Such a little beauty.

Playing with the butterfly from Chazari on Vimeo.

I had my 32 week check up today and it was a bit of a roller coaster. Don’t worry, there is a happy ending.

Up until last week, Optimus Prime had a steady movement rate. She’d move a lot for a couple days and then settle down to rest. It is hard work in there after all. At night, however, she’d be pretty active. As I mentioned before, she had taken up the battle against the mattress most nights, and while that can be frustrating when you want to sleep, knowing that your kid is alive and kicking (so to speak) is very reassuring.

Last week she was on fire. It was like mandatory gym class daily, nightly, and everything in between. Massive pokings occurred between her and the Husband. It was AWESOME, bruised-worthy, but a good thing.

Then she stopped. Completely. I felt her here and there, but not much. I assumed she had changed position and I wasn’t feeling much. I mean, pelvic pressure had increased (oy) so that was probably it. Except, I barely felt her at night. This started on Saturday. Today was my 32 week appointment and I figured I’d mention it since it had been almost a week.

The doctor ordered a non-stress test to see how she was doing. So for 20 minutes my belly was hooked up to probe-like things, and I lay there, listening to a rhythmic heartbeat that sounded oddly like the samba. The test looked fine, but to be on the safe side, I was sent to the hospital for a…Biophysical or whatever. Basically it’s an ultrasound due to decreased fetal movement.

DECREASED FETAL MOVEMENT!!! Think about that for a second. What person wants to hear that they need a test due to decreased fetal movement. It sounds like the child has one foot in my ribs and the other in the grave! My poor Optimus Prime is lethargic and non-responsive! And I had to drive 30 minutes to the hospital (where I’m delivering) to make sure everything was fine.

I mean, it was fine. The doctor just wanted to be safe. I knew it was fine. And yet…there is always a nagging feeling.

I met the Husband at the hospital (not having an accident multiple times on the way I’m happy to report) and had the ultrasound.  Everything is fine. She is fine. Here’s what we learned:

• She is not head down like the doctor thought. Instead, she is sitting on my left hip region, which explains a lot of the pain I’m having, and her head is up at my ribs.
• We couldn’t double check gender unfortunately, because not only was she turned to the side, but her feet were tucked into legs in a baby yoga pose.
• The test rate the baby on a scale from 1 to 8 (1 being bad and 8 being good). Optimus Prime is an 8, thank you very much.
• We saw her heart beating and heard both that and the placenta beat.

• Her stomach was full so she had just eaten apparently.
• This child is Giganta or something like it. Maybe more like moose or linebacker? She’s weighing in at an estimated 5 pounds 4 oz, putting her in the 91st percentile for weight. Basically, she went from measuring 3 days behind at 20 weeks to measuring 1 1/2 weeks ahead at 32. I really, really don’t want to pop out a big baby. Eep.
• She has a femur and brains! My child is talented!

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