fFN

My week has had a little bit of drama.

Tuesday started out with a routine check-up. 29 weeks. Standard weight, blood pressure, listen to the heart beat.

Or that was the plan.

But as I was dragging a sick Chase and a bored Ellis to my early morning appointment [Normally Chase would have been on the bus and Ellis at Grandma's house] I got a call. To tell me that my doctor was doing an emergency c-section. They wanted to catch me in time. I was already in the building. So they decided that they would sneak me in to see one of the other doctors.

I told him that I was mildly concerned about the volume of contractions that I was having. And that some seemed to be very painful. I just wanted confirmation that they were not productive.
He decided to put me on the monitor. The nurse that hooked me up was training a new person. She introduced the machine by saying "You will see the heart beat line here, but you will probably get a nice straight line here because 29 weeks is too early for contractions." I laughed and said that was why I was being put on the machine. She turned to the new nurse again and said "You won't see anything there."

So being out to prove them all wrong, [or just because I know my own body better than she thought] there were nice strong contractions every 3 minutes for the next 45 minutes. And the doctor was not happy about it. I got an internal exam, an ultrasound, and a new test [new since Chase and Ellis] called the fFN.

Long story short [4 hours at an OB office with 2 bored kids makes for a VERY long story,] the good news is that I am not really dilating [1/2 centimeter/fingertip], there is only slight shortening [measured by ultrasound and considered not significant] and the fFN is negative. So I am not considered a risk for the next 14 days [the length of time the fFN is considered accurate.]

Part of me feels like all the testing was a bit much [this opinion might have something to do with aforementioned bored kids for 4 hours,] but on the other hand it was nice to have the reassurance that things are okay for the time being.