Getting close !

All throughout December I spent most of my time in bed. Sweet Pea was my constant comfort, always snuggling right up to me. One day I was sitting up in bed, and she had her paw resting lightly on my belly and the baby kicked! She looked down at my belly (never moved her paw) and cocked her head to the side and just stared for about a minute. Then she looked up at my face and started wagging her tail. (She has the sweetest, waggliest tail.) She had many special bonding moments like that, with SoBee in utero.

Arty bonded as well. He read Winnie the Pooh books to her at night. When we snuggle up together at night, he tends to fall asleep facing me, then rolls over away from me. Then I snuggle up to his back, and SoBee would kick him all night long. She moved a lot at night, and during the day was usually pretty quiet and calm. I could feel her move about twice an hour, but she saved her acrobatics for when I lay down to sleep.

It was during December that my mother-in-law decided to come for a 2 week visit to "help out." She lives in England so she doesn't visit but once or twice a year, but that is usually more than enough. While I won't go into enormous detail, she did not help at all, except to keep her bathroom and bedroom tidy during her stay. She expected Arty and me to wait on her hand and foot. Feeling as I was, I did NOT enjoy her company.

At this time the only thing I felt like eating, and could usually keep down, was mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits from KFC. Arty really got tired of eating there, but he always made sure I had plenty on hand. He's so sweet and good to me.

At the end of December, Dr. J. and Dr. K. conferred and decided I should get ultrasounds every other week with Dr. K, and twice weekly visits with Dr. J. At the first, they would perform and NST (Fetal Non-Stress Test) which monitors the baby's heart rate and also indicates if any contractions are coming on. (I hadn't felt anything like what people were telling me contractions felt like.) At the second, they would perform a BPP (Biophysical profile) which measures baby size and amount of amniotic fluid. They were concerned with the weight of the baby - estimated (by ultrasound) to be 3.8 lbs at 32 weeks.

SoBee's heartrate was always lower than they prefered (because she was not very active during the day and usually sleeping when we got the NST's done.) The nurse would bring me a sugary popsicle and ice cold water to try to wake her up and be more active. They would push down on my belly to try to jostle her awake. At the end of every visit, we got the okay though. One day, Dr. J. came in with something that looked like a small microphone. He said "We're going to try to buzz her awake." He put the buzzer on my belly, close to my pelvic bone, (because we had found out that SoBee was in the head down position - good news!) He pressed the button, and he definitely buzzed her awake. She was so startled that it felt and looked like she had actually sat straight up inside me (I was lying down, of course). Arty could not believe his eyes, for my belly being contorted such as it was kind of frightened him I think. I know it scared the heck out of me!

One day we went in for the NST (Arty always drove me and came into my appointments.) The nurse had a hard time getting the baby's heart rate. She called in for the other nurse, who was able to get it for a few seconds, but couldn't keep it on the monitor. After about a half hour, they went to get Dr. J. He came in and decided to just do a biophysical profile, since it is, essentially, an ultrasound. He put the blue jelly on my belly and moved the wand around. We were all looking at the screen and could see the baby there. After about 5 minutes of manipulating the wand, Dr. J. sighed. "I think we have a problem."