I’m considered “Advanced Maternal Age” (over 35 years old) so I’m supposed to get Antenatal Testing done every week starting at 36 weeks gestation. So, this morning Jes and I made it over to UCSF for my 7:45 am appointment. It was super early b/c I was originally supposed to go into work afterward. Heh heh…not anymore!

Anyway, I went into a dimmed room and sat up on an exam chair that was in the middle of two other women getting the same tests done. The first thing the nurse did was do a quick ultrasound to check on Kumquat. I didn’t really get to see much but everything checked out fine and Kumquat has hair on her head! Yay! She checked all the fluid pockets to make sure she had enough room to grow still and there was plenty despite how tight/crowded it feels to me.

After that, I had a fetal monitor placed on my tummy and then another device that senses uterine contractions. There was a machine with paper running and recording the baby’s heart rate and my contractions at the same time. It’s testing to make sure that baby is ok every time there’s a contraction.

They also wanted to see her heart rate increase every time she moved. Well, she was being lazy this morning so the nurse gave me cold water to drink and a couple Hershey kisses to eat. That kinda got things started but then she came by again with a buzzer. She quickly buzzed my tummy and then Kumquat got pissed! She was squirming and kicking like crazy! Her HR went from a steady 140 bpm all the way up to 170 bpm at one point. I also had quite a few contractions while I was lying there for 20 minutes. I learned that every time my tummy felt rock hard that it was a contraction. I KNEW I was having contractions this weekend!!! That totally confirmed it.

So, that was how I started my first day of my Maternity Leave.  I’m going to have to do this every Tuesday until I go into labor so I’ll get to keep you posted on how she’s progressing.