Yesterday morning I went to the hospital with reduced movements from baby K. This baby is normally so active, she is constantly on the move and I am reminded every minute of every day that she’s in there and the constant moving is actually really reassuring to me. So yesterday morning after I’d been awake for about an hour and a half and finished breakfast, I noticed I hadn’t felt her move which was definitely strange to me. She’s usually kicking me in the ribs whilst I’m trying to eat my breakfast.
I decided I was going to try and lie down and put my hands on my stomach for a while as she usually responds to my touch with quite a strong kick but after a while there was still nothing. I started to get a bit worried at this point and that’s when I rang the hospital and told them what had been happening and they asked that I go in to be monitored.
I made my way to the hospital and once I got there I was seen to right away, they hooked me up to a monitor so that they could check baby’s heart beat and count her movements. After a couple of minutes the nurse came to talk to me, she was happy with baby’s heart beat but asked me if I had been experiencing any tightenings to which I replied no. Because as far as I was aware I hadn’t. The nurse informed me that I was in fact having tightenings and that I was having them quite frequently too yet I still couldn’t feel them but they were showing up on the monitor and every time I had one, baby K’s heart rate dropped.
I was in complete shock and bricking it at this point. I was expecting for me to just go to the hospital whilst they monitored me for a while, tell me everything was alright and then send me home but nope. They told me they wanted to send me down to the labour ward as they couldn’t be too careful because of my history of pre term labour and to just be prepared.
I couldn’t believe what was I was being told and I was so overwhelmed at this point that I just began to cry. I am 32 weeks pregnant now so I know that she’d be okay with help from all the hospital staff once she’d been born and being born at 32 weeks is a lot better than being born at 26 weeks which was how many weeks pregnant I was when she gave me my last scare, I know babies come whenever they want but I just want her to stay in for a few more weeks at the very least. Kory was born at 34 weeks and he spent two weeks in the hospital on Nicu after being born and it was tough, if she could just stay in until 35 weeks which is only just over 3 weeks away then I know she wouldn’t have a long hospital stay after being born and that would be less worry for us and a lot easier for Baby K.
Once I was on the labour ward, they ran a few more tests on me and did a few more observations which thankfully all came back clear and everything was well with both me and baby. My cervix wasn’t open, I hadn’t dilated and my body wasn’t responding to the tightenings and after a while, they could see from the monitor that the tightenings were beginning to stop and I noticed that baby K’s movements were back and as they should be.
After a while, they moved me to the maternity ward just so that they could keep their eye on me before sending me home and luckily I was able to come home last night. I was so glad everything was okay with baby but I just felt tried, guilty and upset. I was so tired, I hadn’t eaten anything all day as I couldn’t eat just in case they had to get me prepped for delivery, I was away from Kory and had been since first thing in the morning and just wanted to get home to him and to get a good nights rest.
Now I understand why it is so important to get to know your baby’s usual pattern of movements. If you are pregnant and ever feel unsure or uneasy about anything, just trust your own body like I did. Everyone will tell you to trust your gut instinct and you might think but how will I know? I have thought that too but trust me you will. I am so lucky that I went to the hospital because I didn’t know about the tightenings and I didn’t know that they were affecting Baby K’s heart rate. It was only through noticing a change in her movements that told me something wasn’t right. Now I’m home and she’s okay but had I not gone in to the hospital then who knows what might have happened! It is always better to be on the safe side so don’t ever feel like you’re wasting anybody’s time by ringing the hospital or going in to see them because you’re not and that’s what the hospital and all doctors, nurses and midwives are there for.
Let’s see if Baby K can hang in there for another 3 weeks or so. I don’t want any more scares, I’ve had enough of those from this pregnancy to last me a life time!
I’m gonna have to take it really easy now and just hope for the best.
Life as The Lonsdales 