NST ( Non Stress Test)

Some of you have asked about how these have been going so I thought I would just post about them. The reason I get NST is because I have had a stillborn because of a placenta problem. The NST measures the baby's heart rate and also amniotic fluid both of which are impacted from the placenta so if they usually can tell if baby is doing okay in there. I get mine done at the University of Utah hospital up on the second floor the same place that the ultrasounds are located, just across the hall from labor and delivery. They have you sit in a lazy boy type chair and first they have me recline it all the way back. Then then they use a little ultrasound machine to measure the amniotic fluid levels. I also get to have a peek at my little boy ( yep still a boy! He likes to show us the goods every time) They check his position and then put a heart rate monitor on him. Also they put a contraction monitor on because if i have one they like to see how it affects his heart rate. They tell you the test takes 20-40 minutes. What they are looking for is his heart rate to accelerate twice in a 20 minute period and then return to baseline. The heart rate accelerates usually when the baby moves, just like ours does if we ran up the stairs. While I am waiting I also am supposed to push this little button every time I feel him move and it makes a mark on the paper strip that the other things are recorded on. I can choose to either sit up for this or stay partly reclined but turned to the side with pillows supporting my belly and back. I usually recline and then read a magazine or chat with the lady doing my checks. I know her pretty well by now since she did all of mine with Theo twice a week for 2 months!

So yesterday I had a NST. I hurried up there as soon as Cory came home to watch the kids. I was late so instead of taking the elevator i walked up three flights of stairs from the parking lot, and then another two flights in the hospital. I got lots of looks from strangers.. but hey just because i am pregnant doesn't mean my legs are broken! I got up to the second floor, used the restroom, and got settled in my chair. She got me in there and hooked up, then got me a cup of water because i was sooooo thirsty! I love water at the hospital, because they have this ice that is little balls and I love to chew it. I sat there for about 30 minutes.. she kept checking the monitor print out and sat there right by it after a bit. By 60 minutes I was starting to wonder why i was still there?? I could feel him moving around a bunch, so I assumed they had lots of good accelerations. With Theo my problem was he would sleep and be lazy so his heart rate would not go up and they had to wake him with a buzzer. So this baby being awake and kicking i thought would produce a quick session. She called over the other lady that works in that area to look at my read out. They talked about it for a bit both acting concerned. The woman that does mine has been working there for 31 years, so i assumed she could have read the results on her own by now and was a little worried she needed to talk to the other nurse! I asked what the deal was as i could see the print out and it looked like a tight zig zag so i knew his heart rate was fluctuation and didn't see the problem. They told me that it just keep going from 130 to 140 then back again. Even when he moved it just kept the same pattern.. I guess it needed to go up higher like 150 or 160 when he was moving. At this point she left me on the monitors and riped off my sheet to go show to a DR across the hall at Labor and Delivery. Of course now I am on the verge of freaking out. In all the times i saw them with Theo they only talked to the Dr once and they just called him and asked what to do and then i had a high level ultrasound since he wasn't moving. ( he was fine, just liked to sleep alot) She came back and said they were going to monitor me a bit more.. so for 30 more minutes she manually held the monitor and chatted with me. After that they consulted some more and decided to just send me home, and my next visit to have me come in the morning to see what he does then.

So of course i come home and scour the Internet to see if i can find anything about his heart rate doing that. I couldn't find a thing. This little boy likes to give his mother anxiety. I hope that he is okay in there and things just were not showing up right for some reason that is no big deal.