My trip to L&D

First, don't worry. No emergency here.


I called my OBG the day after the whole shock collar episode just to let her in on the news. I LOVE second opinions, love to know whether I'm getting some doctor's random conclusion on a matter they've never really thought about, let alone studied, or an actual tried-and-true medical assessment. The way the on-call doctor brushed off the collar shock by saying "it's safe for a dog so....no big deal" kind of ate away at me. Safe for a dog so safe for a tiny fetus heart? Really? I don't know. Still I wasn't that worried (thank you #2billion75 to the doppler) but in true form, wanted to just make sure the advice was consistent and thought my OBG should be aware of what happened anyway. So I left a message for my OBG about what happened. Before she hung up, the receptionist asked the typical "is fetal movement normal?" My response: "well, he's definitely moving, but less so today [the day after the shock] than yesterday." This was true. He was moving waaay less for about 48 hours after the shock. He has quiet days. But this was two quiet days in a row... Still, I wasn't that worried. But that comment about 'not moving as much today' was enough for the OBG to send me to L&D for monitoring.





This is one of those times that made me simultaneously glad she was taking a concern of mine seriously and also worried that maybe there was a reason to be concerned. When she called me she gave me her usual analysis - every time I ask a question the answer either depends on (A) what the American college of OBGs has to say on the matter or (B) how many studies there have been on the subject. This time the comment was "there just aren't any studies on this." She said she doubted it was a big deal but that if I noticed less movement, she just wanted to be sure everything was ok. I did too so I was fine with the plan. And stupidly, I had done some googling in the meantime (it's a disease) and noticed that electric shocks can gravely affect fetuses depending on things like voltage and duration and path of the current through the mother's body - even if the mother isn't affected all that much. Sad, scary studies. So there were studies but not on bark collars. I couldn't even figure out how many volts were in the dog collar, it's probably a PR thing for the e-collar industry. Doesn't look good for a company to talk about peoples' dogs in terms of "voltage applied" probably so they keep the information hidden. I did find plenty of anti e-collar propaganda swearing that the collars had something like 7500 volts but even if that were true I think the actual voltage applied is more like 5-25. Whatever. I think it's like alcohol during pregnancy - there's no minimum that's been proven safe. Obviously it's ok and probably unavoidable to withstand some static electricity when touching a door handle or your car or doing laundry. It's like that 'unavoidable' glass of wine. But more than that and you're in no man's land.



It was neat to see the place I would deliver (provided I don't end up delivering in a stalled elevator, a car, or an emergency room somewhere), I was glad to make the trip - I planned on doing a dry run anyway before 37 weeks and this way I even got my intake information completed so I won't have to worry about that when the time comes.



There were some anxious thoughts in my mind on the way over because it occurred to me that I might get an ultrasound. Would I finally be able to see that little growing body, maybe a waving hand or some thumb sucking, would they check the fluid level and would I finally be able to put my mind at ease on the T18 stuff? Or would I see something else that would haunt me until August. Worse, would they see something alarming...



No u/s. I should have known. Instead they did a non-stress test. I've never had the occasion to do one of these and didn't know anything about it but it was pleasantly non-invasive. Just some quiet time with the monitors strapped on for me to just sit with my little one and focus on no one and nothing but him. It's so rare that I get that kind of time during the day and I really love it. I look forward to that window between when we go to bed and when I actually fall asleep every night becuase it's then (and often only then) that I can focus all of my attention on what's going on in my belly.



The babe passed the NST with flying colors. They're supposed to show something like 2 heart rate accelerations in 20 minutes (or something like that - correct me if I'm wrong) and the LO did 3 in ten minutes. He was moving plenty even thought I couldn't feel a lot of it, and this was all with no 'trigger' - no juice or soda. Just little him.



He was declared fine and I was free to go. It was nice to get a little check in without the fear of something really being wrong. And since then he's really picked up in the movement department. Even his hiccups feel stronger. Next appointment I think the OBG will check for his position and man, the time does seem to be getting nearer, despite all odds. August may get here after all.