Possibly the scariest moment of my life.

Today, my son decided to try his hand at scaring the crap out of his parents (for the second time).  We had our ultrasound this morning to check his size and his amniotic fluid level.  The tech didn't seem concerned at all about the fluid, but she didn't say whether it was normal or not.  

Fast forward to about 4pm this afternoon and I'm sitting down for a touch base with my boss at work and the phone rings.  She answers it, and all I hear is "may I ask who's calling?".  She then hands me the phone and tells me it's my doctor and it's urgent.  My heart immediately sank into my stomach.  My OB is on the phone telling me that he tried to call my cell phone twice (I don't keep it on me at work) and he called James' cell to get this number.  Apparently, he'd just received the results from my ultrasound this morning and my amniotic fluid measured extremely low.  For this point in pregnancy, normal Amniotic Fluid Index is anywhere from 5 centimeters to 25 centimeters.  At this morning's ultrasound, I measured at about 4.5 centimeters, which is dangerously low.  He tells me that I need to leave work immediately and go to the hospital where they will do a full biophysical profile (ultrasound) to re-check my levels and hook me up to the fetal heart rate monitor to make sure Maxwell is not in distress.  So I ask, "and what happens if my AFI is actually that low?", and he replies "then you have the baby today!".  Yikes!  I was SO not prepared for that!  This whole pregnancy I've had my mind made up that he will come in his own time and we would have this very natural birth with minimal intervention...well that just about went out the window!

Of course, I book it out of work like a bat out of hell, calling my husband while rushing frantically to the car to tell him he needs to pack up the hospital bags in the car and be ready to leave as soon as I get there. I get home and we leave for the hospital.  And as we're driving to the car, it just hit me.  I don't give a shit what kind of birth I have to have as long as he is healthy and fine.  Not that that thought hadn't crossed my mind before, but I don't know if I truly believed that I was ok with that before.  It was this immediate acceptance of whatever was coming my way as long as he was going to be ok.  And in that second, all of a sudden I was calm.

We got to the hospital around 4:45-5pm and went straight up to the maternity floor.  They checked me in and sent me immediately downstairs for the ultrasound.  As soon as she pulled him up on the screen and checked his heart rate, I instantly felt better.  He was doing fine.  She checked his movement and we witnessed him practicing his breathing and after that she was confidant that he was not in distress.  She measured my fluid again and sent me back upstairs to the maternity floor to be monitored and wait for the results.  They put me in a room and hooked me up to the monitor, telling me that I'd be on it for about 20-30 minutes while we waited for the results of the ultrasound.  

Hooked up to the monitor

Over an hour later, the nurse finally comes back in and says "well, are you ready to go home?".  He did perfect on the monitor and my AFI came back at 6.5 centimeters.  She told us that the most likely cause was that I hadn't had enough to drink (which I'm not sure how that's possible considering that I probably drink 2-3 liters of water/juice in a day) and was dehydrated.  She gave me some tips to boost my AFI and sent me on my way with an appointment to go back to the hospital on Monday and repeat everything they did today.

All in all, it turned out fine and he's been kicking away since I've been home, but it was definitely a rude awakening that he could come at any moment and in whatever fashion he chooses.  Thank goodness I have this weekend off because I've been ordered to spend it drinking as much water as possible and laying on my left side.  Thankfully, I also have plenty on the DVR to keep me occupied.