39 Weeks

So we have had quite the week with Miss Margaret!

On Saturday we managed to make it to Avatar and made it through the whole movie. We got into the van around 4pm and around 4.15 I had my first contraction. The contractions went from 15 mins apart to 10 mins apart to 5 mins apart and then stayed there. For four hours. Around bedtime the contractions slowed down and I was able to go to bed.

On Sunday we were in nesting/cleaning mode. We ran some errands and got home around 6pm. The contractions started and quickly went from 10 minutes to 2 minutes. We called in the troops! Angie came over to take care of Nik and Julian and we drove Max over to NannyJo. We went into the triage unit of the Labor and Delivery ward and got hooked up to the monitors. And that is when it started to get exciting. They couldn't get Margaret's heart rate on the monitors. So then my heart rate skyrocketed. And they kept picking up mine instead of hers. They put me on an IV and on oxygen and then tried to calm me down so that they could pick up her heart beat. They got it, but then it wasn't normal. Every now and then it would pause.

So we were at the hospital for 6 hours. They did some extra tests. They did a quick sonogram to make sure she was head down (and so therefore they were trying to get a heart beat near her heart). And then they did a more involved sonogram to check her size, movements, and heart. And that came back with the same abnormal heart beat. They decided that she was healthy enough to send us home (I think the other alternative was a C-section so I was happy to go home) and away we went. But before we left the midwife asked me to move my appointment from Wednesday to Tuesday.

I took Monday off to rest and recover and I am glad that I did! Today I went to see the doctor and he checked me out and recommended that I go to the hospital for more tests. He listened to her heart and he also heard the irregularity. He opted to err on the side of caution and called and got me the appointment for this afternoon.

I grabbed some lunch with NannyJo and Max and then headed to the hospital (it is super handy that she lives right by the hospital). The people were really nice. They hooked me up to some monitors and gave me a buzzer. Any time I felt her move I was to press the button (it was a lot like the buzzers for ACE but without the pressure of having to answer a questions about cups with no handles!). We did that for about 20 minutes. The idea is that there is one monitor for her heart and one for my tummy. The one monitor should register movement (and I should be hitting the button) and then the other monitor should show an increase in her heart rate to align with the motion. While I was doing that test, the nurse came by and asked me if I had had a lot of caffeine or chocolate today. I said no, because I hadn't had any of either today (what a sad day). And then she asked if I had eaten a banana. I'm afraid my response was a little overly emphatic. And she said she was asking because she thought she was picking up a heart arrhythmia. I told her that we had concerns about that from Sunday at L&D and from my appointment with my doctor earlier in the day. The next step was another sonogram (I think that is my 8th sonogram this pregnancy). That confirmed that there was enough amniotic fluid and allowed them to also take a closer look at her heart.

The good news is that her heart if perfectly formed. It is totally capable of beating normally. And often it does. But there is a brief pause sometimes. And that pause always happens at the same part of the cycle. So her brain apparently is sending a slightly off signal once in a while to one part of her heart. This is apparently the best kind of abnormal heart beat to have. Because it shows that her heart is not malformed and that it is just one part that is not getting the message clearly. Apparently she could have this for 3 months in the womb with no ill effects (but that will not happen here since she will be out of there in 2 weeks maximum and hopefully less!) and it cures itself 98% of the time with no outside interference.

So although it is quite scary for me, it is not a problem.

I have to track her kicks every day now, just to make sure her movement isn't a problem. But there isn't anything else for us to do other than give birth or do the follow up appointments next Tuesday.

Abnormal heartbeat information here:
http://www.pregnancy-info.net/abnormal_heartbeats.html
Irregular Heartbeats: Irregular heartbeats are the most common type of fetal heart arrhythmia. They are often discovered before birth during prenatal appointments. Irregular heartbeats usually begin in the atria of the heart, causing extra or premature heartbeats to occur. These are usually not problematic and typically resolve on their own.

And here is some info on 39 weeks:
http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-39-weeks_1128.bc
How your baby's growing:
Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.