Just in case you were wondering how we are spending most of our time here, I thought I would fill you in on the most common occurence...the nurses trying to find Mattie's heart beat. Other than the ultra sounds and amnio reduction, that's really about all we've done. They want to see both girls as "reactive" which has to do with their heart rates rising to an appropriate level and staying there for an appropriate amount of time based on their activity. In other words, if you move around your pulse goes up until you calm down. That's good and normal and shows that everything is working properly. If the heart rate is static, it means the heart and nerological stuff aren't hooking up quite right. At 28 weeks, they want to see the beats per minute (bpm) rise 10 points and stay up for 10 seconds twice in a 20 minute monitoring session.
A monitoring session consists of the nurses bringing in a machine, putting straps around Amber's belly and then using palm size monitors that are basically digital stethoscopes. They position one monitor over each baby and the monitor tracks the heart beats...ideally.
The problem is that our children have apparently inherited Amber's stubbornness and my hyperactivity. Since Tuesday night, nurses have been finding heart beats, pulling the straps on, losing heart beats, re-finding heartbeats, pulling straps on, losing heart beats again as soon as the strap gets on. The general rule is that the nurse gets Sophie "online" first since she has less room to move around and is therefore a little more stationary. Then she'll go to work on Mattie who has plenty of room to move, and apparently hates sound monitors. After several minutes, they will finally find Mattie and just when she settles in, Sophie gets lost and the process starts all over.
We've become something of a legend among the nurses because it usually takes two of them closer to 45 minutes to get a 20 minute session. They have finally given up on the straps and just hold them the whole time. Needless to say, Amber's belly has been gelled for somewhere around 20-30 hours since we've been here! I say "keep it up girls! I wouldn't want someone pointing a monitor at me either!"
A monitoring session consists of the nurses bringing in a machine, putting straps around Amber's belly and then using palm size monitors that are basically digital stethoscopes. They position one monitor over each baby and the monitor tracks the heart beats...ideally.
The problem is that our children have apparently inherited Amber's stubbornness and my hyperactivity. Since Tuesday night, nurses have been finding heart beats, pulling the straps on, losing heart beats, re-finding heartbeats, pulling straps on, losing heart beats again as soon as the strap gets on. The general rule is that the nurse gets Sophie "online" first since she has less room to move around and is therefore a little more stationary. Then she'll go to work on Mattie who has plenty of room to move, and apparently hates sound monitors. After several minutes, they will finally find Mattie and just when she settles in, Sophie gets lost and the process starts all over.
We've become something of a legend among the nurses because it usually takes two of them closer to 45 minutes to get a 20 minute session. They have finally given up on the straps and just hold them the whole time. Needless to say, Amber's belly has been gelled for somewhere around 20-30 hours since we've been here! I say "keep it up girls! I wouldn't want someone pointing a monitor at me either!"
They are precious. I can't wait to get to hold them. Congratulations, I am so happy for you. You will be the best parents in the world. I love you guys! Our prayers were answered. Ms Anne
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