So I'm stil here.

I've decided I'm staying.. even if my presence in the blogosphere does nothing but give me an outlet for irrational fears, that's reason enough for me to be here...



Couple things happened this week - for one, I passed my (early) gest diabetes test. Beautifully. I celebrated by symbolically kicking the "Gestational Diabetes And You!!" pamphlet the oh-so-helpful nutritionist had given me, and by baking some brownies. Real honest-to-goodness white flour and sugar brownies. Hot damn, they were good.

I'm not totally abandoning my low-carbness, but it feels oh-so-good to not feel guilty if I want a sandwich on pasty white bread instead of whole-grain wheat... 'cause let's face it, even if the whole grain is better with tuna salad, it bites in grilled cheese.

So that's a yay.

And then yesterday, I had another day where RiceCake stopped moving in the evening. She's usually pretty typical with her movements - an hour or so of the fetal jitterbug and then a few hours of nothing. Really predictable hours too. I get the first dance lesson shortly after getting up, a second somewhere around lunchtime, and finally, the late-evening waltz.

Even though I know that it's early enough that lack of movement probably means that I'm just not feeling the movement going on, it still freaked me out. Natch.

So I pull out the doppler and notice that the little thumpthumpthump sounds more like thump-thump-thump. Subtle, but slower. Now, I don't have a doppler that will actually calculate the beats per minute* so I'm trying to add in my head, and I come up with a number that's in the normal range. Ahh... reassurance? Uhh... no. It's normal, but significantly slower than what I've come to expect.

Fine, I won't panic, I'll just go to sleep and check it in the morning.

Still slower.

Dr Google advises me that slowing heart rate is not good... in labor. And that resting heart rate is lower than running heart rate. Oh, and in case I didn't know it, fetal heart rate slows significantly after the 6-week mark. (I think it was 6 weeks, don't quote me on that, and if you got here by a search for "slowed fetal heart rate 6 weeks" definitely don't use me as a knowledgable source)

Google had nothing about second-trimester heart rate. Nothing.

So I eat breakfast and check again, and lo and behold, we're back to thumpthumpthump.

Holy jeez - did I just freak out about a fetal nap??

I think there's a reason G is such a light sleeper. I'm a fetus-poker. In other words, when G was 3/4 baked or so, any time he didn't move often enough, I'd poke him. Poor kid came into the world squalling and sleep-deprived, and he's made me pay for it ever since.

I promised myself I wouldn't do that to Rice. But I think we can all see where this is headed.





*small piece of advice: If you're getting a doppler, spring for the extra $$ to get one that will calculate bpm. If you are fortunate enough to have a friend that says 'hey, I have a doppler, do you want to borrow it while you're pregnant?', do what I did, and be grateful to have anything.. but if you're actually paying for one, that extra reassurance may just be worth it.


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Totally unrelated, but this morning, blogger cornered me and strongarmed me into switching to the new style. A change I have been resisting for a long, long time. I am hoping this will not be a major change. I do not like change.

Damn you blogger.