NST #1

(Caution: if you're a man, you may just want to skip this post.)

We officially started non-stress tests on Monday. However, I have to say the first two were anything BUT non-stressful!

I was scheduled for 8:30 on Monday morning. However, I woke up at 2:50am to go to the bathroom and the minute I stood up, I knew this wasn't going to be a clear pad. I told myself to stay calm, but what I saw was more than I'd expected. Not only was my entire pantiliner saturated with red blood, but it hadn't been able to hold it all and, thus, there was more on my pajamas. More red in the toilet. Definitely fluid mixed in all around, but not as dilute as it's been over the past 3 days. I've been trying not to freak out, but, at the same time, I would much rather be checked out than sit here waiting for things to go away and have them get worse!

So I woke James and I think he was trying to talk me out of going to the hospital. Until he went into the bathroom. I had left everything so he could get a visual as well and he agreed that that was "kind of a lot". So then I told him I would call our neighbor while he got dressed and, sweet thing that she is, she was right over, hugged me and went into my Trevy's room to sleep on the extra bed and James and I were off. Up to that point, I hadn't felt baby move at all either. Although it had only been half and hour and I do realize that baby does sleep so I hadn't quite started freaking out about that yet.

We're only 5-10 minutes from the hospital, but it felt like forever to get there! I had gone to the bathroom once more before we left and there was hardly any blood. Wait? Go? Let's just go. I've never seen the hospital so uninhabited. I even had to tell the security people why I was there.

I went right upstairs to the L&D triage and was surprised they made me wait at all. Guess they're not fully staffed overnight. Blessedly, baby boy gave me a couple of good kicks in the waiting room. Once they got me in, they hooked up to the monitors and I was able to relax a little listening to baby's heartrate and watching it stay pretty consistently around 140. The doctor came in and did a speculum exam (have to say I was pretty leery. Still am. If there was anything unsterile...) and said he couldn't really see any blood, but my cervix looked reddish and raw. They sent blood and urine to the lab and within 20 minutes we had the results. (It took an hour last time, so I don't think they had much going on.) Anyway, fabulous news - my urine came back clear and my white blood cell count was 8.8, 10 being the high point of normal.

So the resident doctor came in and gave us the good news. He told me that, especially for having ruptured over a month ago, baby looks really good and things look good. He seemed a little surprised that I have yet to be hospitalized and asked if we had had that discussed before. Yes. I don't think anyone in that hospital questions my doctor. Since he was okay with it before, we decided to just keep doing what we're doing and came home around 6am.

Poor James. He's been taking care of the kids and me and the house and his job...since last Thursday. I was exhausted when we got home and went straight to bed. He, instead, got on eBay to check out their fetal monitors. I'm so with him. If I don't hear by my appointment on Thursday, I will definitely be bringing this up with my doctor. I would just feel so much better about not having to travel every day for NSTs.

Let me just finish with the sweetest part - about 8:00, my Trevy walked in with a plate of breakfast that James had made for me. I was barely awake, but it was just the sweetest thing ever! He's doing such an amazing job! Our kids clothes don't match and the house looks pretty awful at times, but everyone is alive and well, fed and dressed and I could't ask for more!