Not What I Was Hoping To Hear

I went in for my weekly doctor's appointment this morning. We started off with an ultrasound which showed that baby is estimated to be 6 lbs 11 oz right now. Good size baby for full-term, let alone one with another 4-5 weeks to go! But his growth has slowed down enough that she's not concerned right now that he'll grow too big to deliver, since my other babies were all around 8 lbs.

We moved on to the non-stress test, where baby refused to cooperate. This is the test where they put on the monitors to watch baby's heart rate, and each time he moves, the heart rate is supposed to go up by 10 beats per minute for at least 10 seconds. And he has to have 3 of these movements with raised heart rate before they let you off the monitor. Our baby was apparently feeling quite lazy today. After 10 minutes on the monitor, the nurse started suggesting chocolate to wake baby up. After 20 minutes on the monitor, the nurse brought me juice to drink to wake baby up. After 30 minutes on the monitor, the doctor buzzed him with a little noisemaker to wake him up. After 40 minutes on the monitor, the doc decided to send me back for a SECOND ultrasound to check on his reactivity. While she was gone arranging that, he finally decided to wake up and wiggle around a bit. So she came back, looked at the strip, and went back out to cancel the ultrasound. After a grand total of almost 60 minutes on the monitor, she was finally ready to send us home. (You know, for a couple days. Until I have to go back again.)

She asked if I had any questions, and I asked: "So is there some magic point like 36 or 37 weeks where I will get to go off bed rest?"

And then came the part I was hoping not to hear. She laughed. That wasn't a good sign. And she said, "Yes, in 3 weeks when we induce you."

*sigh*

3 weeks is very long time. Here's hoping this baby will decide on his own to come at least a little bit earlier than that!

There was a BIT of good news, though. I'm allowed to go to the Halloween Trunk or Treat this weekend, as long as I rest before and after and stay sitting down and quiet while I'm there. I'll take it! I'm excited for a chance to get out of the house and see people for a while!