Our appointment update

We made it through yesterday evening without incident. Thank goodness. There were some parts of the evening that were..... well.... just plain awkward. But what are you going to do?

Meredith had her first hero of proscuitto, fresh mozzarella and roasted red peppers. And then we went to tell the beach "See you in a bit." We're trading one beach for the other. At least I like Coney Island a lot better. Meredith seems to enjoy it more as well. There is more to see. More people to watch. more ice cream and hot dogs to eat.















Last night brought me no sleep. I really could've used the sleep, but Meredith ended up in bed with us again. I don't know what's going on with her, but I need some sleep desperately. I don't know whether it's the transition into yet another new place, teething, bubbly belly or what. Whatever it is, I'd really appreciate it working itself out.

This morning we were greeted with another round of doctors' appointments. I was scheduled for a fetal echo & a growth ultrasound. Sean "give your mother a friggin break already" Scott was completely uncooperative. The technician kept asking me to walk around & come back to see if she could get the pictures of Sean's pulmonary artery that she needed. No matter what I did, he would not wake up or turn around.

So instead of waiting around with my thumb up my butt, we decided to see if we could push the growth ultrasound up and get it out of the way. After waiting for what seemed like forever, I finally got seen. Today's ultrasound technician was nowhere near as good or as nice as the one that did my last ultrasound.

As part of the ultrasound, she checked his heart rate. When she put the sound up for me to hear it, it just didn't sound right. It didn't sound like the same heartbeat as I have heard a thousand times before. I didn't ask her about it though. I figured if there was a problem, she'd call the perinatologist in. Plus.... when I asked her about the kidneys she said "I'm sorry. I'm not the dr." Then she did a measurement of the head. I noticed something, a black spot. I know it wasn't there before. I have studied every single thing about my past ultrasounds. Again, I didn't ask. I didn't want to be frustrated when the tech said "you'll have to wait for the dr to read the report."

After the ultrasound, I was getting ready to leave and all of a sudden this same tech who was telling me she wasn't the dr, was telling I couldn't leave because I had to be hooked up for monitoring. No one would tell me why. I asked for the dr because I wanted to know why I was being monitored. Of course, the dr wasn't there. Hmmmmmmmm So I asked the physician's assistant why she was monitoring me. Apparently, the ultrasound tech had ordered me to be monitored for Sean's heart rate. No here's my issue. If she's not authorized to give me any information, she should not be authorized to order additional testing.

As I was sitting there hooked up to the heart monitor, I watched & listened to the heart rate go up & down. I knew in my heart of hearts that something was wrong and got so mad at myself for not pushing further like I have done in the past. His heart rate would go all the way down (107 bpm) to all the way up (162 bpm) In the end, the report said that his heart rate was reactive with a median rate of 125. Now if you ask me, it hovered more around 115 bpm, but who am I? I'm just his mother.

The same people that were telling me that the non-stress test was "fine" and "normal" are also telling me that I will probably have to go back once a week for a non-stress test. Um..... if everything was "fine" and "normal" I would not have to go back every week for the next 8 weeks or so.

I had to go back to the cardiologist after my non-stress test to hopefully complete the fetal echo. The technician that started this morning had gone to lunch and the other folks thought it a good idea for me to wait for her. By this time I had had it. I lost it. I told them I would not wait and there was no reason for me to wait when someone else could very easily handle doing the echo. Apparently, that was all they needed and I was ushered in to have my echo done.

After the echo, we saw the cardiologist and she assured us that the pulmonary artery hadn't narrowed anymore and that's what she was looking for. We have to go back to see her in 4 weeks for yet another echo.

I'm done. More to come after Meredith goes to bed when I can really gather my thoughts.