It's Friday

I cannot believe we have made through an entire work week.  Last week at this time it seemed like such a daunting task, but here we are.  Next week at this time, I should be back at my house for the first time in 4 weeks and also no longer preggo.  I know I will hate leaving Eli here and will feel so weird once he is no longer tucked safely inside. I am sure I will be back bright and early Saturday morning to check on him. 

Today got off to a bit of a hectic start.  Each morning they do a Non-Stress Test.  It monitors Eli's heartrate and my contractions.  I am usually on the monitor for 30-45 minutes, and if things look good they take me off and then just check his heartrate every 4 hours.  This morning I was alone and all hooked up to the monitor.  You really can't move too much because it kinda messes things up.  About 10 minutes into the monitoring Eli had a deceleration.  That means that his heartrate dipped too low below the baseline and stayed there a little bit.  I always get anxious watching the monitor when that happens.  He generally does great but he has had a few decels over the past 3 days.  This is also not too uncommon when your fluid is low because the baby can move onto the cord.

When a decel last for a little bit an alarm starts sounding...loudly...BEE...BONG...BEE...BONG...and it does not stop until someone turns it off.  Normally, I would just get kev to silence it until they come to check on me, but since he wasn't around I just tried to deal with it. After a while I decided to call for a nurse to come look at the strip and turn it off.  Thirty minutes later no one had come.  So I called again....BEE...BONG...BEE...BONG...constantly!  I was also dying to go to the bathroom at this point and I was contracting every so often.  I waited and waited and tried to occupy my time with the Internet.  Around this time another thirty minutes had passed and so I called a third time.  At that point I was ready to get up and silence the thing myself, but I was also a little concerned about Eli.  The monitor was also now out of paper and had quit recording and I really needed to use the bathroom.  The constant monitor alarm combined with a few decels, a full bladder and some little contractions for almost an hour an half made me quite exasperated!!

Finally, my nurse and another nurse she was training arrived.  I told them that I had called 3 times needing them to come check and cut off the alarm.  They were nice but kinda acted like people often call needing ice or towels and so it is hard to know when they are really needed.  Makes me a little nervous if I was really having an emergency!  It was a bit frustrating because I am not one to call unless I need something I cannot do myself.  I have even mastered wrapping up my own IV each day prior to my shower, just so I don't have to call and wait for someone else to do it for me. 

The nurse thought everything looked okay and I asked if the attending could look over the strip.  Of course she said yes.  I also let her know that while I am not an overly anxious person, I am not beyond thinking that something unforeseen could still go wrong and I would rather them be overly cautious than not.  The doctor wanted to put me back on the monitor after lunch.  After lunch things appeared to be much more normal and my contractions definitely slowed down.  I am thankful that things are okay and I am ready to get Eli safely here.

Today actually went really fast.  We had some sweet visitors and due to the fact that it was a long morning it was dinner time before I knew it.  So glad to get to the weekend.  THREE more days!!!