Today Sucked

What happens when a very active baby just stops moving? Your doctor sends you to the hospital for monitoring.

Today started out rushed. I'm not 100% sure why. It just did. On top of feeling rushed, it was raining. Not just raining, torrential, end of the world type raining. I prepared by wearing layers instead of my ill fitting rain coat and sneakers instead of tractionless flip flops. Jack had his rain coat on and I planned on carrying him to the car. I got soaked in the 20 feet from the door to the car. My shoes, pants, and top shirt got soaked through. Joy. On top of the daily stresses, we are singing our refinancing papers this week.

Had to wait for Todd to bring me new shoes and my ill fitting rain coat. I was out of gas in my car. I had to stop for gas, traffic piled up, and I was forced to take a back route to Jack's daycare; a route I had never taken before. In the torrential rain shower.

Did I mention it was raining? Hard? Yes? Well imagine it 4 times as bad as I'm describing and you'll only begin to realize how hard it was raining. Combined with the fact that I didn't know where I was going, 1/2 the cars on the road didn't have ANY lights on, the roads were flooding over, and yeah. I was stressed. I got Jack to daycare 15 minutes late. I called my doctor's office and let them know I was running behind. Since I was there for a BP check, it's not a problem if I'm late. However, my rushing of course raised my blood pressure. And I realized, I haven't felt the baby move all morning.

Normally, anytime I am in the car, Nina kicks the seatbelt and kicks at the waistband of my pants. She jumps around to music, she moves when I sing. Mornings are the most active part of our day and I realized that I haven't felt her move at all. Okay. Late, stressed, and now my crazy active gymnast is suddenly not moving. WTF?

So, I get to the office, the rain stops, I wait and read a book. My blood pressure is high. Duh. Explained about my morning and then mentioned "oh yeah, I haven't felt the baby move." Every week that I go in, the NP or doctor listen to Nina's heartbeat to make sure she's doing well. Today was no exception. We listened, it was strong and we heard movements, but I just wasn't feeling them. Standard protocol when anything out of the norm happens is to put mom on the NST machine. They couldn't do it at the office because the doctor wasn't there today. They had to send me to the hospital. By this time, it's after 10:30 and just HAD TO BE TODAY. Jack's daycare teacher had an appointment at 1, we had planned ahead of time to have her drop off Jack at home. I had to be home.

I called Todd and we arranged for him to drive home and meet Jack in case I was stuck at the hospital. 27 week gestation babies aren't the best for NST monitoring. They have a lot of space, so they move around a lot. When I was pregnant with Jack, Todd used to come to the appointments with me to chase Jack around with the NST monitor. I figured I would be there a while tracing Nina around.

It turns out that Nina was probably just in a position where I wasn't feeling her move. Right now, she's transverse across my belly and her back was facing outward. It wasn't until I was laying, pressing on her with the monitor for about 20 minutes, that she rolled back over and I could feel her again. As soon as she rolled over and I was able to feel her, my blood pressure dropped from 140/80 to 130/68. HUGE difference.

So yeah, today sucks. After all the stress, I'm starting to get a minor headache. Todd and I are both home waiting for Jack and we will evaluate how I'm feeling before he heads back to work. I have eaten lunch, taken some Tylenol, and am enjoying a nice caffeinated beverage. The sun is shining again, it's warmed up enough that all evidence from this morning's monsoon is nearly dry and I am waiting for naptime so I can relax for a bit.