First Trip to L&D

For anyone not familiar with the lingo, L&D is the Labor and Delivery department at the hospital. I was scheduled for an ultrasound this afternoon, but it was cancelled (mostly due to a mix up in communication between the perinatologist (a high risk specialist) and the OB. At any rate, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn't really felt either baby move all that much in the last 2-3 days. When I told the nurse on the phone who called to reschedule the ultrasound, she replied with "I'm faxing your information over to the hospital now, I want you to go to Labor and Delivery." I protested at first, asking why they couldn't just bring me into the office, but it was almost 4:30 at this point and the hospital was probably the fastest and easiest way to get everything sorted out.

So Ashley and I headed to L&D. Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was in a room hooked up to two fetal monitors and a contraction monitor. The babies were both doing great - very strong and consistent heartbearts, which is always nice to see. The nurse said that the decreased movement could be a result of a low amount of fluid in the sacks though, so they were planning on watching the movement for about 20 minutes, while seeing if laying still for awhile got the babies active again. Well, something got moving because I started having contractions while hooked up to the machine. I had about 5-6 contractions in an hour - not that painful, but enough that they wanted to watch me for longer. So 20 minutes turned into an hour of monitoring and then a quick ultrasound just to see them moving around - which they were doing a ton of - Praise the Lord!

Highlights of the trip included:

• Being seen in such a short time
• Hearing the babies hiccup over and over
• Seeing the contractions on the monitor (so now I know the difference between them moving and an actual contraction)
• Seeing the babies positions - they actually changed a bit - Baby A is still head down, but Baby B is now head up
• Hearing that everything is A-OK and right on schedule
• Ashley being with me and not having to go through my first trip to L&D alone

Bad parts of the trip

• Still not having an insurance card of ID number, so being told that we'll be billed personally for the full amount of the visit - and the potential that they might not "back bill" for the visit (PLEASE PRAY THAT THE INSURANCE STUFF IS ALL WORKED OUT SOON!)
• Charlie not being able to come with me since he's still in NY