Ashtin's Birth Story - Part 2

My first OB visit with Ashtin was about 10 weeks gestation. I remember when the doctor had the doppler to hear her heartbeat and it was so slow. I just knew that the baby would be a boy. At 20 weeks I had my first ultra-sound. We were so excited to find out the sex (isn't that the reason we have ultra-sounds?) We didn't find out the sex with Finley until 6 weeks prior to her birth. During the ultra-sound everything looked great and the heartbeat was again slow. Also, the placenta was not down so this would have to be monitored. I was thrilled to find out she was a baby GIRL. How lucky for Finley and Ashtin to be so close in age. Hindsight I remember thinking that I was smaller throughout the entire pregnancy. I also remember that maternity clothes were still big on me at 20 weeks. The doctor did not even ask if I wanted the triple screen test since I denied it with Caden and Finley (and would have denied it too with Ashtin). At around 30 weeks the doc had another ultra-sound scheduled since I had concerns with the size of the baby and to check on the location of the placenta. That sonogram had me a little alarmed because the baby's heartbeat was once again very slow. The placenta had moved down and the baby was measuring to scale. They wanted me to have a stress test because of concerns of the slow heartbeat. For the next 45 minutes I was monitored with the heart rate velcro band in labor and delivery. Her heartbeat range was peaking and dropping which is what they wanted and it was determined that she just had a slow resting heart rate. I believe her numbers ranged from 129 beats to 108. That evening I sat at the computer and did some searches about low resting heart rate. I did come across a few sites about Down Syndrome but the majority was about placenta privia. My intuition was that something was not quite right but medically everything looked normal. . . . to be continued