Non-stress test left me feeling stressed

mintea

Today I had my first non-stress test. The nurse said we'd be watching for big spikes in the heart rate correlating with fetal movement for baby girl to pass, and that we needed to see two of them happen.

We were hooked up for over an hour. Baby girl was moving a lot but her heartrate wasn't changing much or was offering only little molehill spikes that they said weren't as high as they're looking for. After a while they gave me juice and kept monitoring. They said it looked better, though it looked the same to me.

Then the nurse pushed all around my belly to get her going and we waited a while more. The nurse said that 34 weekers are the hardest to pass, that my OB is one of the strictest judges of what passes or not, and this baby seems stubborn. The doctor finally said she saw two that looked to be my best spikes and that we could finish up. I have another NST scheduled every week until delivery.

I am trying to tell myself I should not feel concerned if they didn't seem concerned, but I just don't feel very satistifed by the test. It seemed almost like they were like, "eh well ok let's just accept these two." I was expecting big spike marks because that's what the nurse had said to look for.

What has your experience been with NSTs? Does this sound unusual?

Loribelle73

I never noticed any big spikes on any of the ones I had with DS1.  The doctor always looked at them and said something like "hmmm.. looks good" and that was that.  Hopefully everything is fine.  It is a good sign that she is moving a lot.

footnotegirl

I have to do them weekly, and have been doing them for the last four weeks. Last week, the baby just did not want to move much (my appointments are sadly set for the most sleepy time for baby). They had to get out something called a fetal stimulator. It's a little speaker on a wand that makes a low sound that 'wakes up baby' and by that they mean 'makes baby attempt to escape through the other side of your abdomen'. So yeah, got a lot of movement there.

Yesterday during my NST, I started fainting (I have found that my trigger for fainting is having something tightly wrapped around or pressing my belly with something pressing into my back... which is basically everything they do to me at these appointments *sigh* but I didn't faint, I just turned on my side. Still, hardly 'non' stress, eh?

DBride2006

I am doing them twice weekly and just had my second one today. My doctor looks for an increase in heart rate, but my test never shows and HUGE spike. I did them for three weeks with DS, too, and it was the same. 

I also had an u/s this week and my doctor is comfortable that everything is normal and healthy. If there is a steady hear rate, movement and some kind of spike, that is considered a normal test for me.  

yellowtulips80

those things stress me out too.  I end up spending the whole time watching that little chart and the lines on it trying to figure out what it all means.  I intentionally drink something sweet before I go in for one so that the baby will be awake.  The last time he was asleep in there they broke out this buzzer thing and it made a vibration on my tummy.  Anyway, they never told me they were looking for spikes.  Just for the baby to move around a little and what his heart is doing when he moves.

LoriSTi

I'm going in twice a week for NSTs. Last week I was there over an hour waiting for her to do what she needed to do, they even buzzed her 3 times. She finally moved around some, I didn't see any huge differences in heart rate but the doctor was okay with it I guess. Then Monday she took awhile to do her movement part again but then on u/s she never did any practice breathing. I was there 3 hours that time. The nurse said it's not a big deal just brings her score down some.

Then yesterday the lady didn't even look for practice breathing on u/s, and she was moving around the whole time to the point I didn't even see her heart rate drop ever because she was moving so much. I was only there 30 mins that time.

 I wouldn't worry about it too much. My NSTs have gone different every time but they seem to see what they need to see.