The Baby's Health

I meant to post about this last week, but it was scary and I was trying not to think about it.

I did have to go to the hospital after my last doctor's appointment. You see, this little guy has a low heart rate and it is hard to find his heart beat. Even at 7 months it takes some time to find him. His heart rate is on the low side of what is considered normal. He also is very still. It is not uncommon for me to go 4-6 hours and not feel a thing. He often fails the daily kick counts I have to do. Also, I had been effacing for awhile, but I was dilated to 1 cm (28 1/2 weeks). That is still considered okay for now, but it is concerning given my history of pre-term labor. After my appointment the doctor hooked me to a monitor to do a non-stress test- just to make sure he was okay. He failed miserably. They couldn't keep his heartbeat on the monitor and the few movements he did make were not reactive (his heart never varied from it's low point.)

That got me sent over to the hospital to do a complete bio-physical profile. It took some time, but they were able to get a reactive monitoring strip and he looks fine on his ultrasound.

Current prognosis- This baby is prone to fetal distress. I am not allowed to get stressed in any way- emotionally, physically, etc. His heart rate is low and he doesn't move much, but everything looks okay from the ultrasound which is the best they can do for now. I continue the daily fetal kick counts, though I don't know why because he usually fails. It frequently takes me hours to get 10 movements. As for my labor issues- I am continuing medication to keep things quiet in there, resting as much as possible, and praying really hard that the dilating stops so I can stay out of the hospital and off bed rest.