My wife mentioned yesterday afternoon (a Sunday) that it
seemed like Baby hadn't been moving as much the last few days. I recalled that
we hadn't seen any stomach punching like the famous scene from Alien, but obviously
I’m not as in tune with Baby as she is. Usually when I talk to Baby (up close
and personal) I’ll get some poking or movement. So last night, when she was
getting nervous, she called me over to talk to Baby. Which I gladly did.
I got a squirmy response (along with a tiny heartbeat, I
think), but that wasn't easing her fears. She drank some OJ (per the
instructions we’d gotten in class) and called the doctor’s office and they told
us an on-call doctor would call us back. Then she laid there for a few minutes
while I googled ‘reduced fetal movement’. One of the results I got discussed how in the
beginning of pregnancy, baby movements feel like ‘flutters’. Then they
transition into ‘thumps’. But around 28 weeks, the feeling goes back to ‘flutters’.
Baby is just running out of room to get a good kick.
Finally they called back and told us to come in and get
hooked up to a monitor.
A short, 5 minute car ride later, we were in an observation
room. The nurse was pleasant but had hell figuring out where to position the
sensors to hear Baby’s heartbeat. She said Baby was moving away from her the
more she tried to find the heartbeat. She poked and pushed on my wife’s belly
and tried again. Finally she found a nice steady heartbeat. Nothing to worry
about. She left the room and told my wife to push a button every time Baby
moved. She was clicking pretty regularly. Apparently all the fuss had awakened
Baby.
30 minutes later she returned and said how great Baby was.
Though we were only 27 weeks along, she said Baby was doing amazing. More like
a 32 week old. That’s my baby!
We finally got home and had dinner around 11:00 and watched Big Brother.