Revolt Against The Man

The babies are already a little rebellious. Every day I have to have a NST (non-stress test). What is a NST?

The test involves attaching one (3 for me) belt to the mother’s abdomen to measure fetal heart rate and another belt to measure contractions. Movement, heart rate and “reactivity” of heart rate to movement is measured for 20-30 minutes. If the baby does not move, it does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem; the baby could just be asleep. A nurse may use a small “buzzer” to wake the baby for the remainder of the test.

This test is not easy with multiples because they are always concerned that they do not have all 3 babies. The goal is to get a good reading (10-20 minutes) of all 3 at the same time to prove that they are all ok. By the way, they are doing this test on me as part of standard procedures - not because they think something is wrong. Since the test is not easy, I have had as many as 3 nurses plus Casey trying to get the heart rates at one time. The test usually takes 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours (at which point the nursed admit defeat and give up). The NST is my least favorite part of the day and the boys' too! They are defiant and make the testing more difficult by moving around constantly and kicking the monitors. They boys hate being pushed on and like to kick back. The nurses always laugh at how much movement there is and usually say something like, "He just kicked me". It makes no difference what time of day the test is done - they will kick you!

So thanks to my little rebellious bunch I now have to have a BPP test done every Monday and Thursday. What is a BPP? It is a biophysical profile done by ultrasound.

The BPP measures your baby's heart rate, muscle tone, movement, breathing, and the amount of amniotic fluid around your baby.

The doctor decided to do this test just to be safe because they are never able to get a continuous reading of all 3 little heart rates at once. Thanks boys!