the fly in the ointment

Well, perhaps one could have predicted that the entire pregnancy wouldn't be totally smooth sailing-- sure, I had my share of gross mucus problems and my belly is bigger than anyone could have imagined, but so far everything has been going very smoothly (and some of the credit has to go to the amazingly fibrous and seedy German bread. You know what I mean. I'll try not to get too gross on the blog, but I am about to push out a baby in front of several strangers thereby losing whatever shreds of modesty I had left, so ... there.)

Anyway, we had a little CTG/heart rate problem Monday at the midwife's office. Jeremy was there with me because the midwife offered to talk him through the birth preparation since we couldn't get into the couples' birthing class. Then, during the CTG part of my exam, the baby's heart rate dipped very low for a minute or so. The midwife then sent me to my regular doctor where he did another CTG (fine) and looked at the baby with the ultrasound (also fine). He told me to pay attention to any strange movements -- too fast, none for a long time, or very rhythmic. The little guy does have hiccups every few days, and those are rhythmic movements, so when I felt hiccups Tuesday night and then nothing afterwards, I called the hospital for advice. The midwife there told us to come in where we had a loooong CTG (very fine) and another ultrasound (everything good. The doctor was measuring EVERYTHING). Since we had pre-registered there a month ago, we were treated immediately, and the whole thing only lasted an hour. I'm going back to the doctor today, and, as an extra precaution I'm going to another doctor for a doppler scan.

I have to say that it was pretty interesting to see the whole system spring into action. I'm slowly starting to worry less as each test comes back completely normal.