Day at the hospital, 29w5d

Yesterday afternoon was my usual ultrasound with the perinatologist. My mom was in town, so she got to come with us. She’d never had an ultrasound with me or my brother, so it was neat for her to be able to see everything.

Both babies look good, moving a lot, plenty of fluid, all of that good stuff. And for the first time, they are both head-down (I thought my belly looked different…). Baby girl put on another 7 oz to measure 2lb8oz, still hanging out around the 28th percentile. Her brother, on the other hand, put on 15 oz, up now to a whopping 3lb9oz. So not only is there a full pound difference between them, but he has shoved her out of her “baby A” position. She is now relegated to Baby B status.

Given her continued peanut-ness, my perinatologist decided to err on the side of caution and start my weekly non-stress tests now. So after leaving briefly to get some lunch, I headed back into Labor & Delivery to be hooked up to monitors for an hour. Both babies were tracking just perfectly. They were very active for a large portion of the time (probably helps that I’d just eaten a very carb-heavy lunch), and their heartrates were very good. Interestingly, though, I was having somewhat frequent contractions! It was not a new sensation, but one that I hadn’t been entirely sure was a contraction. Well, now I know. The nurse, a very nice Irish woman named Mary, had me drink some extra water and they spaced out a bit further. And since I’d just had my cervix checked and it was still a good 4cm, they decided it was not an issue of major concern. She just advised me to continue taking it easy, and pretty much to drink as much water as I could manage. (Yes, lie on my left side and drink lots of water.)

So, I now have an ultrasound, followed by a non-stress test, every week from now until August 15 (the peri pretty much promised I wouldn’t go past then, thankfully). That’s at least two hours in the hospital, and that’s if nothing goes wrong in between appointments. Oh, and that’s not including my usual OB appointments. We’ll see how long I manage to keep working…

It’s hard not to worry about my little girl, and how very little she is. But she technically isn’t “growth-restricted,” since that’s a designation for being under the 10th percentile, and she keeps plugging along and growing, which is good. I’m just a little worried that her enormous brother is going to take up all of the space and cause problems for her. But for now, she’s showing no signs of distress, and though her movements are frequently more subtle than her brother’s, she’s still kicking away.

We’ll see what next week brings.