Well, that was unexpected . . .

Last week at my non-stress test, the nurses asked if I was supposed to schedule another one for the following week. I said I didn’t know, but to go ahead and schedule it and I’d cancel if my doc thought it unnecessary. However, my doc thought that we should do it again, "just to be on the safe side." I was a tad surprised since each test is the same - the babe does very, very well, his heart rate always elevates appropriately during periods of movement and I get a lot of "very goods" and "excellents". So, I resigned myself that I’d have to lay there for another half an hour of extreme boredom while I attempted to read at an odd angle and not be too annoyed at the discomfort of laying in one position for all that time. In addition, I was going to have to go it alone this week - the Husband would not be able to arrive until the doctor’s appointment, an hour later. As I lay there on Wednesday, thankful that I had worn pants this time, I had quite a long contraction. A very long contraction. However, I’ve been having fairly long contractions, at irregular intervals, for sometime now. Most memorably, last week on Thursday and Friday when I thought that perhaps "this was it!" until they petered out to a disappointing nothing. The nurse came in and said, "You are having a really long contraction. Are you feeling it?" I said that I was. It didn’t feel great, but it certainly wasn’t the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. And I was using my relaxation techniques, which helped. She poked my belly and said, "Stop that!" Another nurse came in to review the data and said, "Um, that was a very long contraction and your baby’s heart rate has decreased, considerably. We need to do a sonogram, right now." I was then whisked into the sonogram room, with my shoes in my hands, and she fired up the sonogram machine and started looking around. The baby was moving appropriately and his heart rate seemed again, normal. She asked if I was leaking fluid. Now, here’s the thing - I have had some leakage - but I haven’t been sure if it was just, um, urine (yuck) or if it was, in fact, amniotic fluid. I really couldn’t tell - but I tried the old, "lay down for sometime, and then get up - if you feel a rush of fluid, it’s likely amniotic." But that didn’t happen - I had to imagine that I was becoming, shudder, incontinent upon occasion. But just a trickle! And maybe only once or twice. And only with sneezing! Anyway, they then had me wait until the doctor, a fellow, arrived, to discuss what had happened. The Husband then arrived, and I filled him in on the details. The Fellow explained that during the contraction, because it was so long, the oxygen had decreased enough to make it difficult for the baby to breathe, causing him distress, and thus, his heart rate slowed. I didn’t think to ask to what level. I think I may have been too scared to know. The husband asked how long the contraction was and we were told that it lasted seven minutes. She proceeded to tell us that if I were her patient, she would feel that everything was fine now and not too worry - but she had a call out to my doctor. My doctor, who happened to be in labor and delivery, wanted me there, on a fetal heart rate monitor for another hour. It was strange to walk in there without actually being in labor. I also found out that in fact, although we’d been told that we were pre-registered, we were not. Good to know. When they printed out the hospital wrist band , I noted that I was apparently under the care of my RE and told the staff at the desk that he’d likely be pretty surprised that he was delivering me. They weren’t amused. They strapped me in, I read, we joked around with the nursing staff, and I tried not to feel too terrified. My doc came in, read the results and said that it was "textbook perfect" and sent me home. However, he wants me to do another test today. I am pretty sure that if the test wasn’t going well that they would have done a C-section. Right then. Right there. I didn’t think to ask about the after-effects of the decrease in the bambino’s heart rate. Could this have damaged him in some way? Permanently? Brain damage? Heart issues? I was too shell-shocked to ask anything. I was just there - the most compliant patient in the world. It’s amazing what fear does.