Week 27: One scary morning

26 weeks, 3 days.

As any regular reader of my little corner of the blogosphere knows, I have an anterior placenta, which means that I feel the baby less often (and less strongly) than all the women whose placentas settle on the sides or back of the uterus. Practically speaking, what it really means is that I have to ignore all of the advice pregnancy books give you about how often your baby should move so as not to spend my life totally freaking out.

Since Small Monster has started moving regularly though, I have gotten used to his usual squirming times and frequency, and am happy to be surprised when it happens more often. And I am pretty good about not panicking when it happens less often. Because that, in my situation, is normal. He’s moving, but I can’t feel it, and the only way to deal with that appropriately is to not think about it too much.

But then there was yesterday – he was quiet most of the day (after I posted yesterday), and in the afternoon, I really didn’t feel anything I could definitively identify as him. I didn’t worry right off – didn’t start worrying until about 3 in the morning this morning, when I went to bed – but when I did start to worry, it was some serious worry, because I really hadn’t felt him in almost 18 hours by the time I was awakened by Christian’s alarm clock (at 6:00 am – grumble). I was groggy, grumpy, and very, very worried.

I quaffed some orange juice hoping to get him to kick my belly – no dice. I ate some granola – still nothing. Christian tried to soothe me, but I was too grumpy to be soothed, and finally we just snuggled for a bit before he left for work. He put his hand on top of my belly and – pop.

A little kick, maybe, I thought. Just as I was about to mention it, Christian said, “Hey, there was something there, but maybe it was a muscle or something?”

I shook my head. “Nope, that was him, but that was still pretty weak…” It was some relief, but I was still pretty concerned, because he goes all squirmy when I wake up in the morning usually. It’s typical, though, that the first time his papa is able to feel him – actually, not only feels him, but sees him move – it has to be because his mama is worried that something is wrong with him. Oh well, take it where you can get it, I guess.

He still wasn’t moving much though, and I was strangely sore all over my belly and lower back. So I was still freaked out. I decided to call my OB just to find out if it was ok to stay home and not worry, and the office said I should have called the night before, making me feel really guilty. Now, in truth, if I called every time I didn’t feel Small Monster 10 times in 2 hours, I would just have to live at Labor and Delivery, because until this morning at Labor and Delivery (natch), I’d never felt him 10 times in any two-hour period, not even when he’s doing those little Loch Ness Monster somersaults that make my belly wiggle. But I didn’t bother to explain because, well, I just wasn’t in the mood.

They had me come in to L&D, and so I called a cab (telling the cab company I’d be paying with credit, and so of course they send me a “cash only” driver, meaning I have to stop at an ATM on my dime because, let’s face it, I’m concerned about my baby, not really about arguing with a driver over an extra $2), and headed on in.

They were expecting me, and the nurse and midwife were totally nice, and totally awesome. They wanted to strap me up to fetal monitoring equipment for 20 minutes or so to see if the baby was moving and his heartbeat was ok (and if I was having contractions), and so I spent a while lying on a hospital bed with stuff strapped on to my belly. And what do you know, the second they strap stuff on, that kid starts to move. And I do mean move. As in Disco Monster. He does not, apparently, like having stuff pressing on his house (the nurse said it’s probably because he doesn’t like the sound of something being pushed hard/moved on the belly), and he was rolling all over, and kicking, and what not. He moved so much that they couldn’t even keep track of his heartbeat for more than about 3 minutes at a pop, but when they did… his heartbeat is awesome, doing just exactly what they want it to do – rise quickly when he moves, and drop quickly to its baseline when he stops.

And in the end, this meant I spent more like 40 minutes on the monitors, but I could even hear him move when I couldn’t feel it, and it was reassuring to know that he really does move a lot more than I can detect. The midwife was really pleased with his condition, and not too too worried about mine, although it was clear they were taking it seriously.

It turns out that as far as they can tell, baby is great and nothing is wrong – he’s just still little enough that he can hide. They kept emphasizing that I did the right thing by coming in and that if it happened again to come right back, but all I can say is that I am relieved. I also feel a little bit dumb, in spite of the fact that they kept telling me that there was nothing to feel stupid about. But better me feeling dumb than Small Monster having some problem. My blood pressure was a little high, but in the grand scheme of things, if that’s the most terrible news they had for me today, I can totally live with it. I have a list of stuff to mention to my OB on Monday, but otherwise, it’s all ok.

I think Small Monster and I have, however, earned a nap. A nice, long, snuggly nap.

Clearly, though, this baby is a born troublemaker – a better indicator of who fathered him than any paternity test