Are those contractions?

So this morning began with yet another doctor's appointment. Now as much as my husband has and always will loathe a doctor's office, my calendar is full of them now. By the way, in the 7 years we have been together, this pregnancy was his first time I've ever known him to visit a doctor. So that should give you some idea of what I'm getting at. We began the appointment with another NST to monitor Parker. For those of you who are not sure what an NST is, they put two round monitors Velcro-ed tightly to your belly. One of them monitors for baby movement and contractions, the other keeps track of Parker's heartbeat and shows whether he is being "reactive" or not. While it is monitoring you, it prints the results on a long sheet of paper and you can watch his heartbeat go up and down (which it is supposed to), and if you have contractions or not. So the nurse hooked us up to the monitor and said I'll be back to check on you soon. Typically these tests last 15-20 minutes. A few minutes later, the nurse popped back in and asked how we were doing. I, of course, had been watching the monitor intently and said, "I'm not sure.. Are those contractions?" Inside, I was beginning to freak out, thinking "I'm only 33 weeks", "If they are contractions, they better haul my butt to Oschner." "The ATT guy is coming this afternoon, If I'm going to Oschner.. I have to cancel him." (Darn ATT guy never showed up today by the way! argh!) The nurse said, "Well, you are definitely having movement, but I wouldn't call these contractions, yet. Let's let the test finish." So when Dr. Sanders comes in he says I know what you're thinking, but first off these are not labor contractions.. "Whew. Thank God!" He said it does look like Braxton Hicks or "pubic irritability", though. (Whatever that means). At this point, I'm not worried, cause I'm not in labor. :) 

It is sort of funny that he knows me so well now that he did know exactly what I was thinking. Our appointments with him have become more of a question and answer session or a conversation if you will. We discussed delivering at Oschner and a scheduled c-section in great length. Both of which he agreed with. He said that he did not think Dr. Robicaux would object or "show resistance" to either of those things. He also mentioned that while on a conference call with Dr. Robichaux last week, Dr. Robichaux had asked about us and how things had been going. So he is keeping up with our case already. He told Jason that if I even thought I was in labor to put me in the car and get to Oschner as quickly as possible. So back to the crazy car going down the interstate, It's just us! We talked about what we heard from Dr. Diket last week at Woman's, Dr. Nieves in the NICU at TGMC,  and our upcoming appointment at Children's Nephrology department. It seems as though we have a "team" now working together and consulting with each other. That sort of puts me at ease. He did say that Dr. Robichaux will want to see me soon and that I will need to pre-admit at Oschner. I had already figured this, though.

Lastly, I asked him a question that has been on my mind for a while. Some of you will laugh, because you already know I have been dreading this for weeks or months now, not just since our journey with ARPKD started. HURRICANES. So now we are in a totally different state of "what do we do?". Quite frankly he said anything minor, get a hotel as close to Oschner as possible. This would be the Brent House Hotel. Anything where New Orleans will be evacuated, (and subsequently the hospitals too) get to Baton Rouge. (That's where he will be.) So if this situation occurs and you need me, you know where I'll be!

Yet another long list of questions has been answered. It seems like once I cross them all off, I start a whole new list. Next stop on this journey is Children's Nephrology Dept. on Friday. I will update you then!