A trip to labor and delivery

Yesterday Sammy gave us quite the scare.

Starting sometime on Saturday night, I stopped feeling her move. I can usually count on her having a dance party right before bed and also first thing in the morning. I'm also used to waking up periodically throughout the night and feeling her move. Saturday night and Sunday morning, none of that happened. I told myself I'd eat breakfast, and have a half caff coffee and that would surely get her to be active.

It didn't.

Finally after trying all of the usual tricks (drinking cold water, laying on my side, etc) I started to panic since I hadn't felt any significant movement in 10 hours. I called the OB nurse and they sent me to labor and delivery to get checked out.

Every possible scenario was going through my mind from a cord accident to the idea that she might actually have to come out at 30 weeks because she was in distress.

I dreaded waking Kevin up to tell him "We need to go to the hospital because I'm not feeling the baby move." I was seriously choking on those words as they came out, as I'm sure they were horrific to hear first thing in the morning for him.

We jumped into the car, headed to the hospital, and they put me in their pre-op room because their triage room was full of expecting moms for other issues. I was hooked up to a monitor where they immediately picked up plenty of movement and a strong, normal heartbeat.

I think the straps around my belly bothered Sammy because I finally felt some strong movement and kicks myself. Finally, Sammy! I was extremely relieved. While being monitored they noticed I was having some uterine irritability and some braxton hicks, which was interesting to me seeing how I've had some mild cramping on and off the past few days. I assumed it was braxton hicks, but seeing how I have nothing to compare it to, I couldn't be sure. Now I know and that's good knowledge to have.

The pre-op bed I called home for my visit

L&D was very backed up because of how many moms and babies had arrived yesterday morning so we had a long wait. I ended up having to order hospital food for lunch because of my gestational diabetes needs. During lunch, I heard a familiar voice in the hall - it was my OB! He stopped in and gave a good pep talk. He explained he happened to be on call and had just delivered two babies! It was so nice to see him and he reassured me I did the right thing by coming in too. After lunch, the L&D OB came in and said all looked good but offered us an in depth ultrasound and cervical check. They wanted to make sure I wasn't having real contractions and they were just braxton hicks. They did warn us we would be in there a long time because of how busy they were. We agreed to the extra tests for reassurance and Kevin and I kept each other company while I sat on a pre-op bed. We were already in a much better state of mind knowing Sammy was okay and kicking.

A few hours later, an ultrasound tech came in and did a complete anatomy scan and biophysical profile. Sammy passed 100% and demonstrated all of the necessary characteristics she needed to which indicated she is not in distress. It was amazing seeing all of her sweet little body parts again on the screen - her little feet, her tiny fingers, her sweet little nose and lip. She even gave us a "thumbs up" sign during part of it. It was her way of saying "I'm okay, mom and dad! I was just playing possum! Sorry to scare you!" They estimated her weight to be around 3lb 14 oz. Kevin was just 5 lb and some change when he was born so it just blows my mind how big this little girl already is!

I also had my first internal cervical check and everything looked perfect there too. I measured in at 3.79 and no signs of opening any time soon.

Did I mention I'm relieved? Oh, I am.

I didn't think we'd get pictures from a hospital visit, but we did. Here you go!

Top left is Sammy's lips and nose and top right and Sammy's profile showing her chubby cheeks. Bottom left Sammy's profile and bottom right is the bottom of her little foot.

Other than the uncomfortable pre-op bed I sat on for 5.5 hours yesterday (which I think is a form of torture from the middle ages) screwing up my hip, we are no worse for the wear and so glad we went in. Because I can barely even type this but...if something were to happen to Sammy because I made the choice to ignore decreased fetal movement, I don't think I could deal with it. I'm glad we went in and I'm even more glad she's okay!

During our long wait in the room we heard the squeal of a tiny baby. I'm not sure if he/she had just been born or if he/she was just hanging out with mama, but it was such a sweet sound that I look forward to hearing from Sammy in July.

She's been dancing up a storm ever since. In fact, she's having a little personal dance party as I type this. It's the best feeling in the whole world!