Heartbeats

     Today I had a very interesting appointment at my doctor's office.   My doctor was on vacation, but I met with the Nurse-Midwife.  She had a difficult time finding the baby's heartbeat, but the baby was kicking a lot, so we knew it was in there!  However, once she did find the heartbeat, we were listening, and all of a sudden it slowed way down and stopped for  a few seconds.  Then it started going again.  It seemed slower sounding to me than it usually had too, and the nurse said it was around 110.  She said she wanted to put me on a monitor because of how we had heard the heartbeat stop.  My own heart felt like it stopped beating when she said that.  I was scared. 

     When she got the monitor on me, she had trouble finding the heartbeat again, and I had to hold the thing pressed into my tummy the entire time.   I ended up being on the monitor for about 45 minutes or so because the baby kept moving around so the monitor couldn't pick up the heartbeat.  It was okay for about the first 10 minutes.  Then a nurse came in and tried to find the heartbeat again.   She found it faintly in another spot, but after she left, I didn't hear it again consistently for about another 10-15 minutes until she came back.  She pulled the print-out paper out and said, "This baby is just moving all over!  It doesn't want us to hear it!"  So, she had me lay down further and she found the heartbeat again.  She turned the monitor toward me so I could see the little flashing heart and the heartrate and tell whether it was picking it up or not.  That made me feel a little better.  I watched the numbers go up and down sporadically from about 118 to 144 for the next 10-15 minutes.  Finally, the nurse took the print-out to the nurse-midwife, and came back in a few minutes to say that everything looked fine.   That was a relief.

     I still wonder exactly why the baby's heartbeat stopped though.   The nurse-midwife did say that the baby could have moved so that it was lying on the umbilical cord for a moment, and it took a while to get going again.  I guess I will just assume that is what happened.

     I also wonder why the heartrate was so low.  I don't know much at all about medical things, but it just seemed really low to me.  Now, I am back to thinking it's a boy too.  Annah's heartrate was never below something in the 140's.

    Oh, and I asked how much weight I gained last month since I forgot to last time.  I gained 3 1/2 pounds last month, and 5 this past one.  No wonder I feel so big lately.  Although, when I figured it all up, it seems I've only gained 9 1/2 pounds so far.  Now, this is partially because I lost 7 right before/at the beginning of the pregnancy.  And, it could also be that my math skills are just bad!

     Back in 2 weeks for another glucose test, then back in 2 more for an ultrasound.