Our hospital trip aka Sunday Date Night

Last Saturday 12/7 we had our prenatal appointment to check up on baby girl. She has been moving a ton! Constantly. It is harder for me to notice the rare moment when she is not moving rather than the norm of throw down action somersault gymnastics movement. At our appointment we listened in to her heartbeat as we always do, and have been thankful to do between appointments through the fetoscope. We heard a little arrhythmia where her heart had a silent beat- almost like a 'reset' before continuing on at a healthy pace. Since our midwife is trained to recognize what falls outside of typical- she spotted this right away. We talked about options and hypotheticals and decided she would come back in a few hours to listen again after her next appointment and see if anything had changed. 

When Crystal returned the skip/pause beat was happening less frequently (from every 3-5 beats to every 15th-20th beat). So we agreed that we would continue to monitor and if it increased again it was suggested we go to the hospital so Labor and Delivery could monitor us and evaluate if anything more serious was going on. Well the next afternoon by Sunday dinner time the silent beat was back more frequently so we loaded Heath up over the Chinns and headed out for a little date night.

They had clear reception on their tv for the Sunday night football game we were able to watch and I brought along my knitting. 

Wearing a hospital gown and getting a wrist tag were the most unpleasant part of the experience. But the staff on call that night were so sweet and super helpful to us. Our midwife had called ahead and faxed over my records/charts/ultrasound so they were all up to speed when we entered and showed us right to the triage room where I got hooked up to the belts (one for baby's heartbeat, one to monitor contractions). After 40 minutes on the machine the Dr came in and shared that she saw/heard what we were describing and it did not give her great concern as developing babies often grow into a rhythm, but that the next step would be to see a specialist with a level 2 ultrasound who could more specifically look at the heart and its functioning. Before we left though she did a bio-physical scan which was an ultrasound to look at the rest of the baby's functioning and ensure nothing else was showing concern. It wasn't. Baby girl was moving and practicing breathing. Plenty of fluid around her, healthy placenta, healthy parts. 

So Tuesday this week J and I drove over to Salem (about 35 mins away) to see a Dr in maternal fetal monitoring. He was fabulous. It is so nice when people treat you as intelligent and able to comprehend matters in their field. He spent 30 minutes educating us on the function and growth of the heart and that 90% of the time arythmeias like this are benign in two categories of premature contracting- a natural part of developing and then 10% of the time there is concern because of a block or atopic signals being sent to the heart causing it to overwork. So when we made it to the ultrasound room we felt really knowledgable on what he would be looking for and evaluating. 

So it was immediately reassuring when less than 5 minutes into the scan he said 'oh this is classic PAC- textbook photo right here' (one of the 90% benign options). Here is a description:

Premature atrial contraction (PAC or premature atrial impulses). A common and benign arrhythmia, a PAC is a heartbeat that originates away from the sinus node, which sends electrical signals through the upper chamber. It typically occurs after the sinus node has initiated one heartbeat and before the next regular sinus discharge. A PAC can cause a feeling of a skipped heartbeat. Use of caffeine, tobacco, and/or alcohol, or stress can bring on PACs or increase their frequency.

That didn't mean they stopped there though. We spent another 60 mins at least evaluating every little part and ruling things out. We got to see our little girl again on screen which was a nice bonus and they even flipped it over to 4D for us to get this beauty of a look. (31 weeks)

We are continuing to monitor her heartbeat from home with the fetoscope and there have been days where we did not detect the arrhythmia, days where it was fast (every 5th beat) and days where it has been slow (1-2x in a minute). The Dr said that some babies are born with this and grow out of it, sometimes even upon cutting the umbilical cord it will go away. So if it continues even at a fast pace, he would not be concerned; only if there are other changes in how I'm feeling or how she is behaving would there be concern about pursuing something deeper. Well baby girl has not slowed down her activity. Not. One. Bit. I think in the past two weeks she has surpassed Heath's activity levels in utero, which I didn't think was possible. She is a girl on the move!