Top Secret NST

Sometimes it's better to sneak in a non-stress test when no one's looking. It adds some creedence to the "non-stress" part and less so on the "test" part.

Over the last few days, I've noticed a decrease in movement. The action seemed fewer and further between. I generally assign myself the "overreacting" title when these things cross my mind and just move on.

...but then I get the haunting thoughts... "what if everything ISN'T ok and you knew it and didn't check..." Fine.

So, when my mother asked me whether Maya was moving around a lot, I said yes. When she asked me if she'd been kicking me, I said yeeeees. When she asked if I felt her twisting around down there (I'm guessing she referred to her head burrowing its way further into my cervix), I wondered was the deal was with the cross-examination and said, YES.

But the truth was... no, here and there, and DEFINITELY.

My husband did eventually leave for Indianapolis this morning. I didn't have the bad thoughts today and after a few goodbyes and an insistence that he not text while driving, he was gone.

...then I made my move.

I called in to the doctor's office and explained my situation with the caveat that, "I'm sure I'm crazy and I'm hoping you'll just tell me it's normal, but...". They told me to come in and get checked out anyway because, "we take mother's intuition seriously." (I love them.)

The NST came out nonreactive. The heartbeat was excellent throughout, but she only moved twice over the whole 15-20 mins (or however long it was) despite being "buzzed" with that vibrating alarm clock thingy 3 times! So, it was on to the BPP.

The BPP is a 30 min ultrasound where you score 2 points per criteria achieved. So, there's 3 movements, breathing (practicing for 30 seconds), tones (flexing things), and fluid levels. We were able to see movement fairly quickly, but they were smaller movements, and the tones came quickly along with that. Fluid levels were good.

But, we stared at her for about 20 mins and couldn't catch her practicing breathing for more than 2 or 3 seconds, and certainly not 30 seconds so she only got 6 out of 8. Which means, with the NST + BPP, she only got a 60%. So, I had two options.

The doctor said we had 24h to get her to pass the test again or I could go down to triage and stay there for a long while and monitor for movement for a long period of time. We all agreed to come back in tomorrow morning and repeat both tests. If she doesn't pass, it's L&D monitoring for me.

Truthfully, my sense is that she's probably completely fine, but beyond stubborn. But, I need to find out for sure of course. So, that's my day tomorrow. I told my husband by text and on the ride home. I haven't told my mother and won't until tomorrow.

Because when it comes to medicine, I'm a sneak. I prefer to pursue my health under cover.