No such thing as routine, I guess

As a woman on bed rest, my outings are nearly limited to my twice weekly visits to the doctor and our Thursday night parenting class. This morning, I headed off to my "routine" Monday non-stress test (NST) for fetal monitoring. Soon enough, I was strapped down with monitors, enjoying the sound of Baby Davolt's heartbeat. I did notice a couple contractions, but like before, no pain associated. While I wasn't watching the clock, I could tell that the 20-30 minutes had passed with no sign from the doctor (another colleague of my OB, as mine was off today). Another 15 minutes later, Dr. Dillon came in and started to review the data. She said baby's heart rate looked good but there were more than the few contractions that I had noticed. Dr. Dillon described herself as conservative and wanted more information. Thus, I was sent to Labor and Delivery.

Once there, I was again strapped into the NST for two more hours, so I was thankful that I had brought a book with me. I was officially admitted and given a new ID bracelet. Just like my previous visit, the nurse said Baby looked very healthy. Dr. Dillon also requested a Biophysical Profile, which is an ultrasound that checks baby's fluid levels, and breathing patterns (the same that I had on April 20th). The tech arrived and began the ultrasound process. Again, baby looked good on screen and I was given another picture of our little one

. The fluid levels were determined healthy, according to the tech, but we needed to see Baby D take some practice breaths. When Jeff and I were at the last ultrasound, nearly two weeks ago, Baby D showed some quick gasps of breathing but did not show the extended breathing that the experts hoped to see. So I wasn't surprised when it was evident that he did not want to show us any breathing today. The tech explained that there is a 30 minute window to see the breathing and it took nearly 25 minutes, plus pushing on baby and even me getting up for a minute to finally see some practice breaths that would count! Satisfied, the tech left.

Once the tech had left, the nurse returned and said Dr. Dillon, the tech and the radiologist were all satisfied with the monitoring and ultrasound and I was excused. Four hours into my "routine" visit, I was leaving the hospital!

Comments

Tradition

At no other time of the year do I think about "tradition" more than during the holidays, from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I do like the sense of timelessness that traditions afford, reminding us of past Christmases and the people or places we cherish most. As much as I love the traditions of years past and years to come, I think it's healthy to miss or change traditions every now and then. My own childhood was filled with traditions for Thanksgiving and Christmas, as was Jeff's, but I also recall the experiences when traditions were put on hold or changed, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes for reasons beyond our control. I suppose it's the same for all of us as we grow, move, lose, and gain. Not that I go out of my way to disrupt any plans for my family now, but rather, to remind us that life doesn't always go the way it has before and we can enjoy the time together no matter what. Having our own family caused Jeff and I to decide on what would be...

Christmas 2020

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light From now on Our troubles will be out of sight As a result of the pandemic, the model train festival we typically enjoy this time of year was canceled (thus no pictures with Santa). We missed family and friends this year. The fun energy of the last few school days before Winter Break was not quite the same over Zoom. I missed singing carols in church during month of December. As the season progressed, I couldn't help but reflect on other times in history where celebrations were small and often just a nuclear family. Times and places where travel was too difficult or too expensive to justify leaving home. For those generations of families, the traditions were as simple as reading the Christmas story together or baking a special bread. In so many ways that was our Christmas this year and by seeking the joy in each moment, we found our hearts lighter. We visited our favorite local tree farm to find THE TREE. We...

Raising Boys

I absolutely love having two boys. There is an energy and excitement that definitely keeps me young. When meeting other parents with all boys there is always an unacknowledged kinship and assumption that we deal with the same rowdiness, crudeness and overall chaos that is a house of young boys. For six years now I have always said I am so thankful to have all boys rather than girls. There is this assumption that boys are so much easier than girls. That as a father girls are so much scarier. That things like braiding hair, princesses and unicorns, teenage love, menstrual cycles, and protecting sexual innocence are so much harder for a father to navigate as a parent of a female. But what if this assumption that boys are easier, that they are less work, that boys are not as high maintenance to parent as girls is partly responsible for toxic masculinity and so many of our societal problems that can be traced back to the patriarchy? I think about...

The Davolts

Search This Blog