Wednesday, November 10th, somewhere between 8 & 9 am, I was resting on the couch after a long 12 hour nigh shift of working when I started to feel an almost rhythmic nudge in my tummy. I just kind of sat there in disbelief... Dr. Graber told us that its very rare that anyone would feel movement this early (at 16 weeks) and even more rare for a first time mom to recognize those movements at this gestation. Regardless... I know what I felt :) So throughout the past week I have certainly noticed more and more strange feelings from my gut that I've simply never experienced before... and truly... it's amazing. I told Phillip on Wednesday that I thought I felt the Nugget move and his response was simply, "don't tease me"... I almost feel sad for him that he doesn't get to experience the movement in the way I do, and I can't wait for the Nugget to get strong enough for Phillip to get to feel the movements.
Wednesday, November 17th at 4:40 am, Crystal and I decided that we would try to get a fetal monitor strip of the baby's heartbeat. These strips of paper continuously print out the baby's heart rate throughout the time the mother is in labor. These strips are saved both electronically and on paper. The paper strips (for Wesley Medical Center) are then sent to the Hutchinson Salt Mines where they are preserved for 18 years post-birth. These strips are used to determine the baby's status throughout the labor and delivery process. They can help health care providers decide if the baby is doing well in-utero or if the baby is stressed out and medical intervention is needed. This is what we are trained to rigorously to do, is read fetal monitor strips and attempt to decipher what the heart rate and the patterns associated with it are trying to tell us.
Since Crystal and I were just playing around... I get to keep my little strip of paper, because no one else is allowed to keep the strip, as it is a part of the medical records.
Here is a copy of the Nugget's first Fetal Heart Rate Strip. You'll notice that it's not a "great" strip, meaning that there is not much to it. Each of the dark red lines (difficult to see, I know) indicates a minute of time. In between each of those red lines are six, ten second squares. This allows us to determine the length of time a baby may be stressed out, or a variety of other issues. There is a broken up thin black line that occasionally traces between 140 beats per minute and 150 beats per minute. That's the Nugget's heartbeat. The line is broken up because the little booger wouldn't quit moving around (which is, of course, a good thing). Normally, and as the Nugget gets bigger, the monitor will have a continuous tracing of the baby's heartbeat.
So that was probably far more information than what you ever wanted to know, but now you know :)
I find that reading to be quite fascinating, but then again, that's what I do every time I'm at work.
Since we have hit... and passed the 16 week mark, we were able to capture a tummy photo to share. I still don't feel like I'm "showing" very much, but after looking at the 12 week photo, I can see a little more of a bump. We're going to try to post a belly bump photo every 4 weeks or so.
Phillip is on his way home now, so I must quickly plan something for dinner! I feel so far behind on the blog, because I have a few other photos to post too! Sorry for the 10 day time lapse in between posts, I will of course try to stay more on top of this!
Perhaps I will post yet again this weekend! Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!
Smooches~
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