Dean Passed His Tests!

Yesterday afternoon Dean and I were monitored for 15 minutes and we got to see him via ultrasound to make sure he was doing well - He scored a 10 out of 10!! So there is nothing to be concerned about.

Ultrasound Test - Biophysical Profile
The profile has five components. The first is a non-stress test, which measures changes in the heart rate when the fetus moves. This was pretty neat - they strapped two bands to my belly one near the top with a transducer to monitor my contractions (I had one little one). And another lower band that monitored his heart - I had to hold this one at an angle to hear his heartbeat. Then the nurse handed me a little button that I was to push whenever I felt him move! All three of these cords (2 belly transducers and the button) fed into this box and Andrew and I could hear his heartbeat and when he moved around (like static). Dean moved around a lot - I think it was because he could hear himself and they say that makes babies excited.

The other four components are observations made during an ultrasound, which measures the baby's body movements, breathing movements, muscle tone, and the amount of amniotic fluid in the sac around the baby. Each component is assigned two points, resulting in a score ranging from 0 to 10, with scores from 8-10 considered normal, 6 considered borderline, and below 6 considered problematic. Dean scored a 10 and did everything pretty quickly. And as you can see below Lascinda (the ultrasound tech) had some fun getting us some great shots of Baby Dean.