go sit down and rest." 

I also (standard at this point in the pregnancy) filled out hospital registration forms and signed the "consent to deliver" form, which basically says it's okay for them to do what's necessary to get Peeper out safely when the time comes, including episiotomy, forceps, vacuum, c-section, etc. 

As the doctor said, "This is giving us permission to get the baby out, by hook or by crook." 

I signed it, of course, but did mention that I'd like to avoid all those things, if at all possible!

I was scheduled to have a non-stress test tomorrow morning, but they asked if I'd like to go ahead and do it since I was there. They were running on schedule (this is not at all a given) so I had plenty of time to get to OldWorkTown for the perinatologist, and decided that made sense. 

A non-stress test basically involves strapping two monitors to my belly - one to measure any contractions (there were none during the test) and the other to measure Peeper's heart rate. They also gave me a little button to click when I felt her move. 

(It was amazing how many other movements we could hear (along with her heartbeat) that I wasn't feeling.)

What they want to see is that when she moves around, her heart rate goes up. 

(Just like any other person, really.)

At first, she was being pretty quiet (resting after her calisthenics from earlier, I'm sure), so they turned me on my side and had me drink some water. 

That woke her up a bit, but she still wasn't as "reactive" as they'd like, and there were actually some decelerations of her heart rate. 

They tech mentioned that one possible cause of that is the cord being compressed for any of a number of reasons. 

(Including, it seems, that the kid is sitting on it, until she moves and she's not any more. Or, perhaps, chewing on it, is it looked like she was doing last week!)

The OB came in and looked at the trace from the monitor, and said that, based on what she was seeing, she needed to actually examine me. 

After asking a few questions, I found out that another possible reason for decelerations is that the baby is "moving down" and that, combined with the contractions I'd been having, was reason enough to check and make sure that I wasn't dilating. 

Needless to say, that got my attention. 

As it turns out, though, I'm not dilating or effacing at all, so whew! 

The doctor wrote up a summary of her findings, and sent me off to the perinatologist, as already scheduled. 

I called Shrike to catch her up, trying not to freak her out too much, ordered up some snacks from home and asked her to meet me at our designated car-leaving place.  

(She'd slept in, since I didn't need her for a "routine" OB appointment. Later, she said, "I thought it was safe to send you over there alone!")

When we got to the perinatologist's office, I gave them the note, so they'd know what was going on. 

The sonographer had lots of questions about what the OB had said, but I really didn't have much more information beyond what she'd written down. 

After waiting forever for the computer to boot up, we got started with the scanning. They did not do the whole measurement thing, since we were just there a few days ago, so we don't have an update on her size, but as I've already said, everything that they did look at was just fine. 

She is head-down today, which at first was preventing them from getting a good look at my cervix, but later the sonographer was able to nudge her little noggin out of the way, and see that everything looks just as it should be down there, with no signs of dilation. 

Peeper was also being much more forthcoming with the cuteness today, and we got some great 3D photos of her face (with no cord in the way - although, she does appear to be wearing it like a boa, but they said it's loose and the blood flow in it is great, so no worries there), her hands and her little ear.

When we saw her ear, I asked for a photo of it. The sonographer said, "We don't get a lot of requests for ears." Shrike then ratted me out for having a bit of an ear thing. Thanks, honey.

Between the 3D and 2D images, we saw her practice breathing, opening her mouth, sticking her tongue out at us, trying to shove her entire hand in her mouth, and sucking her thumb, in addition to lots of other movement. 

The sonographer and the perinatologist (not our regular guy) were both very happy with her movements, and seemed particularly pleased with the breathing and sucking stuff. 

(Both being skills that come in quite handy on the outside, you know.)

I'll have another non-stress test next Monday, and another ultrasound on Tuesday. 

And, of course, you'll hear all about it.