...Am I going into early labor?

Yesterday was just an average Tuesday. I'm scheduled to go see my OB every two weeks for a check up to see how everything is going. It's usually very boring, as I usually wait for the doctor than the check-up itself. But not today!

Baby Hoffman has been moving a TON the past week or two. I've been feeling him stretch out his legs against my sides and he'll leave his feet there. After he moves, that same spot he was stretching out aches and it hurts to the touch. A day earlier last week, I couldn't get him to fall asleep until after 3 a.m., which meant I didn't get to sleep until after 3 a.m. Something tells me I'm going to have my hands full after giving birth...

As usual, my doctor started to measure Baby Hoffman's heart rate. But instead of moving on and telling me he sounds great, an awkward silence fills the room. 

"When a baby has a high heart rate it's not always a cause for concern, but I need to get another doppler ultrasound in order to get his exact heart rate. I'll be right back." 

She comes back quickly and continues to measure the heart rate. Then she explained to me that his heart rate is around 180-190, but has gotten as high as 200. My doctor told me that a baby can't handle that heart rate for a long period of time, and that he might have a medical condition. She left the room to call a high risk doctor to fit me in to get an ultrasound to see what was going on with his heart.

Now this is when I stared to panic.

"A baby can't handle a high heart rate? Is he distressed?"

"The way she worded it sounded like he's going to have heart failure and die if his heart rate continues this way."

"Spencer texted me before the heart monitoring what's the address to the hospital. Did he get a spiritual prompting that something is wrong and he's going to race over here because I'm going into early labor?"

"Well I guess he couldn't complain about having a birthday close to Christmas, he'll be born near Thanksgiving instead!"

"I don't have ANYTHING ready when it comes to giving birth!"

#uneducatedfirsttimeMom

My doctor came back and told me they can't fit me in to get an ultrasound. Instead, I'm going to get hooked up to a monitor to see if Baby Hoffman's heart rate goes down within the next 10-15 minutes. I also may need to come back next week instead of two weeks.

The nurse took me to a very comfy chair in a private room and strapped me in, so to speak. I felt a little bit better when I heard her say, "Now he's cooperating."

They leave me be and the monitoring continues. A long piece of paper is coming out of the screen that reminds me of a lie detector test. But then, the beeping starts.

Beeping is never good at a hospital. I strained my neck to see his heart rate going back up to over 170. (I googled that the average heart rate is between 120-160.) It continued to beep while I tried to ignore it while writing in my journal as a distraction. 

Soon, another nurse came in to check on me and admitted that it's better to have a high heart rate instead of a low one. She looked at the paper and left. The beeping stopped and continued for 10 more minutes. 

My doctor came in and observed the paper. She put her hand on her heart, while relieved, "It looks a lot better than I expected. It's going to be fine. He's just a really hyper baby! That's one thing we've learned about him today." She asked if we could continue the monitoring and I agreed. I wanted as much data as possible to make sure everything was okay. I later found out that I was monitored for almost 40 minutes instead of 10-15!

I heard the door open and close a lot throughout the monitoring, but often no one came in. I saw the heart rate get up to 181 once, but I was free to go when I was told he was more in the safe zone than not. I don't have to come in next week after all. As I gathered my things, I overheard a nurse outside talking about me, "I kept going into the room because all of the beeping, but it would stop right as I walked in!"

Today, I am grateful that we know (so far) that Baby Hoffman doesn't have a heart condition. I am also grateful that I didn't have to go into emergency labor (which probably wasn't even a possibility in my doctors' eyes.) #uneducatedfirsttimeMom