As I’ve previously blogged, with my regular OB taking off some time, I will be seeing other doctors in his practice for the remainder of my pregnancy up until my scheduled Cesarean section. Today my appointment was with Dr. C, so a different nurse set me up with the NST. The configuration of the exam room was different from Dr. G’s so instead of being on a raised table the cardiotocograph machine was at my general level, inspiring me to document the experience with some new angles.
Though I don’t have a similar angle belly portrait for each session so far, looking at the photos Matt and I did take, it looks like each time I have this test the bands are put on in a slightly different configuration. The nurse had asked where the previous nurse had felt the baby’s heartbeat best, and so I showed her the photos I did have from that time.
I really liked having the machine at eye level. I was able to glance at it here and there and see similar numbers to what I’d had last visit both in terms of baby’s heartbeat numbers and my uterine movement numbers.
There was a uterine spike like last time, and just like last time I didn’t get the number on screen, but it made a nice spike on the graph paper that I did see.
With the table at this angle, I got a fun shot of my full belly and the machine in the background.
Unlike my prior two NSTs, while the baby did show accelerated movements referred to as accels, s/he did not show a sustained accel over 15 seconds enough times. So the nurse came back in to make the baby move a bit more to double check and document. I had thought she would do this with a buzzer as that was one method I’d read about, but she told me that while hospitals do that, here they just apply light pressure to the abdomen to “wake baby up a bit more”.
It only took a small amount of squeezing for her to be ready to see what we would see on the graphing paper.
Sure enough, baby starting moving a lot more very soon. With the accels over 15 seconds (shown as spanning one or more squares on the paper, it was time to call in Dr. C.
Dr. C also went over the numbers with me and she agreed that baby looked good on the graph especially the movements after the nurse had done the squeezing.
Overall, everything is going great with the pregnancy which Dr. C confirmed with some general answers from me. However, one thing of concern to Matt and I both was that I was snoring more than I had before and he had described it last night as the loudest it had ever been. After asking a few questions, Dr. C said this sounds like possible sleep apnea which is common in pregnancy. She’s referred me to the sleep clinics our hospital’s network is linked to, and someone will be calling me to schedule a visit. We aren’t sure if they will be able to see me before I deliver, but as I’d be off on maternity disability very soon, if they do have open appointment days I will be able to go in with a flexible schedule.
~ Danielle
Over 40 First Time Mom 