More on the heart rate.

I ended up at the hospital's triage this morning/afternoon for a non-stress test (NST). I didn't feel her move for about an hour and a half this morning. I knew she could just be sleeping, but with all the low-heart-rate warnings, I decided to stop and rest to see. I drank a big cold glass of mango-orange juice, jiggled the belly a bunch to wake her, and then laid down for an hour. She moved 3 times in that hour. The books say she should move 10 times in an hour, but my OB said on Monday I should be concerned if she moves 4 times or less in an hour. So, I called my OB's office. All three doctors were at the hospital delivering babies so K, my OB's assistant sent me to triage for a NST. She said she couldn't have me come to the office because there was no doctor to read the results.

I went. I was on the monitor for about an hour contracting almost exactly every 5 minutes (I thought I was only contracting 3-4 times an hour...oops). Her baseline is lower than it has been in the past (~145 beats per minute, bpm), but it stayed between 125 and 130 bpm for most of the NST. She had a few drops into the 110s (112 was the lowest I saw it go on the monitor) but the nurse and my OB said they weren't sustained enough to truly count as decelerations. She seemed to be tolerating all the contractions well so they said there wasn't much cause for concern and I could go. If I feel less movement again, I'm to try something cold, sugary, and with caffeine (Mt. Dew was suggested!) when I lay down.

Funny aside. When the nurse came in to say I was contracting every 5 minutes (I had said 3-4 an hour at check-in) she seemed all concerned. I said, "Oh. I don't mean to be unconcerned about it, but I've been contracting so much for so long that my OB said I shouldn't use the frequency of contractions as a guideline--just the intensity of the pain. They are uncomfortable, but not really painful, so I'm not really worried." She asked to check me anyway to see if they were doing anything. She didn't see any change from what I'd been told on Monday, so, no big deal for now.