Non-Stressed Out

Baby D and I started our non-stress tests last week. We go twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays, and get hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor and a uterine activity monitor. These are attached to a machine which spits out a long paper recording the baby's heart rate (the top line) and my uterine activity (the line way at the bottom). I also have a little Jeopardy- buzzer I click whenever Baby D moves. The printer makes a little mark on the page when I hit the buzzer (those are the little black arrows in the middle of the paper). You can see he moves A LOT...and it definitely increases when he hears Nick's voice.

Not everyone needs to go through these tests, which are quite boring (and early in the morning!), but our doctor, Dr. Ruderick, requested that we do them until I go into labor. He says that because we had trouble getting pregnant in the first place, our pregnancy is classified as "Premium," one step down from "High-Risk," and he wants to be able to keep tabs on how Baby D is doing as much as possible...which is fine by us! Everything looks good so far, so Baby D is pretty comfortable where he is!

I enjoy it because I get to hear my son's heart beat through a speaker for a whole 45 minutes a few times a week, which, even though it is fast, is very soothing. It makes it all seem that much more real!