34 Week Doctor Appointment

Almost a week later, I have finally found some time to sit down and post about Brooklyn's last doctor appointment. Being almost a week later, and since SO much has happened since then, I know I'm not going to be able to remember everything in detail. I know, I know, I need to be better about keeping up with everything. It has just become so much harder to do the closer the time gets.

Anyway, my mom, Grandma Carrie took me to my appointment this time. For some reason, every time she takes me, we wind up having to wait forever. When Dale takes me, we never have to wait too long... it's weird. Dr. Fletcher was running behind AGAIN, what a surprise, I know. So I think we had to wait about an hour before we even got called back. Let's just say my appointment was at 10:30 in the morning and I didn't get to leave the office until almost 12:30ish that afternoon.

As for the usual vitals and stuff, everything was good. My blood pressure was still good and her heart beat was still up in the 150's. I also lost a pound over the week, which is awesome for me because I am trying hard to keep myself healthy and not gain a lot of extra weight.

So once we got back to the freezing cold room to see the doctor and got to wait a little longer, Dr. Fletcher came in with the results of my ultrasound from the Tuesday (November 11th) before. She told me she had some concerns because the fluid measurements came back low. She said for where I was in my pregnancy, 34 weeks, she wanted my fluid count to be around 12 (whatever the measurement term they use for fluid is). My fluid count was at 9. She said it wasn't dangerous, but that it was something she definitely wanted to keep an eye on. She informed me that if it were to get dramatically lower, like to 6 or 5, that she would have to take Brooklyn early. So to keep an eye on this problem, she wanted me to go in every week until Brooklyn arrives to have an ultrasound/ growth scan done. She wants to keep a close eye on how much fluid is around her and how much I might be losing.

Dr. Fletcher then told me that with her weight, 4 pounds 15 ounces, that it was enough to keep her out of NICU given that nothing else would go wrong. Next she got me set up to do a NST, or a Non-Stress Test. This test just consisted of them strapping a heart monitor to my belly as well as a monitor for my contractions. I had to stay hooked up to the monitor for over 20 minutes and had to press a button every time I felt Brooklyn move. Given that it was lunch time and I hadn't had a chance to eat before the appointment, Brooklyn was hungry. So she moved around a LOT! Every time I pressed the button for her movement, it would mark it on the heart rate sheet. What the doctor was watching out for was for her heart rate to go up after each of her movements. Once the NST was done, the doctor looked over the results and said that I just barely got by but that everything looked ok.

I also asked Dr. Fletcher about setting up a birth plan. She told me if I wanted to write one out that I might as well just plan to have a c-section. She said the majority of her patients who write out a birth plan wind up having to have a c-section. Then she went over what she does and what her rules are for the delivery. She said she was pretty easy going as wasn't one of the doctors what tried to force drugs on her patients or anything. She said basically her only rule was that I HAD to have an IV in case she needed to administer any drugs in case of an emergency. I knew that was a requirement already, but it is still something I am not looking forward to because they put their IVs right in the middle of your arm and they hurt!

The doctor also told me to start taking my higher dose of medicine every 4 hours now instead of every 6. The doctor checked me out also to make sure nothing else was going on and said I was still at a two, so I was still doing good.

Anyway, that was basically it, or at least that is all I can remember. My next appointment is tomorrow, Thursday, November 20th. I also had an ultrasound to check the fluid amount again which they got me in for yesterday. I will update everyone on that tomorrow though as well as the baby shower from this past weekend and Brooklyn kicking her daddy in the head AND developments from today and the doctor appointment tomorrow. So much to do, so little time!

Love,
Jennifer