The rest of the updates...

I know these updates are a bit lengthy, no one really has to read them I guess. :)

I left off with last Monday being that Robyn delivered little 'Zander and we had a Dr. Appt. that Tuesday at 9AM. So we go into our appointment, hopeful things will go better than the week before. John was with me today. After checking my blood pressure it's given a slight "OK" so the Dr. decides to put me on monitors for a bit. These are the ones that wrap around your tummy with little discs with goo on them pressed on various areas of your big round belly. One is for the baby and the other for tracking contractions. So I get to lay on my side on this uncomfortable gynecology table with two stretchy belts wrapped around me, goo getting everywhere and the sound of Dominic's heartbeat... I can't decide if he sounds like a choo-choo-train or hoof beats.

We did this for quite a while. The Dr wasn't completely satisfied with the results so she decided to send us over to the ultrasound office (next door) for a more thorough look at Dominic's activity. From what I have learned though, the in-office monitoring is not as great as the hospital ones. We also had to do some labs (in-office). It was close to 10:30 AM now...

At scheduling, our options were an 11:00AM ultrasound or a 3:00PM ... we did want some lunch, but decided to take the earlier appt. to get it all over with - John was planning on going back to work after this. In between the office visit and the ultrasound we waited to do our labs... made it next door for the ultrasound with 10 minutes to spare.

We make it into our appointment with a technician we normally do not see. So we're in there with goo all over my belly for the second time... all of a sudden she starts shaking and squishing my belly all around, poking and prodding. We can clearly see that Dominic is not wiggling around ...BUT his heartbeat is going great. She fails to explain anything... so we finally ask after a minute. I don't even remember her answer, but it really didn't explain much other than her wanting to see him move. I kept telling her that he ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT liked to be shook. She did not listen. She even made me stand up and hop up and down and drink a big glass of ice-water. No luck, the little guy was simply pissed off at her by now and was refusing to budge. I suggested we go get some food and come back, but she was already worked up about him not moving for her and dashed out to get our Dr.

We met in a side room to decide what to do. Ultimately, the Dr told us that little D only scored a 4 out of 10, which was terrible. You need to get at least an 8 out of 10. There are a certain amount of points your baby scores when he gets checked out like this. Anyway, being on the low end, our Dr wanted to dash to the hospital now to deliver him. We had really wanted to wait until he was at least 37wks... we asked for alternatives, like could we just go get monitored and take it from there. She was stressing that she was worried that we were not on a monitor as we were talking. So we jumped across the street to the hospital (Rogue Valley Medical Center)... which is so convenient being across the street and all.

We checked in at the front in the Maternity Ward, but sadly got dumped in the Post Partum Ward because all the birth rooms were full. These rooms were not as luxurious as the birth rooms... especially John's little chair. I called my mom on the way over to the hospital... she was waiting for Robyn and baby Alexander to be released from their hospital and planned on helping them out a bit because he had screamed all night. Anyway, she gave this job to Dad (although they didn't make it out of the hospital until late that evening so he never got to help) and jetted on over to us in case we really were going to have DJ.

For the third time this day, I got all goo'd up and had more belts put on for monitoring. By the time we were all settled in, Dominic started moving quite a bit. Clearly meeting his Kick Count rules (Kick Count = moving at least 10 times in one single hour pretty consistently). Even my blood pressure was monitoring quite well. So our alternative to delivering today was a) to be on the monitor and b) to have Dr. Sole, the area's top high risk baby dr come check little D out. We got in about 11:50 AM and was told Dr. Sole would be by at 1PM. I was starving by now, John was also hungry. I was just going to get lunch at the hospital but the nurses told me we had to ask my Dr first. She was in the middle of a procedure and said she would get back to us, we waited a while longer, finally I we got an answer to wait until after the ultrasound and check from Dr. Sole. I had an hour. OK I could handle this. The hour goes by, no Dr. Sole. He finally shows up at 3PM. This was an insane delivery day so he had been running around the Maternity Ward too.

We got to see Dr. Sole's Ultrasound Tech, Mary-Beth. She was great to deal with! Although Dominic was finally moving around for her in the ultrasound, what the other tech had wanted to see was his Diaphragm working out. She wasn't concerned and explained to us that since there is no actual air inside of your tummy, they only play around with exercising this organ. She did catch it moving just a tad, but assured us that he would have passed the test anyway by other means. This was SUCH a relief! So Dr. Sole came by, checked out the ultrasound results, and told us that "he's happy as a clam in there" and if he could, he'd give him an 11 out of 10. WHEW!! No delivering, we could go home today. What a relief.

He didn't make it out of the hospital until about 5PM. Still haven't eaten. So we took my mom to Red Robin and gorged on FOOD!!! I think our day would have gone completely different if we had had a different ultrasound tech to begin with.

Wednesday was a day of rest. What a week.

Thursday, another dreaded (by now) Dr. Appt. We started with an ultrasound...but this time with our usual lady, Carol. We discussed our last appt. with her regarding all the belly-shaking from Tess, the other tech. She said that we aren't the only ones that have complained about that. So we are allowed to request Carol from now on. Dominic passed with flying colors and headed next door to the Dr's office for a quick blood pressure check... which was doing pretty good. WOW! our first appt. under an hour in what feels like months but was really only a week and a half.

That's it! All the updates! We have another appointment tomorrow (Tuesday). I dread these appointments now... :) Will keep everyone posted. I need to catch up on all my other posts.