Crazy, boring morning

Who knew that a morning could be both crazy and boring at the same time?  Turns out it can be!

I'm scheduled to spend at least 20 minutes a day on the fetal heart monitor so that they can get a detailed reading of Itty's heartbeat.  (We also listen to her every few hours and get a heartrate.)  During our session this morning, her heartrate - which usually hovers around 150 - dropped to 40.  Wow.  It popped right back us, but, obviously that's not a good sign.  They called the doctors, but while we were waiting for them, she dipped back into the 90's, again shooting right back up.  Dr. Barrett looked at her readings, checked with the attedning, and sent us over to L&D to be monitored continuously for a little while, as the dips could mean that she was in distress and would require immediate delivery if we were still planning on being as aggressive as possible (which we are).  John wasn't in yet, so I called him and let him know what was going on (which I'm sure freaked him out, but his mom was with him, so I didn't worry too much about it - she's good for him). 

We had to go to L&D to be monitored because these particularly monitors can be feisty and tend to require more attention from the nurses, so long-term (as in, more than a few minutes) monitoring is in L&D where they have fewer patients per nurse.  It's also pretty uncomfortable for me and Itty, mostly because she hates the monitors and tries to scurry away from them, and I have to stay as still as possible, often in funny positions so they can hear her just right.  I also wasn't allowed to eat in case they had to deliver.  All I had eaten all day was a tiny bowl of dry Honey Nut Cheerios, so I was starving.  In case you've forgotten, I am pregnant, after all.  Ugh.

Anyway, they ended up keeping me over there for a few hours before finally releasing me to go back to my room on the floor.  In all that time, she only had one more significant dip, so they think that they are caused by her momentarily squashing or squeezing her cord rather than a breakdown in the placenta.  I was so ready to sit up and eat - before they even started getting me ready to move, I sent John down to the Pizza Hut so I would have lunch waiting for me (it was, after all, almost 2:00 by now).  And that was damn good pizza. 

So here we are again, after a crazy and exceedingly boring morning.  My mom is on her way into town now (she couldn't wait any longer!), so the moms will be having a slumber party with the dogs tonight.  Good times.  They will keep monitoring her (probably a bit more frequently than before), but they think she's probably doing okay.  She's certainly been moving around a lot today, which is a good sign.  My pressures are down a bit, too, so we Hill girls are hanging in there!  John and Dana brought all kinds of good stuff from home, so our room is decked out with pictures, a dvd player, flowers from Jan (so beautiful!), and even an angel food cake from some of the Bethpage folks.  Really, if I'm going to be in the hospital, I can't ask for more - which is awesome, because as of tonight, I will have spent more nights here than in our new house.  Sigh.  But at least the grandmas are here to hold down the fort there and take care of my canine babies.  In the meantime, I'll be in here taking care of this baby!