What to expect....NST?

JustaKidAtHeart

I have my first NST this morning at the hospital.  What am I in for?

Mrs. Destructo

It can be pretty uncomfortable, because they strap 3 monitors to your belly - one to each baby and 1 for contractions. Then you have to lay (or sit) still and hope that the babies don't jump off the monitors. Maybe my peri's office sucked, but the chairs/beds (they had both) that they used were seriously uncomfortable! You'll also have a little button to push every time you feel movement.

JustaKidAtHeart

OK so same thing I was hooked to when I went in for PTL.  Thanks

keg

Hi! I'm pretty sure I've been getting NSTs 3 times a day since I've been in the hospital.  What you're in for depends entirely on how well your babies behave.   They generally want to have both babies on the heart rate monitor for 20 minutes and I think they are looking to make sure that the heartrates accelerate occassionally.  If you asked me yesterday, I would say that they're exhausting, but that's because my babies were moving around a ton and it was really difficult to tell if their heartrates are really similar or if both monitors were picking up the same baby.  Also, we had to have the monitors tilted in a certain way for them to pick up well which meant holding them for the 20+ minute time period.  However, my first one this morning went really well so I'm okay with them at the moment.  Good luck!

pea-kay

i definitely don't miss that part of being in the hospital! the gel made me soooo itchy. and three heartbeats plus a contraction monitor...HELL! thank goodness i only had them once a day. ugh.