More tests...

Not only did I have to test my blood sugars several times a day, and had to eat more food on a daily basis than I have ever eaten before, but now I also had to go for a weekly non-stress test. Apparently the baby had to be monitored to see how well he would handle contractions when I went into labor. I was thinking that I was going to have to be hooked up to machines and run on a treadmill, etc.

But, the tests consisted of a sonogram and monitoring the baby's heartbeat. I was not happy about having to go to the hospital every week for this test, on top of the weekly specialists visits and the OBGYN visits. But I was excited that I was going to get to see my baby every week.

The hospital has one of those 4D ultrasound machines. They actually have the best equipment in the area which is why my doctor sent me there for these tests. And with the flip of a switch, they were able to switch from the regular ultrasound to the 4D. It was amazing. A friend of mine had the 4D image taken and when her son was born he looked exactly like the picture. I wanted to see my son's face so bad. Unfortunately he didn't want me to see him until he was able to look at me too. He hid his face at every single appointment. His hand were covering his face the entire time. They had me cough, laugh, wiggle, move around just to make him move his hands. They pushed on my belly and jiggled it. And he didn't budge. I started drinking orange juice before each appointment because that always seemed to make him move. But his hands were fastened in place over his face. I started to worry that something was wrong with his hands or arms. I thought that he wasn't physically able to move them away from his face. One day, he moved them briefly and they were able to get a 4D photo of a partial view of his face. The angle was off and it looked like his nose took up his whole face. I worried about his nose. I would love him, big nose and all but I wondered where he inherited it from. But at least I got a glimpse of him.

After the sonogram I was taken into a room and had to sit in a nice comfy chair. Monitors were strapped to my bulging belly - one to monitor my contractions if I was having any and one to monitor the baby's heartbeat. Then I just had to sit back and wait. They were looking for an acceleration of the baby's heartbeat when I had a contraction and a deceleration when the contraction was over. They had to wait for 3 good spikes of the heartbeat. For most of the appointments I was waiting forever. He just didn't want to cooperate. I would do anything I could to get his little heartbeat to spike. Just like for the sonogram, I would cough and laugh and talk and wiggle. They even brought out this device that looked like an electric shaver and zapped my belly. It just made a vibrating, rumbling noise. Eventually they got what they needed and I would go on to work.

Who knew being pregnant would be so much work! As long as the baby was ok, I would have done it every day if necessary. You do what you have to do when you are completely and totally responsible for someone else.