good news and bad news on the baby front

I'll start with the great news - BYU won the BYU/UTAH show down! I had the kick off time wrong and when I tuned in at 2:00, I was shocked to find that I had missed the entire first half of the game. (Normally I would have been in the house listening to the pregame show - and thus would have discover my error MUCH earlier, but the weather was beautiful and I was out trying to help haul sand up the hill into our backyard sandbox. I say TRYING to help, because I couldn't really do much lifting or carrying. I did fill buckets for Tim to haul, and I carried a small bucket back and forth. I figured that I saved Tim maybe one trip (two if you are generous) with my efforts.) Anyway, since the score was 3/3 when I tuned in, I figure I didn't miss TOO much. It was a close game, once again coming down to a last minute score for BYU to take the victory. It was GREAT!

NOW - to the baby news. (The bad news and good news are all kind mixed together in my writing here, but the way I interpret it all is that the BAD news is that there is anything at all to be concerned about, and the GOOD news is that they aren't SO concerned about it that I am in the hospital tonight having some emergency procedure done or something) ANYWAY, back to the story of my day - I had my weekly check up today. I am measuring 36 centimeters, so I'm only 2 weeks behind -which falls into the 'normal' range,so that's all good; but my iron count has gone DOWN. It tested 9.3 today. (It was 10.? 3 weeks ago and should be up in the 13 + range) The midwife was also concerned that I mentioned that on both Friday and Saturday I felt a marked decrease in fetal movement. I hadn't been too alarmed because the "kick count" paper I had said that as long as you got your 10 "kicks" in an hours time, it was OK. Normally when I would do a count, I'd get my 10 kicks in like 10 minutes. Both Friday and Saturday I noticed decreased movement, so I drank some juice and went to lie down and count kicks. I got to 10, but it took between 30 - 45 minutes. That seemed enough of a marked difference for me to mention it when I went in today. Apparently the midwife thought so too, because she ordered a non-stress test. SO - after I got the kids picked up from school and lined up a sitter, I went in for my NST. They said the baby looks OK, but they were "somewhat concerned" by the fact that every time the baby moved, it's heart rate would drop out of the 'normal' range for a second. (They think it could be related to the low iron, since the iron in the blood carries the oxygen.) So - they sent me home with instructions to do regular/diligent kick counts and advised me go in for another test if at anytime I feel concerned.

I got home to find a message on my machine from the midwife. She had been thinking about my low iron all day and after getting the report from the NST felt strongly that I need to do the IV iron treatments twice a week until the baby comes. SO -- tomorrow I get to go back and have my initial IV treatment. wahoo - I can't wait. (being sarcastic here, in case you can't tell) The ONLY positive I see is that maybe I won't be quite so tired all the time... Here's hoping!

Now I need to get to bed and try to get some rest. I was out running from here to there all day today, so I have a lot to try to catch up on tomorrow. Tonight as I was worrying a little about all this baby stuff - I recalled a blessing I had a while back (when I had that horrible rash all over my body and the day I seriously felt like I was having a heart attack) in which I was told that I would deliver a healthy baby. I thought - "great, I'll just rely on that promise and bag all this other stuff for right now." Then I remembered the rest of the blessing. I don't recall word for word, but it was something like "you will have the strength to endure the trials and hardships that lie ahead," and "you will get the proper medial care needed." OK OK! I will try to be patient. Hopefully only TWO MORE WEEKS!!! (less would be OK with me too)