You Could Say It Was A Busy Night

Baby Cousin was born last night at 8:20pm!

Ryker Lee, born October 5th, 7lbs 5oz, 19.5 inches

I wish I could have been there to show support and to be there for his big day. This day is the most important day in his life, and one of the most important days in his parents' lives. My sister-in-law is so blessed to have so many family members who care about her and her baby.

Mark and I also ended up going to the hospital last night when, after two hours, I wasn't feeling the baby move. It was a pretty nerve-wracking experience, but the nurse I had was incredibly nice about the whole thing, as were the people at the desks (since it was almost 1:00am when I got there, I had to go through the emergency room.) It reaffirmed that I made an excellent choice about the hospital where I'm going to be giving birth.

via

This is actually a picture of the birthing suite, but my room looked very similar. I was in one of their "holding rooms" where they put you when you first check in. They're mostly for non-stress tests (like what I needed) and for checking a patient before deciding whether or not she's progressed enough to admit her into Labor and Delivery. The only thing that wasn't in my room was the baby checking station ... thing.

I really do have a way with words, don't I?

Anyway, I hoping that by me going in last night and answering a bunch of medical and family history questions for them that they'll keep that in my file and I won't have to go through it all again when I'm there for the big event.

 

If you've never had a non-stress test done at a hospital, basically what happened was that I was wheeled up to Labor and Delivery in a wheel chair per the hospital's policy - which was a little embarrassing because I was obviously very pregnant and very NOT in labor - and checked in there. They took my weight, then showed me my room where I had to change into a gown and also leave a urine sample. The nurse came in and the first thing she did was put two monitors on my stomach, which displayed their results on a screen next to my bed. You can see it in the photo above. The top graph is the baby's heartbeat, which gets higher when he's moving and drops when he's resting. The bottom graph shows if I'm contracting (which I wasn't. I'm starting to think my body doesn't know what to do with a baby once one gets in there.) Once she heard the heartbeat she went about asking me the standard medical and family history questions and took my blood pressure. She had to leave soon after because another patient needed her attention, so Mark and I had the room to ourselves for an hour. Near the end of the hour, the nurse came back and finished asking her questions and took off the monitors. She said that everything looked great and that the doctor on duty would probably send me home after he looked at my results. Which he did. But of course, I didn't really feel much movement at all during the non-stress test, and I'm not feeling just a ton now, so I don't really feel any better about it. I mentioned to the nurse that I still hadn't been feeling many movements so she felt around my stomach to try to get an idea of his position. She said she couldn't feel his limbs so he must be facing my spine instead of lying on one side like he had been.

At this point I'm trying to take note of the occasional movements that I do feel, and trying to accept that I may just be unable to feel him for a while. I hope he comes soon. I can't help but think that I'll be a little more at ease when I can see his chest rising and falling, and feel the air going in and out through his nostrils.