My new doctor wanted an ultrasound to check growth and position. The baby is still breech, but there's still time to turn around. (The placenta is up high.) Growth is normal.
The heartbeat is 144 per minute. At this stage the baby should be about 11 inches long and 4-1/2 lbs, tho I didn't get exact measurements. I asked tho for pictures of the feet. See my next entry for those!
Then I had a non-stress test (or an NST) where they strap on a belt and record the heartbeat in squigglies on graph paper and you lie there and doze. The heartbeat is so strong! And the baby kicked constantly!
Instead of dozing, I read an article in Entertainment Weekly about the negotiations between New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson over the possible making of The Hobbit (which I totally stole). I have my fingers and toes crossed that PJ gets to direct, and brings with him Weta Digital and Weta Workshop special effects, and art consultants Alan Lee and John Howe, again. Can you imagine Lucasfilm sucking the soul out of it? Or Sam Ramie turning it into a Spiderman blockbuster? I shudder to think!
I visited with the doctor and asked him about the heart-pounding and dizzy spells I've been getting, plus a ringing in my ears. He says it's all related. I can't make as much sense here as he did, but I was impressed again by his bedside manner. I told him it didn't feel normal but he said that he really didn't mean to sound like he was dismissing my feelings, but that it is "normal"--which is a good thing--that this is something that can happen more often in second pregnancies. My blood has doubled, and my abdominal/pelvic floor muscles that were stretched with the first pregnancy are not as strong. So what happens is that when I lay back, slouch, or lean back in the glider w/ Tyler on my lap, the uterus presses on a couple of essential arteries and my heart, which is already working harder than usual, has an even harder time, and my blood pressure drops. This explains how I got dizzy just singing songs to Tyler to put him to bed. The ringing in the ears is part of a related phenomenon that's not uncommon, sometimes I can hear my blood pumping in my ears, too. Unlike other doctors before him, he reviewed positions I've been in and how to alter them to take the pressure off. For instance, I've been laying on the couch feeling faint a lot, but I should be on my side instead. Salt makes it worse. More water makes it better. This is somthing I have to manage.
Next week I meet another of the practice who may be on-call when I deliver. And get another NST.
P.S. My old doctor's office never sent my medical records over. So now I have to go through the awkward discomfort of calling them up to explain and possibly picking them up in person--yuck!
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