Forrest Fluff-Pants, taking advantage of Dylan and using her as a snuggling perch.
Can you believe it's been over a month since I've posted?? Shame on me, I know, but I've been enjoying a blissfully uneventful pregnancy and haven't really felt that there's been much to post about this last month. (Other than the fact that our little Dylan-roo is a lovely, busy, kick-y baby who we've nicknamed Nesbertina for her Loch Ness Monster type moves!)
Unfortunately our wonderful uneventful pregnancy streak couldn't last, never a boring pregnancy for us I guess. I went in for my OB appointment yesterday (we'd just jumped up to every 2 week appointments), and I told Dr. Copeland that I'd been having a lot of contractions for the past week. Mom & Dad had been on vacation, so I'd been manning the clinic by myself and it's not uncommon when I'm on my feet all day that I'll have a ton of Braxton Hicks. He decided to do a cervical check, and found that the bottom half of my cervix was dilated to 1 cm already. So we went over to ultrasound for a cervical ultrasound, to make sure my cervix isn't getting too short and to confirm that it's only dilated on the lower half, not the upper half too. While we were walking to ultrasound, I asked if they could do a quick belly scan too - just to see how big Miss Dylan's getting.
The cervical ultrasound showed that it was indeed just the lower half of my cervix that had dilated slightly (whew!), and that my cervix is 21-25 mm long - depending on positioning. Dr. C said this is short, but not too short yet, and just something to keep an eye on. During the belly scan Miss Dylan looked great, but the ultrasonographer noted that I had low amniotic fluid surrounding her. After talking to Dr. C, this could be one of four general scenarios: (1) It's just positional (well, actually the ultrasonographer is the one who threw this out there - she said sometimes she scans someone, it looks low, they send them to Riverside to the perinatologists, and on their scan it looks normal.) (2) I had a busy week, on my feet a lot, which can decrease placental blood flow and result in low amniotic fluid. If I stay off my feet for a week, drink a lot of fluids, and be a lazy lump in general, it may be back to normal in a week. (3) It's normal for me - and Dylan's fine with that. So it may still be low when I go back, but as long as it's not lower and Dylan's still tolerating it well, we'll just keep a very close eye on it. (4) It's low and might get lower, and even if we can't figure out why, if Dylan doesn't tolerate it or if it gets too low, then that's not good.
I know I've talked a lot about Dylan 'tolerating' the low amniotic fluid, and they test that by doing a non-stress test. Basically I sit in a chair for 20 minutes while they put a fetal heart rate monitor on me (and a contraction monitor), and they look to see how much Dylan moves and also if her heart rate increases appropriately when she is moving. More moving with appropriate heart rate increases = Happy Dylan who likes her environment. Also, they look at her on ultrasound and see how big she is. If she continues to grow well, then she must be happy in her environment. Right now she's in the 57th percentile at 3 pounds and 1 ounce - which Dr. C said is great! He said he would be much more concerned if my fluid was low and she was down in the 10th percentile. Also, on the non-stress test they did yesterday, Dylan did EXCELLENT (nurses words exactly :)). So in short, even though my fluid is low, Dylan is a happy baby - growing well and moving lots. I'm just hoping and praying that she continues like this, and also, lets be honest, that this was just a positional finding and we're all better next week!
With this weeks adventures, we've officially been moved to once a week rechecks, so we'll be making lots of trips to Columbus for what I hope with all of my heart is at least the next 9 weeks! This week Dylan and I are on at-home bed rest with instructions to drink as much fluid as I can, stay off my feet as much as possible, and keep my bladder as empty as possible (if you've ever been pregnant, you realize what an impossible trick that combination is!) We're keeping our fingers (and any other possible body parts) crossed that next Monday brings great news, and that even if we're not allowed to go back to work, that my fluid is better and that Dylan is happy & healthy & bigger!
