All's well that ends well.

Today's non-stress test was not the snap that the first two had been. After kicking vigorously for the half hour I waited to be called in for the test, the baby was apparently worn out or feeling some performance anxiety due to being the third of three babies being monitored simultaneously. The goal of the test is to see the heartrate "accelerate" from the baseline and stay that way for about 15 seconds twice in 20 minutes. Starting from a baseline of about 140, they wanted to see an acceleration of at least 160. Pele thought it was halftime and just hovered between 140-150 beats per minute for almost an hour. The steady heartrate was good, but not the performance required for Dr. Kennedy to sign off on the test, so she ordered a "biophysical profile," a type of ultrasound that also measures movement and general baby well-being. That came out perfect, so nothing to worry about.

I think the external conditions just weren't ideal for the non-stress test. The room was noisy with two other moms--one of whom had a two-year-old with her who was being entertained by a VeggieTales video (ugh!) and the other who had the radio on to stimulate her baby. Our baby likes it quiet--most active moments are while I'm trying to fall asleep at night.

On the plus side, I got another "picture" of the baby. The first time she brought a full-front face shot up on the screen we saw the baby jam a hand fully in his/her mouth. Pretty funny. Then she took a profile shot, and you can actually tell it's the face--outline of the nose and lips and a little hand waving off to the side. Usually those ultrasound pictures are so hard to make heads or tails of.

In other news, my blood pressure was fine, 102/70 and we scheduled the C-section for January 6 at 10 a.m.