Apparently, the moment you hit your due date, you get put on a critical watch list where the doctors need to monitor you extremely frequently. So, yesterday, we went in for our second non-stress test at the birth center because we made 4 days late. For this test, I lay on a bed or reclining chair with my belly exposed and the nurse straps two hockey pucks with jelly on my abdomen. One of the pucks measures the babies heart beat and the other puck measures uterine pressure. The idea is that they can get a good idea of how the baby is doing and how well the placenta is functioning by making sure that the baby is moving around and there are no rapid drops in the heart beat but that the heart beat is fairly dynamic as it responds to external stimuli (i.e. my stomach growling).
The first test last week Tuesday on my due date was easy. TBD and I were outta there in 15 minutes and had passed with flying colors. This test was a bit more challenging. We were held up in there for over an hour because TBD's heart rate had a quick drop (which I didn't think was anything to worry about since it seemed to recover quite quickly). Plus, the monitor kept losing TBD's heart beat anyways since it was moving around so much.
The good news is that we were discharged without too much trouble and are scheduled to go back on Tuesday for a followup at our 41 week mark. Fingers crossed that TBD either comes out before then, or behaves during the appointment so as to avoid any alarm bells from sounding!
Two days post our due date and TBD (To Be Determined) is showing no signs of making his/her debut. So, we wait... In the meantime, TBD continues to try to escape out the side:
