Hospital Monitoring

It was not how I planned to spend my Saturday evening. I was wanting to curl up on the couch with my husband, maybe watch a movie, have a nice cup of tea and just relax after putting our daughter to bed. Baby girl had other ideas it seems. She hadn’t moved much since early afternoon, and I was getting a bit concerned. I ended up calling the birthing unit that I am registered to deliver at and asked them what I should do, or if I should just come in. Off to the hospital it was.

My husband stayed home since our daughter was in bed, and I drove myself over to the hospital. The nice thing is that when you are registered to deliver at a hospital you just go to the maternity unit, and not emergency. It’s nice to bypass all of that, and just go to where I knew I needed to be.

I was able to get in pretty quickly, which I found out later was a blessing. Last night the majority of the maternity units in the Lower Mainland were at capacity. Women were being sent elsewhere if it was possible for them. Any who called in were also being instructed that they had to go to another hospital, the staff were calling around and getting mothers into other hospitals that had space. I was so thankful that they had a spot for me. 

Soon I was connected up to monitors to watch baby girl’s heartbeat, and I was given a button to push for any time I felt her move. It took some time but she finally started to move after some prodding. I had done a kick count at home, had some cold water, had some juice and I got nothing during when I should have. Which is why I called the maternity unit to see if I should go in. After about 2 hours she also had a hiccup spell and was moving a lot. I was so happy to be be feeling all those movements. Around this time during my pregnancy with our first born, we had a similar situation happen twice and I ended up having to go in. Maybe baby girl is starting to run out of space and it’s getting harder for her to move now too. 

I ended up having to wait for the on call doctor from the prenatal clinic I am going to for all my appointments, to be able to come and check in on me and let me know if I could go home or not. You never know who is on call, it could be the doctor you have been seeing, or it could be another one of the ones who is part of the prenatal clinic team. I got to meet a different doctor. She had to perform two emergency deliveries before coming to check on me. It meant that I spent some extra time on the monitors, getting more information collected for the doctor to check over. The doctor was wonderful about checking everything over and making me feel confident that baby girl is perfectly okay. The nursing staff were also incredible helpful the whole time, even with how busy it was in there last night. 

If you find yourself worrying about baby during pregnancy, don’t hesitate to call your doctor or call the maternity unit. At the end of my time there, heading home around 12:35am, I was told thank you by the nursing staff and the doctor. I had gone in with calm mindset, and right away understood that it was busy there making it a very hard night for all of the medical staff. I was told by everyone that they hope to see me in a few weeks, and that they get to be a part of my delivery for this baby girl. If you do find yourself in the hospital for monitoring, try to stay calm, the staff will do everything they need to in checking you and baby, and be kind! That last one is huge, please be kind to all the staff at the hospital. They are doing everything they can. I took comfort in the fact that I knew I was where I needed to be just in case anything needed to be done for baby girl. I was also reminded that it is ALWAYS a good idea to come in if in doubt for any reason, go with your mommy instincts. I also was reminded last night that I will definitely be bringing my own pillow from home, and slippers!

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20 weeks
26 weeks
30 weeks
34 weeks
36 weeks