Today was my first NST (non-stress test) at the hospital. From now until delivery, I'll be going every Monday and Thursday for these tests. It's basically just simple monitoring to ensure that the baby is doing well and to check for signs of pre-eclampsia and pre-term labor. Today, the nurse took my blood pressure (normal), did a quick ultrasound to see how the baby was positioned (head down), and then hooked me up to two monitors around my belly for 20 minutes. The first monitor records the baby's heart rate and the second contractions. They want to see the heart rate at a good baseline level (anything between 110 - 160 bmp is normal; our baby's is around 145 bmp) and then accelerate when he moves. What they don't want to see are any long decelerations that don't come back to baseline quickly.
For the first 10 minutes or so, the baby was sleeping as he'd been super active all morning, so the nurse woke him up with a vibrator (!) against my belly. After that, he rolled and kicked like crazy. He had one brief deceleration during the test, but since it was quick and his heart rate came back up to baseline and stayed there afterwards, she said it wasn't concerning. Most likely he compressed his cord a little during one of his rolls.
We're relieved that everything still appears stable despite me losing my mucus plug yesterday. This rather gross substance helps to prevent infection and doesn't normally come out this early. However, since I'm not having increased contractions since losing it, the doctors aren't concerned.
I return on Thursday for my ultrasound and another NST session. Cross your fingers he cooperates so we can get a good picture!
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