June 1st: The Day of the False Alarm

(As we enter the "final countdown" until Monkey's arrival, I thought it would be fun to record some of my feelings in these final days as a preggo.)

Dear Monkey,

You earned a new nickname today. Drama Queen (or King as the case may be)! This morning started just like many others. Since it's June 1st, I reminded you that you couldn't be born today. Your Uncle Stephen doesn't want to share his birthday, and since he was kind enough to not come on my birthday some 24 years ago, I figured it was only fair to honor his wishes!

We made our way over to the hospital for our nonstress test appointment at 8am. It's becoming pretty routine for us. I'm even learning which channel is which on the hospital's cable system. Daddy didn't come with us this time since he had his monthly conference call at work. No big deal since the test is pretty boring for everyone involved.

Today, though, was not so boring. In addition to watching your heart rate on the monitor, I was also watching my contractions. It was kind of weird to watch them as I was feeling them and then watching what the contractions were doing to your heart rate. You did a good job of poking me plenty while the monitors were on. I was pretty sure we'd be cleared to go when the nurse came in to bring the strip to the doctor.

But today wasn't like the other days. Today the doctor who was filling in for Dr. K didn't like what she saw on your strip. She said there were some "variables" that could be nothing, or could be a sign that maybe you were getting low on amniotic fluid. I tried to act like I wasn't panicked when the nurse told me I'd need to come back in a couple of hours to get an ultrasound. I held it together until I got outside to call your Daddy. He ALMOST didn't answer his phone (he was on that conference call, remember?) but he picked up on the last ring before voicemail. When I heard his voice, I started to cry. I managed to tell him that he needed to come to the hospital with me because today might be the day to have a baby.

We met up at home and used the time before the ultrasound to get all of our bags packed and your carseat in the car. You'll learn once you get here that sometimes we tend to procrastinate. Well, the non stress test scare was just what we needed to get those last minute things done. We packed up the car and headed to the hospital all the while wondering if we would be driving back home in a couple of days with you in the car seat!

The ultrasound went more quickly than any other ultrasound we've had before. After causing problems during the non stress test, you were a rockstar for the biophyiscal profile ultrasound. The tech was making sure you were doing important things like practicing breathing and moving. She also checked to make sure your fluid was okay. Everything looked great and you scored an 8 out of 8 in ten minutes. We got to see your little face once again and this time you didn't have your hands blocking our view! My favorite part though was seeing your foot on the ultrasound as we watched it poke my belly on the outside! The tech was amazed by how hard you were pushing on my belly!! I told her you do it all the time! They sent us home with a clean bill of health just a few minutes later.

So Monkey, June 1st will now be known as the day of our false alarm. I guess we're kind of lucky, since many women have their false alarm in the middle of the night. At least we got to have ours while we were already awake.

Our bags are still in the car by the way...just in case you decide to come before June 11th!

Love you,
Mama