NST Test at Hartford Hospital

Our final doctor appointment!

Both Olivia and I did fantastic.  My urine was good. Blood pressure was 98/60.  Olivia’s heart rate was between 143-170.

Dr. Cortland, Arnie and I had a talk today about how things will go on Monday.  She happens to be on call Monday night so she will be seeing us when we get there! And she will definitely be delivering us on Tuesday.

My cervix is still pretty closed up so she feels I may need two doses of the cervix softening medicine to get things moving.  Most times this medicine will actually put someone into labor and if that’s the case I may not need pitocin.

We discussed the epidural. While I definitely plan on having one, I also don’t want to have one too early to stall labor.  That being said, my concern is that if I don’t get an epidural early enough and God Forbid need an emergency C-Section I would need to be knocked out.  Dr. Cortland said they can insert the cath early and just turn on the epidural when I need it.  I was very relieved to hear that.

Dr. Cortland plans on contacting Hartford Hospital this week to verify my delivery plan is all in place. She is also going to call over to Dr. Mello’s office as a reminder to them that Olivia will be born next week.  It’s nice to know she’s taking care of everything for us.

She feels Olivia will most likely be born between 8AM and 12:00 noon.

We discussed who will be in the delivery room:  A person (or persons?) from the NICU will be there for Olivia, along with Dr. Cortland and a few nurses.

Dr. Cortland feels that Olivia is going to handle labor well as she has looked fantastic in all our tests thus far.  She did ask in a round about way if we wanted them to do everything to save the baby in the case of an emergency.  And I told her Olivia was the #1 priority. I’m #2.  Do whatever it takes to keep her alive and give her a fighting chance. We haven’t come all this way for nothing.

The next update will be from either myself updating everyone on my progress or from Gina announcing Olivia’s arrival!

Finally, I just wanted to say Thank You to everyone for supporting us these past 5 months.  I can honestly say I’ve felt so calm about everything because I know we have the full support of all our friends and family.  That and all the angels surrounding Olivia.  Please keep the prayers coming, they are working and we feel them surround us.

NST Test at Hartford Hospital

Olivia was a wiggle worm today and loved making the monitor go crazy. She was moving all over the place and we kept losing her heartbeat - I’d feel her moving but the monitor was bouncing from “—” to 214 and then back to 150.  Dr. Cortland said she passed with flying colors.

My blood pressure is 94/62.

Urine - showing trace amounts of white blood cells which could indicate a UTI but since I’m not having any other complications we’re going to leave it be for now.

Group B test came back NEGATIVE!

Non Stress Test, 36 week checkup

Olivia’s NST was great although she fell asleep toward the end of the test.  Heart rate was 140-180 today.

My appointment went well. I had my Group B Strep today and an internal exam.  If I do test positive for Group B, I will have another IV of antibiotics during labor to protect Olivia from contracting it.  Internal - I am “open in the front and closed in the back” which she said was good and what is to be expected at this point in my pregnancy.

We discussed her philosophy on some “hot topic” issues for me regarding delivery.  Thankfully she and I see eye to eye on episiotomies, forceps and vacuum deliveries as being necessary only in emergency situations.

I also asked about the timeline of events regarding the induction. I will be checked in at 8pm on July 19th.  Pitocin will start between midnight and 1AM.  The goal is to get Olivia born in the daytime.

Non Stress Test, 35 week checkup

Non Stress Test, 34 week checkup

A non stress test for those who don’t know is where they hook me up to a fetal monitor that charts Olivia’s heart rate. I lie there and push a button each time I feel her move and they later analyze the data to make sure she’s doing well.

Olivia did fantastic. Heart rate was between 135 and 155.

My 34 week checkup:  Blood pressure was fantastic (90/60).  I’m experiencing swelling in my feet along with protein in my urine both which can be a warning sign of pre-eclampsia (along with high blood pressure).  Because my BP is so great, they’re just going to keep an eye on things for now as I’m going in weekly anyway.  In the mean time I’m keeping my feet elevated as much as I can and watching my salt intake to attempt to keep my blood pressure low.