38 weeks

38 weeks

so something kinda scary happened about a week ago, everything is good! But the doctor had us a little worried about the baby. 

so...the place where i go to have my pre-natal appointments consists of 3 doctors and a midwife. the person i see for my appointment is determined by what day i go (which also means that any of these 4 ladies will be delivering the baby depending when i go into labor). i usually have my appointments on thursdays, so i mainly see the same doctor every time. 

35 week appointment: i went in on a monday, so i met with the midwife for the first time. she told me that i was measuring small (34cm) and that if i continued to measure small they would have to just double check my amniotic fluid levels. (amniotic fluid is what the baby lives in, it allows the baby to move and provides cushion and protection along with other things). i wasn't too worried because i had been measuring small my whole pregnancy, and this was the first time she had seen me, so of course she would notice that.

36 week appointment: I went in on a thursday, meaning i saw the doctor that i usually see. she saw that the midwife had wanted to check my fluid levels so we did an ultrasound this day. she seemed super relaxed, like "you've been measuring small the whole time, i'm sure everything is fine" attitude. my belly measured 33 cm this week (1cm less than the weeks before) but i wasn't too worried because they told me that it is normal to get smaller at the end as the baby moves down. anyway....we did the ultrasound, she kept saying, "there's a pocket of fluid here, and another one here...looks good." she then took some measurements, it seemed like she wasn't measuring all of them and didn't seem concerned at all.

37 week appointment: i went in on a monday again....so this is the second time seeing the midwife. she told us that last week the doctor had only measured 7 cm of fluid, and that that was borderline low! she said you should have at least 8cm of fluid and no less that 6cm, so that i was at a kind of dangerous level. she also measured my belly at 32 cm....i had gone down another cm! she then did an ultrasound and found 7.5 cm of amniotic fluid...but she said that there was a pocket she couldn't measure because the umbilical cord was going through it. so luke and i are a little surprised, because the week before the doctor hadn't seemed worried at all!! but this  midwife was really concerned. i was told to take it easy and to make sure to drink lots of water. i was also scheduled for 2 additional testing later that week. a strew test and another ultrasound at a different facility to get a better reading of the fluid level.

....so luke and i were really concerned. she had explained to us that i may need to be induced early if there wasn't enough fluid. because it would mean that my placenta wasn't working properly (the placenta is what provides nutrients and oxygen to the baby). it also meant that the baby wasn't very well protected.

....after that appointment i had luke give me a blessing, and then i made sure to drink lots of water and rest! but at the same time i felt weird, like everything was fine, that maybe this was a little of an overreaction. but i was totally fine doing the extra testing to make sure everything was fine.

....so i went in for stress testing first (just a few days later). they just monitor the baby's heart rate for a while to make sure he isn't under any stress and that he is getting enough oxygen. during this appointment the midwife came in and explained that i needed to be on moderate bed rest. meaning i needed to spend most of my day lying down with my feet up. but she said everything looked great on the stress test, and that the baby wasn't under any stress!

....then i went to the hospital where i would have the more in depth ultrasound (same day as the stress test). the ultrasound technician measure 12.5cm of amniotic fluid! (much more than 7.5cm earlier that week) and then she also measured the baby to make sure he was still growing...and i measured 1 day behind my due date which is awesome! so that made us feel A LOT better, and we no longer felt worried! it was really nice to have the confirmation of those tests.

my first thought was that the midwife had just measured wrong...and that everything had been fine the whole time. but after my 38 week appointment i felt differently....

38 week appointment: monday, we did another stress test, everything looked great! and then the midwife came in and went over my ultrasound with me. she was super happy how everything turned out. said i was no longer on moderate bed rest or at a dangerous level. she measured my belly at 36cm (much better than the 32cm from just one week before). i asked how there could be such a big difference in so short a time. she then explained that the amniotic fluid is constantly being replaced and can change in just 24 hours. it was possible that i had just been dehydrated! 

looking back, i am almost positive i had been dehydrated. i had been waking up really thirsty during the nights, and had even felt a little dizzy walking up the stairs one day. i hadn't been counting how many ounces of water i drank, just drinking when i was thirsty. so, even though it was a little scary...and everything is totally fine now(had another ultrasound and stress test since and things look great:)but i am just really grateful that i was made aware of the situation!

long story! but just want to remember this pregnancy and what went on! also, i did kick counts for like 5 hours one day...just to see how often this baby moves, he never went 30 minutes without moving....and does probably an average of 8-10 movements every 30 minutes (or did that day) and they say he should be moving at least 10 times every 2-3 hours.