baby stuff

Sunday was 31 weeks exactly. I was pretty nervous about it—not that I thought anything was actually likely to happen. Or at least, not rationally, anyway. But still nervous.

So I wake up Sunday morning, and there's blood. Just a little bit. For early pregnancy, it looked completely normal. But I've never had that in late pregnancy. I figured I'd wait and see if there was any more, then either call the office the next day and let them know, if there was no more, or call the on-call ob right then if there was more. Lou, on the other hand, less interested in the waiting and seeing, so he made me call immediately. The nurse says to keep an eye on it, call if there's more, etc. I go about my morning routine. About 20 minutes later, she calls back and says the ob wants me to come in for a nonstress test.

I did several of those with Greyson, so I knew the routine. Go in, get a couple of bands with dopplers attached wrapped around your belly, and sit there for an hour (or so) while the machine monitors baby's heartrate and movements, and any contractions I might have. Which is what happened. Baby was moving in such terrific force that they had to keep me extra because she wouldn't calm down enough to give them a baseline heartrate. End result: no further blood; no idea what caused the little bleeding I did have; baby in great shape; no cervical change. So they sent me home with firm admonitions to keep my eye out for any more bleeding, and to "limit my activities" as much as is possible for a mother of two small boys.

Two interesting thoughts struck me after I was home. One was that it was a nice 31-week present from the baby, the chance to go in and feel her move like hurricane Katrina in utero for an hour and listen to her heartrate!

The other was how completely not worried I was. I know a lot more about pregnancy and pregnancy complications than I have with any previous pregnancy, to start with. But what made all the difference to me was feeling like once I was in the hands of the hospital staff I could relax. I've never had a bad experience with the labor & delivery staff at Beverly, so I trusted the nurse to do her job competently and be my advocate if anything were to have gone wrong; and I absolutely trusted the ob on call to take the best possible care of me and my baby.

The difference it makes in a medical situation to have real trust in the staff taking care of you is so huge ... it's a real shame that everyone can't have that.