On Tuesday, we went to the hospital for our first non-stress test (NST) with Baby Girl. The testing went fairly well. She was quite relaxed that morning, so it took a while to enough movement and heart rate increases to meet the test criteria (about 6 movements within an hour where each movement results in a heart rate increase of at least 15 beats).
Amniotic fluid was measuring a little low in the initial ultrasound, so I was sent over to have the ultrasound done by a sonographer who has more accurate equipment. The fluid level was still within an acceptable range (7), but dropping under 6 would mean an earlier c-section.
Our next appointment was scheduled for Friday morning. My goal was to get the amniotic fluid level up by the next NST appointment so that our daughter would get as much time as possible to develop. Although, she is considered full-term, every extra day she has in the womb goes to developing her brain and lungs. Every extra day we can give her is important.
I spent the days between Tuesday and Friday, keeping my water intake around 160oz of water per 24 hours. I normally drink a lot of water and when I got my cold, my water intake went up to 256oz. I think, I was coming close to dehydrating myself. I decided to stay close to 160 and to add 20oz of Gatorade to replenish electrolytes. I also meditated with positive words and focused my thoughts on building up amniotic fluid. And I prayed.
On Thursday, I had an OB check-up. My vitals remain good and I gained 3 pounds. My doctor also found that I am 2cm dilated. Baby is still high up, so she hasn't dropped yet. So far, so good.
This morning, Matt and I returned to the hospital for our second NST appointment. Baby started moving before we even got started testing. The ultrasound results were great. Amniotic fluid was up to 8!
The NST results were also good, but boy did it take a long time to get her baseline heart rate. It took almost 2 hours for Baby Girl to calm down. I had eaten a big breakfast, hoping to give her the extra energy she seemed to lack during Tuesday's test. Oh, my! She wriggled and shifted and rolled and kicked and moved her arms all around for nearly 2 hours. During the testing she also had the hiccups.
The maternity triage area was super busy today, so people were coming in and out of the testing area and every time a monitor made noise, she was kicking and rolling again. She even got excited when she heard the voice of a male staff member talking a few feet away. At one point, a patient came in with her toddler-aged daughter and I was hoping, hoping, Baby could not hear her talking, because when she hear Adam talks she gets really animated. Finally, things seemed to settle down a bit in triage and our baby girl settled down, too. We're happy to have an active little girl and a healthy one.
My doctor mentioned that based on our ultrasound last week, little girl is measuring in the 64th percentile.
Our third NST appointment is on Tuesday.
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