NST

I learned yesterday what NST stands for. After waiting FOREVER to see my dr (he had a woman in labor), he checked the baby's heart rate (hovers around 140) and then told us we would be heading over the the hospital to have a NST. We asked him a few questions which had been on our minds since he told us he will probably deliver me early. He said we aren't talking weeks...so that's good. This will give her the time she needs to continue to develop. He is thinking only a week in advance. So we asked why he wanted to take her early. Part of it is to make sure she doesn't get too big and another part I think has to do with concerns that the fluid surrounding the baby can sometimes deminish with gest. diabetics. They had a lady in my same situation come in this week for her check up and found that the baby didn't have enough fluid around and they had to immediately send her over and enduce her. I think she was 2-3 weeks early. So this is another reason why the frequent ultrasounds are necessary. I have one next week and Dr. Riley will review it afterwards.

So we headed over the the hospital and I sat in a triage room for my NST or Non-Stress Test. They wrapped a fetal heart monitor around my belly and another monitor on top of my uterus to check for contractions and that was it. I laid there for what was supposed to be only 30 min. and ended up being at least an hour. Ben was so bored. They wanted to see an "active" period on the baby. Basically they wanted to see the baby's heart beat jump up. They also wanted to see if my uterus was contracting any. They didn't mention anything about it so I'm assuming that no it is not. We couldn't get Alli to be "active" since she's my little night owl. Dr. Riley wanted them to give me something to drink to get Alli moving. I told them that caffeine was a sure fire way to get her stirred up. So they gave me some diet coke. I'm not a fan of diet anything because of taste. But my dr appointment was at 11am and all I'd had all day was breakfast so I was starving and thirsty. So maybe that made it more appealing but I drank it very quickly without any problem. Not 5 minutes passed before that girl was going nuts! She was flipping so much that the heart monitor kept losing her heart beat. At one point her heart beat went up to 180. I think they got what they wanted. We kept laughing at her.

Anyway, I get to do this all over again next week... and the next...and the next... Next week will be really boring though because Ben will be on the trek. So at 9:30am Friday morning I have ultrasound, blood sugar check at Dr. DeRoche, follow up with Dr. Riley and then hospital for NST. WOO HOO! I can't wait for my insurance to see all this! This all makes me so thankful for Ben's job. The Lord is and always has truly blessed us. I just don't know how else we could do all this.

Tomorrow is the baby shower and I am totally excited! Marilyn's gift came in the mail the other day and we set it up!! Slowly but surely we are getting there. 4 more weeks of work...I can make it..I think.