33 Weeks Doctor's Appointment Part 1

33 weeks! With each passing week we get closer and closer to meeting our three little babies. Each day I think about how today could be the day the triplets come.  Today's appointment was the same routine as usual. First, I go to ultrasound to check the babies heart rates, then to the nurses for vitals, and last I see the doctor. My cervix has dilated from 1 cm on Friday to 3 cm today. My doctor decided that I should have the non-stress test twice a week because of the change in my cervix. The nurse scheduled my NST for that afternoon, so I went home, ate lunch, and rested until I had to go to the hospital. Derek and I didn't think I would be coming home. I even made sure my hospital bag was packed and ready just in case they decided to admit me.

This NST took much longer than the one on Friday. The babies were on the monitors for an hour while the nurses waited for Baby B to have a reactive spike in heart rate. The nurse secured the belts that hold the monitors on very tight to keep all the babies on the monitors. It can be very difficult to find each baby's heart beat on the monitor and keep them on. To make matters worse Babies B & C were each up under my ribs.  Those things alone made me very uncomfortable along with laying on my back. Then I started contracting, which made us all nervous. The babies were also uncomfortable and were moving around like crazy. Babies B & C tried to move up further under my ribs increasing my discomfort. After an hour of being on the monitors and contracting, each of the babies had had their reactive spike in heart rate so they were able to take the babies' monitors off. What a relief!   I was so glad to have those tight belts off. My discomfort went away instantly.  However, they were very concerned about the 2 minutes apart contractions I was having.  My doctor wanted the nurse to keep the contraction monitor on me as well as give me a shot of smooth muscle relaxer to help stop them and watch me for 20 minutes.  As I expected, it was the tightness of the belts and the pressure from laying on my back that caused the contractions. Finally, at 5:00 they let me go home. Derek and I were so relieved and got out of there as fast as we could.