I hope this is one of those things that turns out to be nothing to worry about at all. I was just going to ignore the whole thing, but I feel compelled to document it.
(originally written on Thursday)
I am trying not to freak out in advance or borrow trouble, but at my appointment, the doctor said that the baby doesn’t appear to have grown over the last 3 appointments (roughly a month). This is a shared practice, so I have been working my way through different doctors and this was the first time I met this one. The doctor said it could just be nothing, that the baby is just going to be small, like 6lbs, and that will be nice and easy and blah blah blah. On the other hand, it could mean all sorts of bad things like low amniotic fluid, or the placenta breaking down, or the baby being stunted due to not getting enough nutrients/oxygen etc.
She asked me if the baby is moving as much. I can’t tell…I mean it is too big to do those big movements, but I guess it is moving about as much…however, I have long stretches of not feeling anything, and then little sessions of movement. Now that I am paying attention, it doesn’t feel like it is moving as much as it was, but I know that can just be because when it gets bigger it doesn’t have the same kind of room to move. But it does feel like it is mildly squirmy for a bit, interspersed with long periods of not moving. It’s probably because it is sleeping then, but what if it is because it exhausts itself and needs more rest? The doctor said if the baby doesn’t move in 4 hours I am supposed to go immediately to the hospital, but “don’t worry, it’s probably nothing, I just would feel better if we checked things out”.
I am going to have an ultrasound next week to see what’s up, and she said if it was low fluid they would probably induce right away or go to C-section.
I know this issue has been going on for longer than now – I had been sneaking peeks at my chart, and the fundal measurement has been off track since 28 weeks. However, I know it isn’t the best measurement ever in terms of actually being meaningful, plus I had had different doctors measure so I just thought it was maybe interobserver error + the general loosey-gooseyness of the measurement.
I am kind of dreading going to this ultrasound guy – he’s the only game in town, and he was the one I went to at 12 weeks when I waited 2 hours past my appointment time only to be the last person in the room and then he got paged so I had to reschedule and they didn’t apologise once. My doctor wants him to do it because he’s “the best” – and she didn’t want me to get one done at the hospital (where I had my 20 week ultrasound). So the delay in the ultrasound is because apparently it takes more than a day for them to get back to requests for appointments. If it was earlier in the week I am sure I would have an appointment for this week.
(This was written yesterday afternoon)
I am SO ANGRY and frustrated right now. I just got off the phone and burst into tears and that is totally not me.
I waited all morning in between meetings and things that had to be done at work for a phone call. Finally at noon I had a break and so called the clinic because I hadn’t heard yet. I find out the clinic closes at noon on Fridays, so just got the machine. Ok, I figure they hadn’t managed to get hold of the office, no big deal. Interruptions all afternoon, I didn’t manage to get any scheduled work done or marking because I was helping various people with urgent things. So I decide to come home early and mark in peace.
I get home, and find a message on the answering machine from 9:30am from the chirpy receptionist at my clinic saying “we have an appointment for you, please call us back!”.
I fucking GAVE MY WORK PHONE number to this receptionist yesterday because this EXACT SAME THING happened last time. I told her specifically to call me at work. I swear if something else goes wrong (let’s see to date, I missed a rhogam shot, had my GDD test mis-scheduled, they “forgot” to schedule my 20 week ultrasound, and it took them a month to remember to get me to see a dietician, and there is more) I swear I will just snap and go on a rampage.
I called the ultrasound doctor’s office in case I could find out when my appointment is from there, but they are closed too, and will reopen on Monday at 1:30pm.
I know for a fact that the ultrasound guy often has appointments scheduled for when he is not officially open (again this is what happened to me last time – I had a fill-in appointment at 8:30am).
The clinic reopens on Monday at 9am. So I can’t find out when my appointment is until then. If they had called my fucking work like I ASKED THEM TO, I would now not have to spend all weekend wondering if I am going to miss my appointment. I am also now wondering if they had an appointment for me today that I missed because they called me at home.
Trying to be calm all weekend but this is going to be hard.