Today's appointment went much better. Emmie passed the BPP in 10 minutes. She moved and breathed right away. The thing that took the longest was finding enough fluid. The first two times Jenny measured, she came up with around 7.5. They want me to have at least 8. The third time she checked, Emmie had moved and revealed a couple pockets of fluid, and we measured over 10. The average was a little over 8, so we passed. My blood pressure was good. I'd lost a pound or two because the warm weather encourages me to eat more produce and be more active outdoors. Emmie's heart rate was good, too.
Dr. Ackermann was happy with our progress. I asked what we were going to do about the toxoplasmosis. He said that he thought it was a false positive. He said that pregnancy causes all IgM scores to go up, and my score was just barely positive. And my IgG score was negative, which would be odd if my positive score was so low that it looked like I was recovering from the infection. He also said that toxoplasmosis is so rare that he's never had a patient actually have a true positive result. The rarity isn't necessarily reassuring. We've had other rare problems before. I asked if we should retest to verify the result. He said that you can't retest for a month, and I'll have a baby by then. I asked if treating me would have enough benefits to outweigh possible side effects. He said, "That's why I'm referring you to Louisville." They deal with high risk pregnancies and would be more familiar with what the options are and which make the most sense for us now. So we're going to Louisville again. The referral was faxed to Louisville, and they should contact me in the next two days to set up the appointment. We have to get one soon, or we may have a baby before we can have an appointment.
Then we went to the hospital for the NST. I ate a snack on the way so that I wouldn't be hungry this time, and maybe Emmie would be more active. The nurse also brought me a ham sandwich to eat during the test. Emmie appreciated the sandwich. Just to be sure that she was active enough, I rested my tablet on my belly while I read (she kicks things that rest on my belly) and pressed the television remote to my belly like an ultrasound wand, which also gets her stirred up sometimes. She showed enough reactivity to pass her NST the first time they came to look at the tape.
If we hadn't had such a long wait in the waiting room, we would have gotten through all of it in less than 4 hours, a long time but an improvement over the five- and six-hour days we had last week. It was a much better day than either day last week. The Louisville appointment will replace a Lebanon appointment, so it won't add craziness to our schedule. It may even make things easier because Lucy can come to Louisville with us. She's allowed in the ultrasound there.
Speaking of Lucy, she had another good day. Matt's co-worker (and our friend) Justy kept Lucy for the afternoon. Justy has a 4-5 year old daughter who has played with Lucy before, so Lucy had a good time. She did freak out when she had to get into Justy's red van because it wasn't her own blue car. But she recovered quickly. When we went to pick Lucy up, she was running around the front yard in a nightgown that looks like a princess dress. The girls were playing with a younger girl that Lucy knows from MOPS. Lucy was very sweet with the smaller girl. She hugged her and put her arm around her. Lucy plays with other kids so infrequently that it's always interesting to see how she interacts. Apparently, she's very sweet and big sister-like. That's good news.
I'm still feeling well. Most of the time I don't feel huge or heavy. I've had only a little heartburn. I do seem to go from starving to stuffed quickly because Emmie is squishing my stomach. I still get occasional pains where my stretch marks are stretching just a little more. The nurse thought my ankles were retaining a bit of fluid today, but they didn't look bad to me. I'm not always sleeping well, but it's hard to fit three people and my belly in our full-size bed. I eventually move to the recliner. Sometimes I get back to sleep, and sometimes I give up and do laundry or something else productive. Overall, these don't seem to be bad symptoms for the last few weeks of pregnancy.
Emmie is getting bigger and more active. She likes back rubs. She seems to like story time with Lucy when Matt or I read books to them. She gets excited when Lucy is loud. She doesn't seem to have favorite foods, but she appreciates a meal. I got her to play pat-pat with me a couple days ago. I pat my belly three times and say "pat, pat, pat," and she taps back twice. We're 3/3 for babies who play pat-pat before they're born. We'll see what else we can learn about her in the next few weeks before we meet her.
Our next appointment is Friday unless we get a Louisville appointment very quickly that would replace the Lebanon appointment. We'll be at 35 weeks by then, no more than 3 weeks from a baby if all goes well.
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