It was time for our final non-stress test. We got there early so that I wouldn't feel rushed (and my bp wouldn't be too high), but my bp was still a little high - 139/93. But we'll come back to that later.
The nurse checking out the babies identified their locations - apparently it gets more difficult as they're getting bigger because they start overlapping each other and crowding together. But she found them, then found how much fluid each had in their sacs (looking good!) There was a brief wait to identify the fetal breathing, but they all performed well.
The only thing remaining was heartbeats. You'd think it would be easy...but the babies moved! At this point Dr. Collingham poked his head in to say that we could forego the OB visit as long as everything went well with the scans. The nurse asked him to verify the babies' locations and he placed Baby A low on the bottom lying on his side, Baby B scrunched up breech on my right, and Baby C curled around up top and over to my left side. I'm sure they've all moved again by now, but it's always good to know where they're hanging out. Once their locations were more concrete, the heartbeats were much easier to find and all were beating well.
Finally it was time to sit up, relax, and take my bp. This time it was 127/93. Still 93...3 points higher than my parameters. So I was sent over to the OB side of the floor to check again. So much for skipping out on the appointment! The nurse let us know they like the readings on their machine better, and their machine showed my bp at 120-something over 76. 76! They also took me to be weighed - I've now officially gained 15 pounds with this pregnancy. We're hoping that the babies will be in the 5 pound range when they're born, so that could balance out!
We waited in an exam room to be cleared to go home. The RN for the floor came to chat (about the Giants) for a while and then the doctor came and told us to "go home!" and that everything was fine. They quizzed me on the symptoms I should watch for (headache, vision change, pain, leaking fluid, babies dropping out, and the like) and what I need to know for next Wednesday (no eating or drinking ANYTHING after midnight, show up at 7, procedure scheduled for 9, babies out and cleaned by 10).
Did you catch that? BABIES BY 10AM! 132 hours until we have babies! SCARY!
I came home exhausted and rested until it was time for dinner. Just before we were about to leave, we heard about the fire in San Bruno. We sat, transfixed, in front of the tv and I couldn't help but cry. Part of it is hormones, I'm sure. Part of it is the amazing loss. So I'm focusing on the good news about the countdown to babies to distract me, while hoping that everything works out as well as it possibly can for the folks in San Bruno.
I put it on my calendar, Edith, though I'm sure your mother is going to tell the world. Your voyage of pregnancy has been a delightful read. It's obvious you will be a great mom, and the Salvateenies will be born speaking in whole sentences. I find two lessons in the San Bruno gas explosion: 1) Capitalism sucks: there are few "natural" disasters (even earthquakes, you don't have to build cities on fault lines); 2) never leave home angry; life is too unpredictable.
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