So the high-risk specialist is nice...

We had a little scare this week. Thankfully, our daughter is just a bit of a diva and our God is BIG. We went into this past weekend with everything looking and feeling great. But by Saturday night, I realized I hadn't really felt Gwen move much since Friday. When the non-movement persisted through Sunday, mommy got nervous. I know it's still a few weeks early to be "kick counting" in earnest, but the baby had been moving and shaking in big and consistent ways for several weeks, so the decrease in movement was definitely drastic.

After a quick phone call, my wonderful OB/GYN, Dr. Catherine Holt (I cannot recommend her highly enough!), squeezed me in Monday morning for a quick check. And quick it was! Everything looked fine- healthy heart rate, optimum fluid levels, and Gwen was moving around a little bit, just not sharing those movements with me. We even saw her hiccuping! But Dr. Holt reminded me that there is cause for concern anytime there's a dramatic decrease in fetal movement like I was experiencing. So we decided to give our little ear of corn (her size this week) a couple of days to get out of her funk and start dancing again. But by Wednesday, I still hadn't felt much movement, so in we went for another quick check that afternoon. This one turned out to be not so quick. The first several, long seconds of the sonogram revealed a dramatically slow fetal heart rate. It quickly picked up to an acceptable and normal rate, but that little blip, combined with the decrease in fetal movement, was enough for Dr. Holt to refer me straight to the high-risk specialist for another "quick check." She was concerned that what she had seen was a fetal arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat).

After a sleepless night, Jeph and I found ourselves in the waiting room of Dr. Michael Zaretsky at Children's Medical Center this morning. We have been so blessed to almost haphazardly find wonderful physicians, and Dr. Zaretsky and his staff are no exception. After an extremely long and detailed high-def sonogram, including 3D, Dr. Zaretsky could find no evidence of an arrhythmia! And he checked everything from heart rate (several times) to umbilical input/output, kidney function, and even femur length. It turns out that Gwen is in the breech position, folded in half with her legs up over her head, all crowded into the left side of my tummy. This position, combined with an anterior-facing placenta, probably accounts for the seeming decrease in movement. Dr. Zaretsky assured me that Gwen has several weeks to flip around into the proper position, so we shouldn't worry about that or anything else, including her movements or lack thereof. And I confirmed with him about ten times: NO ARRHYTHMIA! Jeph and I left with big smiles on our faces, a skip in our step, and loosening anxiety knots in our backs.

I officially declare this the end of over-worrying for this pregnancy (though rational caution will never stop). Next time, I'll just remind myself that we have a little diva in the oven and a BIG God in Heaven.

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise! (1 Chronicles 16:25)

Gwendoline Celeste's profile @ 24 weeks

Look at that baby sucking her thumb!