Thread: Spent Friday in LD

On Friday during my NST baby had a large heart rate decel while I was on the monitor. His heart rate went down to 54 and then back up slowly. Three nurses came rushing and had me flip in the chair as best I could onto my left side and his rate came back up.

Since this happened I was automatically transferred over to LD to be on the monitors there for another 2 plus hours. He did great during this time, so they are not sure if he just compressed his cord or something along those lines. They did a quick ultrasound to measure my fluid, which is only at 7.4, so on the low end.

I go back for my next NST on Tuesday and then another ultrasound on Thursday to check my fluid levels again and see if they've gone down more. I'm not sure if I'll be making it to my scheduled c-section on the 19th.

I've never had this happen to me before, I've also started to have somewhat painful contractions since this happened. Should be interesting to see how the rest of this week plays out.

I had the same thing happen a couple weeks ago. My doc said that sone babies grab their cord by accident, and that the fact that their heart rate looks good other wise means that they are ok. My fluid levels at one of my appts was low, then at the next us it was actually onthe higher end of normal. So, with a margin of error, my doc said that between the 2 that it was fine. Could be that his position wasnt great for the measurment, or that he hadnt peed, or a million other completely normal reasons. Also, at this late stage, there isnt as much room, so it can be harder to get an accurate measursment, levels fluctuate more, and can be greatly effected by how much you have had to drink.

I wish I would have known all that with DD. With her I was induced because one us showed that her levels were low.

As far as the contractions go, it could be that you are a little dehydrated... Which would also account for the low fluid levels. And, if they checked you at all that can stir things up too.

Hopefully they find that my levels have gone up. I've been drinking water like a mad woman since, hoping that will help!

Heart decels are scary! But the fact the baby recovered quickly is a great sign. When my son had issues during labor it was going down into the 40s and staying there before very, very slowly recovering. And it happened multiple times. (Poor kiddo was stressed out from too high pit and then the drugs from my epi. He had zero issues once born.)
Like Kier said, fluid level estimations from u/s can actually vary quite a bit based on position. We just don't have a better technological way to accurately estimate fluid. I say technological because *experienced* MWs usually do a better guess on fluid levels being normal or not by palpation. Imagine a glass tub with a person in it and trying to guess how much water is in the tub by looking from below. The more the person is pressed against the bottom the less fluid it will look like is in the tub because you just can't see what else is there from below. That's pretty much what they're doing with an u/s. Another look or two at the fluids usually gives a better idea since baby will move around hopefully in better positions to give a better idea.
And definitely make sure you're very well hydrated.

Hope everything is actually normal. It is good that they're keeping an eye on things though!