Baby B the drama queen

I guess most parents have the luxury of learning this lesson after their children are born. Brandon and I have been able to learn it now. The lesson is this . . . your children will not do what you want when you want.

Friday was our third non-stress test of the week. Usually we are supposed to only have two, but we had an extra one on Wednesday because the doctor was concerned about something she saw on Tuesday's NST for Baby B. She wanted us to come back for a second try.

Anyway, Wednesday's test was fine and we figured that Friday's would be too. Baby B had other plans. She wouldn't preform correctly for the test. Her heart rate just wouldn't increase the amount it needed to. We tried buzzing her, but that made her move away from the monitor. We could see that she was moving, but since her heart rate wasn't on the monitor it didn't count.

So after 40 minutes Baby B had failed the non-stress test. This combined with the weirdness on Tuesday's test made the nurse and the Dr concerned. So then we moved on to what is called a Biophysical exam or something like that. After going through this exam I now take back everything I ever said about how boring ultrasounds are. This was by far the most boring medical procedure EVER!

The nurse explained that we were going to do an ultrasound of Baby B. We would be looking for three things. 1. At least 3 movements of any kind. 2. One quick movement like a hand jerk or leg kick. and 3. Evidence of the baby breathing for 30 seconds. She said the test would last half an hour.

So she turned on the ultrasound and positioned it to look right at Baby B's rib cage. Then we all stared at the monitor forever. We got the movement and the quick movement right away, but the baby would not breath. (Babies only practice breathing about a third of the time.) Finally after about 20 minutes we saw the tell tell rib expansion that indicated Baby B was practicing her breathing. The problem is that she only did it for about 15 seconds. So we stared at the monitor for another 10 minutes hoping that she would start breathing again. Nothing!

At the 30 minute mark she finished the test and only scored a 6 out of a 10. The doctor said we had to come back again the next day for a NST and try again. I had my baby shower scheduled for the next day so the staff was kind enough to schedule me at the Intermountain Medical Center (IMC) which is closer to my parents house.

Today I went to Labor and Delivery at IMC for the test. As I suspected, Baby B preformed perfectly. She stayed on the monitor the whole time and her heart rate did everything it was supposed to. I don't know what her deal is, but Baby B likes causing these little disruptions.

There is a bright side to all this. Since I had to have the test done in Labor and Delivery they had to treat me like I was checking in to actually have the babies. It was a nice little practice for when I have to go there for real. The test was done in a Delivery room so I was able to see that the room wasn't as big as the ones at LDS where I plan to deliver. So maybe Baby B was just trying to show me what I needed to know.